We met up with our friends Ron and Gay on Friday night and it is great having company to share stories, food and laughs. Unfortunately the Madison River is not fishing well this week and our morning session on Saturday was a bust. Cool temperate and rain have delayed the insect hatches and muddied the water. Typically lots of fisher people (fishermen and women) stake out the good holes but on this day, we had the entire river to ourselves; the river was deserted. In the afternoon, we tried the upper Madison below Hebgen dam and had some success. We caught 5 between us which was not bad- we are grateful for small victories this trip!
Sunday was a glorious day in the park after hitting “bison sighting traffic”. The fish were elusive, not much action, but the setting was spectacular and we rewarded our work with huckleberry ice cream in waffle cones.
Monday morning we tried to beat the crowds by entering earlier apparently others had the same idea and the entrance line backed up into West Yellowstone! We got to the river around 10 and saw thatfish were rising!! But even more surprising was the herd of bison and their calves at our fishing spot, crossing the river and grazing across the river from us. Sharing our fishing spot with wildlife made it that much more special. It also meant that we had an audience watching us fish.
Catching the trout in the Firehole requires technical skill which all of us except Ray are still developing; he caught several on dry flies. “ It’s all in the perfect drift”, he says. I guess my drift is far from perfect as they jump all around me but never take the wide assortment of flies I cast out. I do have fun trying though. By noon, the thunderstorms roll in and continue into the evening. We take a brief drive to Midway Geyser and Biscuit Basin, both overrun with tourists, which we don’t experience from our fishing spot. Last stop is for bbq ribs at the Firehole BBQ and back to the trailer.
