Montana - Madison River
| Conditions: | 50 - 75 degrees Wind - 15-20 MPH, Overcast & Rain |
| Equipment: | 9ft, 5wt rod, 3x tippet |
| Flies: | Caddis emerger, Trude Dry |
| Trout: | 6 Rainbows, 1 Brown |
This was a bad weather day. Very windy overcast threatening snow and rain. We put the boat in at Windy Point and came out at Ruby Creek. I caught 2 small browns and Al didn’t catch anything. After Ruby Creek, Brian, our guide took us to Raynolds Pass.
Raynolds Pass is a beautiful location with some nice deep riffles. This area seemed be protected from the weather. Things were quite a bit warmer and less windy. Al caught 
the first fish. It was a 12″ Rainbow. That got things started. I ended up catching 3 Rainbows 12″, 14″, and 16″ and Al caught another nice Rainbow 14″ long. Thanks to our guide and his persistence he saved the day for us at Raynolds Pass.
The evening at Papoose Lodge was very interesting. Al and I got a chance to meet Craig Mathews and his wife Jackie from Blue Ribbon Flies. They are such nice people and are very passionate about fishing and conservation. We talked about conservation, his business, Gary LaFontaine and how Craig and Gary used to snorkel in the river to have a better understanding of what fish see when they are looking at nymphs and flies. We really enjoyed talking to Craig. We also got a chance to meet Tom Brokaw who Craig was guiding on the Yellowstone. Tom had a lot of nice things to say about our hometown, Rochester NY, and his late friend Robert Wegman, founder of Wegmans Grocery stores. Tom seemed like a very interesting and sincere.
We had another great dinner at Papoose and then we were off to bed looking forward to another geat day in Montana.
