5-17 Upper Madison River

Yesterday I made the journey to the Upper Madison with partners in crime, Dan Oliver and Nick Lux. The float from Lyons to Ruby started out with some muddy water spewing from the West Fork, but it seemed that the dirty water was where the fish were hang'n out. It was slow at first, but after a couple of fly changes I settled on an olive Rubber Leg with a little flash. That dash of flash was all it took for the trout to open their mouths and eat. Later in the day as we got down stream and away from the mud, the fish began to look at smaller nymphs and less flashy bugs. Caddis nymphs in lighter colors scored most of the points in the second half of the game. In the last stretch of the river, Nick slapped on a black Silvey's Leach that moved some fish off of the bank and put one nice rainbow in the boat. The water in the upper river is still on the cold side, so look for the fishing to improve as the water warms up between now and the run off.

TY