Today was a very interesting day with different reports. Our friends Ross and Emmett,
especially Emmett scored heavily on a float from Lyons to Palisades. Emmett is doing really well learning to tie his own flies and is a young serious fly fisherman. We expect Ross will have him rowing someday soon. They sure have fun fishing together, father and son.  Emmett scored using the Delektable Brown Stoner, Pat’s Orange and Brown Rubberlegs, and a Hare’s Ear Nymph.

We had two other friends who don’t know the river and had a challenging day, we think most of the challenges go with the fact it was a sunny day and required special technique to find the line.

Nancy, Dan, and long time steelhead fishing friend Jamie, floated Palisades to McAtee in the afternoon and did work for their fish but caught a number of small to medium sized trout and missed some bigger ones. They tried almost everything with the best results on a Chubby with a Caddis behind it, a Chubby with a small nymph behind it (Tungsten Rainbow Warrior, Tungsten Prince, Delektable Lil’ Spanker in Blue). A Two nymph rig worked with Pat’s Brown Rubberlegs size 8 and smaller nymphs as a trailer. They also tried Streamers and Double Screamers but the sun stopped the action on streamers.

Nancy

It was a great day on the Madison with my husband Tryston and guide Dan Delekta.  We went from Windy Point to McAtee Bridge and the weather was cool with occasional sprinkles of rain and a light north wind.  I was using a brand new Brown Bear 4/5 Wt rod with a beautiful buck eyed burled wood handle that Dan Delekta made for me for Christmas along with a new olive Galvan open back reel, this was my first fishing trip with the new rod and it proved to be the best fly rod I’ve ever used! Thank you so much Dan for the most amazing and beautiful Christmas gift I’ve ever had! OK, on to the report!

The fish were very eager and continuously ate the #8 Delektable Mega Prince Copper Back throughout the day, I never had to change flies. The sizes were mainly larger fish of about 14” and up with only a few small fish, all were just as eager.  I also had a #10 Chubby Chernobyl in a royal color tied about 24” in front of the Mega Prince and this also got many hits later as it warmed up in the day. Big fun!

Tryston was fly fishing for the first time on this trip and had a great time! Dan was a great teacher being very patient and helped him learn tons of tricks and techniques that will keep him on the right track now.  He hooked a lot of fish, big and small throughout the day as well, but had trouble landing them.  He used mainly a double nymph rig with weights to bring the flies down to the bottom.  He had the best luck with the #8 Delektable Mega Prince Copper Back, #8 Gray Delektable Hurless Stone and the #8 Olive Delektable Hurless Stone.   I would say he’s officially hooked on fly fishing now!

Thank you again Dan and Nancy for this great day on the river that will live in our memories forever!

Jenn

We had a fun threesome in the raft: Bill, Nate, and Greg. Dad and his sons.

We love family trips!

It got pretty interesting with three casting out of the boat. This added to the learning experience for sure. Of course our better fishing was when we stopped to wade different sections.

The best results were with the Delektable Mega Princes and Hurless Stones, even better behind a Chubby.

The earlier part of the day was great catching and constant action. By mid afternoon it really slowed down. We had fun and lots of entertainment. Thanks Guys!

Marty

After numerous days of abuse from Dan about my ability to row and fish; we went out on the river to see what I could actually do. Marty joined us. He was a bit chilly early in the day and warmed up as the weather did. We were unsure about the weather the days prior when we were planning this day off together but we kept with our original plan, launch the boat at 11 am. We Floated from Ruby to Varney and planned to take off whenever we were done fishing. We started off the trip throwing streamers. The browns wanted the big meat Delektable brown/yellow double screamers, and the Delektable black double screamer. The fish weren’t overly aggressive to a fast moving Streamer, if you slowed it done with smaller movements that would induce a strike. Also the Skwallas were out and the Delektable Olive Hurless size 8 and the Delektable Olive mega prince size 8 caught a lot of fish. With the water being a light green color it made it easy to see the buckets against the shallower water. Don’t be afraid to fish the smaller stuff such as 16 Delektable root beer Serengolds, and some olive Shop Vacs for caddis.

Craig