Mo'n Them Down

Well, summer finally showed up.  Need to be standing in a river.  The Madison is too fast to stand in to stay cool, and it isn't fishing as good as first appeared even with thick caddis punctuated by salmonflies.  I usually get my fill of the MO, like two weeks ago, but it doesn't take long to start missing it and appreciating the greatest dry fly river in America.  They've raised the water back to 6,000, so getting around is more work, but its cool on the legs and body. 

These fish are like baby tarpon, only they're 20-inches and the Gurglers are smaller.  I see my backing on more fish here than in Campeche.  Granted I'm using 4X, not 50 lb.  They are as close as you get to steelhead on dead-drifted dries. The caddis are thick, and there's still enough PMD's to hold interest.  The fish are looking for the spinner, or knock-down.  This place is in a league of its own, beyond compare.  Always has been.

The splash and giggle crew showed up Friday and Saturday, about 11:30 at Lone Tree.  Nice until then, and again towards evening.  Crowds have thinned from two weeks ago, maybe due to higher water.  Fish are eating caddis, but I've fished the Galloup killer most of the last 4 days.  Why not, they all eat it, all day.  The #16 too.

Fly of the Season

Chest high wade to get here now

Plenty of afternoon clouds for the PMD's

Caddis are back!

MO Thick

Thick enough to land in my Angel Dust

Caddis you say?

I now mostly have this killer run to myself

Chromer

Mid-day

Just go in

What the hell?  And its a Utard!

Nightly, with risers.

July My Ass

The cold front made me run the furnace all night last night.  Cloudy all day today at Last Chance.  High in the low 50's.  Flannel shirt and long johns.  Maybe this is the summer I should have gone to Campeche.  After about 11, there were quite a few pmd's, followed by green drakes.  The river was alive with rising fish.  DINK FEST!  I had one good take below the Last Chance lot.  The mid-afternoon storm killed the hatches and that was that.

This evening I went to Millionaires to check on Brown Drakes.  The air had a lot of them around 8pm.  Some on the water too.  But again, hardly a fish up on them for some reason.  Maybe they think its about to freeze over?  Anyway, I had a good take and hooked another large fish on the drake, and those were the only two fish I found to cast to.  Pretty damned uneventful.  Rumor has it the sun will appear tomorrow.  Madison or Millionaires?  Hmmm.  Maybe I need to do what I do when the snow flies in October.  Go south and west.  Silver Creek?  Owyhee? 

On a side note, support global warming.  Leave your auto idling.  Burn wood and fossil fuel, even if you don't need to.  Make a campfire just for the hell of it.  Build up that greenhouse.  Fast.

Some spinners in the air

These on the water, but no takers.  ???

Ho Hum.  Just another fall afternoon in the golden triangle.

Those specks are brown drakes in the air

The Long Riffle

It almost never appeals to me driving by, but the reports of killer dry fly fishing with PMDs, drakes, flavs, and salmonflies was alluring.  I drove past where the salmonflies were rumored to be (Windy to Mac), and to my favorite side channel above West.  It only had a couple people fishing the upper part, and nobody down low.  From the bank I could see a few fish rising to PMDs.  And they were doin' it around that bottom island.

It was good until the wind came up and the late afternoon storm blew in.  I went to Reynolds to sit through it, and attempted to fish the evening below the camp.  No use for the water on the east side of the river below Reynolds.  West side didn't look much better except for one side channel.  Go lower, or higher.  Anywhere but there.

A lot of these

FOD #16

A sipper on the bank here

This guy

There are some crawling

A stray

What the hell, why not?

A blind drift right against this willow . . . 

The biggest fish of the day slammed it

Then this shit ended the day

Extra Innings

It wasn't raining, or hailing, or blowing for a while this evening, a rarity during this so-called summer of 2019.  There have been very few evening bite opportunities.  After my afternoon break, nap, and a sandwich, I drove down to Eva's about 5:30, where I found one guy leaving and nobody else around.  There were fish up and doin' it.  I proceeded to work my way down the heart of the run, hooked-up e all the way down! A mythical evening bite, just for DJL in Durango!

I got one pass through to the point, and then some wind and lightning blew over the mountain.  After a quick 20-minute time-out, I proceeded into the sweet spot again, this time with somebody above and below me.  Long story short, one ended up on the overlook bench watching how I cast, and the other wanted to know what I was using three times!  I left him a couple of Harrop Cripples.  One can only share so much, and he's been here hollering for days.  (Mr. "splash" from New York with the convertible Mustang who was fishing and tromping around Armstrong's)

Fishin' was easy, they couldn't resist that tiny little #20 dead-drifting Depuy's Hanger.  Appropriate given the fact this is the run where I first developed the fly that I call by that name.  After the sun went behind the mountain, they ate the dry soft-hackle great too.  Probably the fastest fishing I've had in the 6 days on the creeks.  Not probably, for sure.  What is it with these last days someplace?  Tomorrow I move, explore, and rest the back for a bit. 

Just some representative porn:

Tough life or a close call on its noggin'

Yellowstone Cutthroat--That makes it an evening slam thing!

Revisited . . . And GO SMALL!

Sunny and calm this morning, and a decent hatch and spinnerfall starting right on time just before 10.  I was curious if that big brown on the far bank would ever make it back there, considering I'd seen him there two days in a row and caught him yesterday.  Sure enough, one of the first fish rising at the top of the run was a good brown, in the exact same spot to the very inch.  It had to be him, right?  It took over an hour to get him to eat, despite him rising fairly regularly the whole time.  It sure looked like the same fish.

Upon further review of both photos, the spot patterns are identical.  Same fish!  I had released him yesterday on the opposite bank, so he knew where he lived apparently.  Reminds be of that Beaverhead rainbow a few years back, same fish on the same spot on the bank, twice.  So that was the highlight of the day.  I finally discovered late in the hatch that they wanted the #20 hanger or I would have had many more.  Maybe Mr. Brown Trout sooner too.  I knew this from two days ago, but I was missing a ton of eats with it, so I put it on the patch and forgot how many fish were eating it.  Its the size stupid!

A "new" brown

They really wanted this tiny #20 WAY more than the same 18

My old friend from the last two days.  Good getting to know you.  Sorry for the hassles!

Spot pattern is identical.  He kept me occupied for a few mornings!  5 eats in all.

Betty's

The mob and the Travis hatch were downstream at Eva's in force, and I had Betty's nearly all to myself yesterday.  Hatch was good, especially during and after the lightning-free rain mid-day.  Today I had to try the bottom and top of the run, which wasn't as productive due to the lighter hatch, wind, and heavy cotton hatch.  Tough wading down lower except for those two "points."  I did get that brown on the upper bank that ate me 3 times yesterday though!  Hanger got him today.  Yesterday he ate the hanger, soft hackle, and Kelly's Cripple. The #18 hanger is still the one, especially early.

July 4 at one of the finest little fly shops in the world.

Lotta Love today

Had most of it

Had all of it

Good afternoon producer

Finally got a hook in it

His former residence.  Maybe he'll go back.

Mostly clear and windy