Our final day on the Madison and we are going to make the most of it. We are out the door before 8am; we’ve never fished the river early in the AM and are excited to try. There are only 2 other cars in the Raynold Bridge lot and we find our favorite spot unoccupied. Ray and I each catch one, mine is a good size brown trout, a feisty one which breaks the line around Ray’s legs. It is an idyllic and beautiful morning, cool, blue skies, the air clean from last night’s storm. The clear Madison River winds its way through the sagebrush fields, the only sound is that of the bubbling river.
After a quick lunch, we stop by the fly shop to check out and say good bye to Kelly Galloup, the owner, who welcomes me to the world of flyfishing- nice guy. We drive over to 3 Dollar Bridge, which by now has gotten quite crowded with guides and their clients, every opening along the river is taken! We trod through a boggy area, tall wet grass, lots of mud, and at one spot my leg suddenly sinks and I am up to my knee in mud; I can barely pull it out, thank goodness for waders! We find a few promising openings in the bushes and I try nymphing and dry flies, but it is slow going today. I get a few bites but spend a lot of time untangling my line and extracting it from rocks. Nevertheless, being on the river is terrific and I have fun trying different flies and feel fairly confident changing them out. Ray comments that I am amazingly comfortable stepping in and out of the water and wading on the gravel. What a difference from 2 weeks ago!
Alas, it is 4pm and time to leave. We see dark clouds in the distance, looks like another afternoon storm is brewing. It has been a great trip, full of firsts and lots of memories. We drive to Twin Falls/Jerome Idaho, the Comfort Inn is quite nice. Tomorrow will be a long driving day.