Boulder River- July 27

After fishing the Upper Madison with my Mom and Dad, we headed to the Boulder River with Jason Denny to hit some of the pockets in the upper sections above Natural Bridge. For the most part I stuck sub surface with size 14 green lightening bugs, green copper johns, and small iron sallies. The water was crystal clear and some more overcast weather kept the fish on the feed. There are tons of fish in the upper sections, none of any real size, but they are some of the healthiest and brightest colored rainbows I've seen around. I also landed a few cut bows and cutthroats. The Boulder is always worth a day trip, even if the fishing is off, just for the scenery. Just so happens though that usually the fishing is great. Much like the Gallatin, it is a freestone river and the fish are very opportunistic. Also just like the Gallatin, any thunderstorm will send down some mud and blow out the river so watch out for that. Otherwise its a great option. 

Throughout the day we saw lots of caddis, a couple yellow sallies, and a huge gray drake hatch right around three that lasted for a good hour. The fish really keyed in on those drakes and brought up a handful of quality bows. We were mainly using Gallop's Butch Caddis in tan, smaller Elk Hair Caddis, Parachute Adams, and drake patterns on the surface, but as I said before I mainly stuck sub surface. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRNX9iQJM1Y Link to a video of a trout I saw hanging out while I tried to yank my fly out of a bush. 

Mike