I stopped briefly at Raynold's Pass. A well known stretch on the Madison river where I have fished in the past. This is, together with the stretch at the 3 Dollar Bridge, probably the best stretch to wade fish the Madison river outside the park.
Along the way to Ennis I saw the El Western Lodge where Tom Morgan's parents used to operated, back then, the motel. Barely 100 meters further down road 287 is the O'Dell spring creek where Tom used to guide the motel guests when he was a kid. A nice piece of fly fishing history that doesn't seem to have changed.
A stop at Madison River Fishing Company down town Ennis is mandatory. This fly shop was one of my main supplier of fly tying material for many years before the internet. The ownership changed some 5-6 years ago. After getting an obligatory hat of the shop, I continued my way to meet Dusty and Colt at George's shop in Livingston. I arrived at the Yellowstone Angler around 10:30 AM.
Being a local, Dusty knows the streams only locals know. He asked if we wanted to catch some nice native cutthroats on hoppers. Well hell, that's what we're here for! 😀 We headed for about 45 minutes drive to a tributary of the Yellowstone river. Driving along a dirt road, the scenery turned into a hills filled with burnt trees. I know forest fires are nothing unusual here, it still looks barren and desolate. A more milder temperature (around 22 C / low 70's F) was a nice change from the heat of the past week.
Being a local, Dusty knows the streams only locals know. He asked if we wanted to catch some nice native cutthroats on hoppers. Well hell, that's what we're here for! 😀 We headed for about 45 minutes drive to a tributary of the Yellowstone river. Driving along a dirt road, the scenery turned into a hills filled with burnt trees. I know forest fires are nothing unusual here, it still looks barren and desolate. A more milder temperature (around 22 C / low 70's F) was a nice change from the heat of the past week.
We geared up with light rods. Dusty brought a light rod from his new fibreglass series (yet to be released) while Colt brought his five piece Lamiglass he built himself. I had my Scott bamboo with me.
The stream, some parts barely 3 meters (9 ft) wide while the widest part being about 5 meters wide (15 ft), was filled with fallen trees providing shade and hiding spots for the fish. Navigating upstream was challenging as we had to climb over trees with nasty leftovers of branches.
As we leisurely moved upstream while taking turns on spots, fish were eagerly taking the offerings. The cutts were surprisingly large for the size, type of water (freestone) and altitude. Most fish were around 8-12 inch, while fish caught in the 15-16 range aren't uncommon here.
Every interesting spot seem to host one or two nice fish. Spots where overhead cast was awkward, a bow-and-arrow presentation did the trick.
We used various hopper and beetle patterns. I used my Alien Bug and the cutts seem to like them.
After a late lunch Dusty had to leave early to prepare for the Fiberglass Clave in Livingston later today. Colt and I decided to move upstream. The weather seem to have cooled down slightly and the wind picked up a bit. While we fished for another hour and a half, we kept on catching (and loosing) very hungry cutts. The sky filled up with clouds and eventually it started to rain lightly. We decided to call it a quits. A few final casts resulted in the best fish of the day for Colt. With a handsome 15-16 inch cutt we wrapped up an amazing day.
As we walked back to the truck, wind gusts started to intensify. Not long after we drove back down the road it started to rain. Talk about good timing.
Next appointment for the day: the Fiberglass Clave in Livingston
My 2018 USA trip:
