Dancingtrout and I finished our second week fly fishing the Madison River. I hope you read last week’s post, Fly Fishing the Madison River in Early July 2024. I still believe the heat impacted the fishing and we experienced fewer fish to the net. A couple fly fishers I talked to said they found trout willing to take Caddis imitations, but we weren’t successful with them.
Dancingtrout caught this beautiful Rainbow trout sight fishing along the edge of the river shortly after 8 pm. It was only a foot from shore! We could watch fish rise in front of rocks which provide a soft cushion for fish to hold.
Here is a closer view of the fish shown above. It was a thick, hard fighting trout!
The size 16 Sparkle Dun in a March Brown colored body continued to account for most of our fish. I did manage a few on Arrick’s Parachute Ant as well.
As I mentioned above, our success rate slowed and we were lucky to land one or two of these in the morning and night. Smaller fish in the 4 – 7 inch range found our flies on some days. Other days, we didn’t see any trout rise to our flies.
Here is a nice trout Dancingtrout caught one morning.
And a nice Brown I was able to trick from an evening adventure.
I never tire of their beautiful colors.
We remarked how fast the word must travel about fishing because there were only two cars on one side of $3 Bridge one of the evenings we fished there. Having the river to ourselves adds to the special feeling I have when I am lucky enough to fish there. A few days later, more anglers were on both sides of the river. Like me, they hoped to experience the magic the Madison has to offer.
Besides the heat, water levels on the river rose. Here are two screenshots to show the rise. The water had increased from about 1200 to over 1400 when we left the river on July 19.
If I were to guess why the river rose, it might have something to do with hoot owl hours below Ennis.
While waiting for the fish to rise one evening, I noticed midges along the rocks close to the water. The water lapping on the rocks caused midges to fly off, scamper higher away from the water, or be washed in for trout to eat. But I didn’t see any trout rising for them in the section I fished.
I really enjoy taking closeup images of these bugs.
In spite of fewer fish, we were blessed to catch a few large trout. We’ll see what next year brings.
Here is one last image of the Madison as the sun begins an early evening set due to the thick cloud cover.
Next stop, the Grey’s River, WY. We fished there on our trip to southwest Wyoming back in 2021 and thought it time for a return trip. I’ll write about our experience next week.
Enjoy…go fish
