Spent the Labor Day weekend fishing in Montana. The original plan was Slough Creek in Yellowstone but some road closures in the park mixed with not great reports made it a tough sell. So the decision was made to drive 4 hrs rather than 7 hrs and stay on the Madison River at the Slide Inn. Four rivers in four days and 3 were rivers I had never fished before. On the trip, besides myself, was Bill and Tom. I had never fished with Tom before so it was great to spend some time on the river with him.
The Slide Inn is run by Kelly Gallop who probably spends as many days on the Madison as just about anyone. He runs a great fly shop and has cabins to rent or even some RV spaces. I've been in the shop many times before but this was our first time staying in the cabins. The only real downside to staying at the Slide Inn is that you are out on your own. It is also a nice upside though, but if you want to go out to dinner you are quite a ways away from Ennis or West Yellowstone. Luckily we had planned on grilling a couple times and we found a grill to use. The cabins are adequate but the lack of a TV was sort of a downer considering how much we paid.
I was supposed to drive my Suburban on this adventure, however the day before our trip I was getting the oil changed when the technician told me I had a crack in my tire rim. My Suburban has custom alloy rims with slim tires from the previous owner and sure enough I had a crack all the way across one of the spokes. Not knowing how bad it was I took it to my "tire guy" and had them pull the wheel and sure enough it was broken all the way through. With no way to drive it and a spare that is an inch different in size we had to do some scrambling. Luckily Bill could take his van and saved the trip; Thanks Bill for driving and Liz for letting us steal her ride. Update: it took 13 days to find and get my hands on a matching rim but finally we can drive the 'Burb again.So upon arriving at Reynolds Pass bridge we parked and hit the wade only section of the Madison. To call it slow is doing it a favor. We later heard from trusty sources that while the Madison had fished great all year it had slowed considerably as the fish were prepping for the fall runs. We caught a few fish - mostly small - and I managed to not fall in which was nice too. My best pattern was a fly I bought at the flyshop in Walmart in Idaho Falls. Yes I typed that right. It was orange bodied, prince nymph looking fly with a soft hackle collar. All I know is that it worked for some dang reason when nothing else would.
One Brown I caught. The rest were even smaller rainbows. It was kiddie day on the Maddy.
Let's throw in some random photos here. (No pics of the steaks Tom cooked)
Ok - Day 2 - We journeyed over to Ennis, MT with intentions of fishing the Ruby River. Reports we read and people we talked to said the Ruby was off color and not fishing well. That may be true if you are a die-hard dry fly fisherman. When you a nymph-er and you hear off color river your mind gets excited at all the options. We drove over to the river and finally decided on the Coy Brown river access, which isn't well marked because the current landowners are a titch onry. Luckily Bill knew the way and we quickly rigged and decided to wet wade the day away. Bill and Tom headed upriver to some water Bill had fished earlier in the year. I decided to go down and explore. The first good hole I came to did not disappoint. I quickly had 3 to the net in about 20 minutes.
Man I suck at self portraits!!! After going down river a ways I had 9 to the net and a few other hits and misses. Most took a bright red Larva Lace Worm pattern with 2 taking a prince dropper. After a while I started wondering where the guys were at so I started back up river. Apparently Bill and Tom had a small run in with a land owner and they yielded and moved. We stopped for some lunch and went and checked a different access but the water was so skinny we decided to go back to Coy Brown. Bill and Tom walked down river a ways and I fished my way down to them. When I caught up I had 7 more and would end the day with 18 or so. The Ruby is a great little river. I caught all browns and one whitefish; but the browns were healthy and fat and beautiful. One notable fish that I thought might go 20" but when measured I roughly got 19 but still.... healthy and fat. Best flies were the Larva Lace Worm and Red dirty worm with 3 or 4 on a Prince.
That night as a matter of coincidence they were having a Fly Fishing Festival in Ennis, MT. We made it back to town for the drawing on a drift boat and caught the end of the festivities. We had dinner at the sports bar in Ennis.
I'll post Days 3 & 4 on a separate post.......
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