June 24, The Missouri

We had a nice morning on the Missouri. It was very high, but clear. The red attacker was a great bug, as was a small prince. As we neared the take out J.C. took out his three weight Scott G2. What a sweet dry fly rod. After missing two big fish, he hooked the biggest of the bunch and played it perfect. Even when you are fishing for big fish, don't rule out a light rod. With a three weight, we were able to be gentle with the 5x tippet and land this big brown easily.

June 21-23, The D

What a fantastic trip! We spent two nights on the D and found some great fish. This little river is only good for about a month every year and this year we hit it right. We had to do some nymphing on the first two days, but after that we fished golden stones and yellow sallies. In fact this hog that J.C. caught was on a golden stone. He put a great cast in tight on a rock wall and it slowly tumbled around the back eddy after a well timed mend.

The fish didn't just eat the fly, it hammered it. It then wallowed on the surface before diving deep. J.C. has fished with me for years, learning the art of fly fishing, and this trip was his coming of age as an expert angler. He fished great. Jim wades back to the boat after a morning fishing.

Brown resting after a good fight through a rapid. We stopped at one fast flat and caught eight nice fish.

Nice fish

Jim and Nate shooting one rock rapid. I know someone who was caught on that one rock for four hours.

Nate taking a photo of Jim's fish.

Nice drift between two rocks. We caught one here




Deep in the Canyon. We lost two nice rainbows off this rock wall.

Does it get any more picturesque.

June 17, Lower Madison

Today was not quite as magical as Monday. We got out and waded the first flat catching about a half dozen fish. Bill hoked up on a few nice ones, but broke them off. After inspecting his leader, which was brand new out of the package, I discovered that it was weak, bad and needed to be changed. I was a bit peeved with the leader. I believe it was an umqua. Bill says he does't know how long he has had it, but it was not in the sun.

This brings me to a point of contention. Mono vs. Floro. Mono degrades in the sun. One good thing about floro is that it does not degrade in the sun... one bad thing about floro is that it does not degrade in the sun. Who knows how many baby birds have been ensnared in a floro found by momma bird by the side of the river and brought to the nest. It is enough to keep me from using it, especially with the amount of crap I've seen left in rivers.

Tom stuck six or seven on the first flat. We hooked a few more nice ones on the float, but none to the boat. After lunch we made the tough call of fishing dries only. We were able to get a few up top, but no size.

The brothers Zanoni were a pleasure to have in the boat and we laughed and joked the day away.

June 15, Lower Madison

To See More of Tony Demin's photos go to http://www.tonydemin.com/ His pictures have been everywhere from Men's Journal to the Patagonia catalogue

Seeing as I had to take my skiff in to Ro Boats in Four Corners, Montana, about twenty minutes from the Madison, I decided it would be a good day to fish. Nate and Tony accompanied me. We dropped off my boat and picked up the loner.

First, a few words about drift boats. There is a simple axiom at play here: the more roomy and bigger the boat, the more of a beast it rows. I had harboured thoughts of exchanging my skiff the roomy Deville, a low sided drift boat with lots of room. After Rowing it for the second time, I'm convinced that for my style of fishing, the skiff is perfection. If you only fish big rivers and are well lazy, the full sizer is for you, but if you work the water hard, want to fish skinny side channels and resurc holes, I can't stress how well my skiff rows. What I give up is the snazzy looks and a bit of storage. People can stand and fish in my boat, but they don't have to. Most guides I know and respect like having their guys sit. You can get closer to the fish, your legs don't hurt at the end of the day and you don't act like a sail. I know, I know, Some people just want to stand. I stand most of the time when I'm fishing. I have knee braces and people can stand in the skiff if they want.

Back to the River. Well it fished great. Goldens and PMD's with an occasional salmonfly. Tony went strait to dry, pitching a little stimi. He hooked up almost immediately. It did not take long before we had a dozen fish in the boat. Nate Caught a beautiful 22 inch brown that came straight up to eat his golden in a mid river seam. When we stopped at an Island I was able to work a run with about 50 risers in it. They were not easy, and I never fount The bug, but I caught eight fish. They ate a small yellow sally parachute, a PMD cripple, a spotlight emerger and the larger yellow stimi.

As we pulled out of the side channel I pitched down stream into a bucket about the size of a VW Bug. I had an emerging nymph, just below a dry. There was a small subsurface swirl and I set the hook. A nice Brown rolled over and started to shake its head. I jumped out of the boat as the Brown was running up stream. Like chasing King Salmon in Alaska, I just followed the brown around, finally landing a nice 20 incher. Tony, a professional photographer took a bunch of photos and said he will send some. I'll post em when I get em.

The day was perfect and we even made it to our soccer game in Bozeman just in time.

June 5

After days of putting together a baby room, I finally got a chance to get out to fish for a bit. Nate and I went on an exploratory misson to visit some seldom fished water that I've been eying for quite some time. We fished two lakes, both of witch are remote and promising. The best hidden gem was a tiny creek. I'd fished it before, but only for a half hour. This time we tried a different spot. Most of the creek is small enough that you would not get your shins wet crossing it, but in every deep hole there was a good brown.

When we scrambled down to the creek, we could see two nice fish swimming in a large pool created by a piece of concrete. Just like in New Zealand, Nate spotted while I drifted a small nymph to the fish. I hooked the first one and pulled it down stream quickly so I might get a shot at the second fish. What I landed, out of this trickle of a creek, was a plump 17 inch brown. The second fish was even better. I did not see the take on the second fish but responded to Nate when he said: "He ate it, he ate it." This fish was bigger measuring 19 inches with a hooked jaw and deep butterscotch yellow sides.

We went on to fish a bunch more pools; each one a different problem to solve. The fishing was not easy, but it was a lot like New Zealand. Don't ask the name of the stream. This is one I wont kiss and tell.

June 1 Mudville

Most all of the undammed rivers in the state are high and muddy if not flooding their banks.