Being on the "Mo" for three days brought back great memories. Nancy and I got to fish one day with Dave Bloom, too much fun; spot dry fly fishing to large visible and invisible browns and rainbows. I had great conversations with Dave about fly patterns, guiding, and solving the world’s problems. It was great to get away and play.
Dan
What a beautiful day in the neighborhood!
For the second day of fishing with our group from California, Dan and I headed “over the hill” to the Beaverhead River. Clear blue skies and warm temperatures was the theme of the day as we enjoyed a glorious float on one of Montana’s historic rivers.
Small nymphs were the preferred ammo for the majority of the float, with trout eating up the morsels, whether fished in tandem or behind streamers. A variety of mayflies, Yellow Sallies and a few Crane Flies and Hoppers were moving about, but the bite remained below.
As the light started waning late in the day, however, the evening caddis hatch arrived, and the dry-fly bite turned on. This included a double hook-up on a single rod, with two trout eating a pair of caddis dries tied in tandem. It was quite a treat for the excited fisherman as both fish were landed in the net!
A variety of nymphs produced the bites, including #18 Olive Micro May Flies, #18 Electric Yellow Micro May Flies, #18 Super Flash Yellow, and Silver and Gold Lightning bugs in various sizes. Delektable Sparkle Bugs brought the fish to the surface during the evening hatch.
Marty
Today was a rare and special day for Dan and Nancy. Everyone knows we put in the hours and work alot during the summer. It is a rare day for us to take time off, even more rare to take time together, and extremely rare to take time off fishing together with someone else rowing for the entire day. Yeah! Somehow it just all clicked that we were meant to go fishing. I was going to float with Grandpa but he chickened out because it wasn’t warm enough outside so I invited Dan to join me with Jim Morrison as our guide. Dan fished all day and did not row. We really had fun. The first two hours were slower. We were using streamers with small nymphs behind them. It was pretty cool out first thing then it warmed up. As it got warmer the bite turned on. We started getting some pretty good action on both the streamers and nymphs. When I added the sinking leader to my rig, it made a difference and really improved the results.
After lunch I caught a number of nice trout and despite the crazy weather which included big gusts and occasional light moisture, I wanted to try some dries. Roger shared a big goofy bug I put on the top and trailed it with a smaller fly behind. We got some action but after switching to either a Split Wing or Parachute Adams or a Delektable Royal or Purple Teaser as the trailer, we got more action. We caught and landed plenty and missed plenty. The trout colors were vivid and quite memorable. Jim did a great job of taking care of us. Thanks Jim.
We are now refreshed for more Beartooth fun. See you in the shop!
Nancy
A day of fishing on the famous Madison River in Montana including myself, John Delekta, friend Steve, and our guide Jim Morrison. Our float was from Windy to Storey Ditch. We started our float about 10:00AM. The day started with a cool morning but warmed up during the rest of the trip. The first hour was slow fishing. As the weather got warmer, the fishing heated up.
The next four hours I caught and landed four large brown trout. Two trout were over 18 inches and two were over 19 inches. Steve caught a 19 Inch Brown Trout plus a number of smaller fish.
Later that day I caught the biggest fish of the day, an over 20 inch Brown Trout and a fat Rainbow Trout over 18 inches.
You know I will fish whatever it takes to get the trout and I like whitefish but I was doing really well with a two nymph rig and sometimes a nymph off of a streamer. Steve was working the dries pretty hard and was catching smaller trout with the dries. Sometime after lunch Steve converted his rig to add nymphs and soon after he had another really nice trout landed. This was another great day of fishing. Nancy and Dan think I look ten years younger every time I fish. At 87 years going on 88 I can use all the help I can get. I am going to try to fish more and fish harder. Thanks Jim for doing a great job guiding and thanks Steve for taking the pictures. What a fun day!
Grandpa
A day fishing on the famous Madison River in Montana with Jim Morrison, our guide, my friend Steve, and myself, John Delekta, Chairman of the Board at the best fly shop in Montana, Beartooth Flyfishing Shop and Lodge with the hosts Dan and Nancy Delekta. You can tell this is a proud father.
Our float trip was from Ruby Creek to Varney Bridge. Steve was fishing dry flies and I was fishing a two nymph rig. Steve was the first one to catch a good size brown trout. I missed the first two good fish I had on. They were in the 18 to 20 inch range. Jim and I both witnessed the one fish broke my line and the other one jumped and spit the hook. I did better the rest of the trip and landed all the rest. Two of the brown trout I caught were over 19 inches long. Steve and I also caught a bunch of browns and whitefish in the 16″ to 17″ range.
All in all it was another great fishing day on the Madision River.
Grandpa
