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I’m not sure if it was the green long underwear or the Guinness I packed in, but something gave me some good luck this St. Patrick’s day. I headed to the Upper Madison and had a bluebird day full of descent sized rainbows. Right from the get go I tied on a size 10 bead head prince nymph trailed by a size 16 pink delekta sex fly and stuck with the combo all day.

 The fishing on the Lower Madison over the last month and a half has been lights out. We were finding fish in the shallow flats, in the deep pools, and in runs below the riffles. But, we also had consistant water conditions. This week the water levels have spiked or dropped a couple hundred CFS every other day and this has slowed the fishing down considerably. The fish are still eating crayfish, San Juans, and eggs, but not quite as eagerly as the week before. One thing you can count on right now is a killer midge hatch.

Took a nice hike into Bear Trap Canyon on sunday after a saturday afternoon report from Sam Bergman that he had gone up that way and fished midge dries all day long.  That was all i needed in making my decision on where to fish.  I didn't find too many fish rising when i started the day so i threw nymphs at first.  As with usual madison activity the trout just hammered pink sex flies and pink scuds (both size 14 and 16).  I also tried olive and copper zonkers (size 4-6) dead drifted at first which worked just fine and then decided to twitch them downs

Fishing conditions on the Lower Madison have changed a li

Friday i had the good fortune of fishing the missouri river, a truly amazing piece of big water with big fish close enough to bozeman to be able to get in the water after a 45 minute drive, depending on were you access.  First i tried the go to Delekta sex fly in size 14(killer bug all over right now) trailed by midge pupas(red and grey twinkles size 18 and zebra midge size 18). A fairly standard pattern for the missouri which produced a couple decent trout then i noticed fish rising to the incredible adult midge hatch these sunny days have been bring

Last thursday i woke up with the burning desire to hike and find different spots in the gallatin canyon.  I spent the first thirty minutes of the day just moving my feet to get away from the usual spots.  My efforts were generously awarded with first stumbling upon a pod of trout in slow gin clear water occasionally rising to midges.  After landing about ten gorgeous 10"-14" rainbows on orange blood worms (size 14) and olive, black, or brown rubberlegs (size 6-10) i felt confident enough to switch to dries.

So, the fishing on the Lower Madison has been so good, I can't stay away from it. I went back again today and found that the fish didn't want anything but crayfish patterns and midge nymphs. I even threw a San Juan Worm and an egg for a bit, and not even a nibble.....Fine with me.

TY

This week Pete and I headed west and found ourselves floating the Lower Madison looking for pre-spawn Rainbows. Those of you familiar with this stretch of water know that trying to unlock its secrets can be an exercise in futility. Pete and got lucky and hit the Madison on one of her good days and were rewarded with sun shine, low winds, and hungry trout. Though we did find a couple of fish from the boat, most were caught while wading and thoroughly fishing the small pockets and runs.

Here at The Bozeman Angler, if we're not on the water chasing winter trout, we're sitting at the tying bench, pounding away at feathers, dubbing, and flash to create tantalizing treats with big fish dreams dancing in our heads.

This past week of decent weather has allowed us to move around local waters with comfortability and good fishing results.  Tuesday I hiked the East Gallatin and finally got into my first good sized fish on the east for this Winter!