Opening weekend was this weekend on the river and small creeks and it was prime condition for slaying!!! The West Fork is spitting out a little mud above Lyons Bridge, so it is a little murky making the fishing awesome. The guides were all out in full force as this section has been closed for most of the winter and spring. On Saturday, the bite was on right out the gate, and it never really stopped all day. Kelsey and I floated from Lyons to McAtee, I rowed while she cranked the browns and rainbows out of the mighty Madison into the boat. We started out with double stoneflies and did real well. We did get a few fish on the smaller nymphs but most of the fish were caught on the stoneflies. The rain has been steady throughout the weekend letting up a few times here and there. The fish were hungry and the rain didn’t bother the bite too much, so it was nothing short of epic for a first day!!!

Marty floated with Hienie on Sunday from Lyons to Ruby Creek. They had action in the morning on streamers, but it wasn’t hot enough for Hienie to keep stripping streamers:). Black was the streamer color that got them one nice fish. The Delektable Mega Prince and the Delektable Hurless Stone along with Pat’s Rubber Legs in sizes 6 and 8 were the best flies of the day. Later in the afternoon they started getting fish on pheasant tails and lightning bugs. Overall the weekend was a killer one. The patterns that worked are as follows: Size 6 and 8 Delektable Mega Prince, size 6 and 8 gray Delektable Hurless Stone, size 6, 8 and 10 brown and black Pat’s Rubber Legs, size 12 red threaded prince nymph, size 10 and 12 Delektable Pheasant Tail ‘Lil Spanker, size 14 Delektable Pheasant Tail Big Spanker, size 14 and 16 silver lightening bugs and pearl lightening bugs. Check out Harry with this nice one he got on an Adams dry! Meat ‘n taters! Happy fishing!!! -DanG

The Madison River is fishing as good as it can be right now! The water clarity is about 2-2.5 feet now up here at McAtee Bridge. It gets dirtier below Indian Creek and keeps picking up more water further down the river. The water levels have been staying consistant with the rain and snow melt because of the lower temps the past few days. With the water temperature peaking around 5 o’clock or so, the fish have been turning on around 1:00-200. Brandon was guiding Eric and the legendary Vernon Gallup on the river while Big Dan was with Tim Miller on the 10th later in the day. Both caught out of the boat with big dry flies and big nymphs. The water is still murky with a foot or two of visibility, so it is perfect. Brandon’s crew went out in the morning from McAtee Bridge to Varney Bridge with the nymphs and dries and tried a bit of streamer action, while Big Dan went out in the afternoon for an evening float from McAtee to Storey Ditch chasing dries. The nymph action is still big stones and caddis patterns, while a march brown mayfly nymph is getting to be what they are keying in on. The pheasant tail nymph and the prince nymph were the champions underneath for the march brown. Also the Delektable Lil’ and Big Spanker series was working very well for the mayfly nymph. The March Browns are out and about in the afternoon, so the there was dry fly action to be had for Tim and Dan the day earlier but later in the day! The size 10 parachute adams and big purple haze’ were the ticket for that, but the fly that worked best for Tim was Dan’s new fly called the Delektable Royal Chubbyness in sizes 14-16. This fly is about to come out here at the shop, so look for it coming soon to a fly shop near you! Tim just rolled in a few hours before the float for his first time back this year, so the dry fly fishing in early May right off the bat was a treat to be had!! The big stones and caddis nymph patterns have been working very well in the underwater department as the water is perfect spring water at perfect levels right now. The dry fly action is just too good to throw nymphs.  Hope to see you all this summer!!! Stay tuned for a Big Hole Report as Dan and Tim are headed there on the 11th in hopes to hit the mother’s day caddis hatch (fingers crossed). Happy fishing!!! -DanG