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Montana 09 (pix)

947 views 11 replies 11 participants last post by  gobblergetter 
#1 ·
Hey guys. It's been a while since I've been on here. Between the economy and work it's been an intersting few months. Thankfully I was able to get out Montana and Drag asked me to post some pics. Real low budget trip compared to the fully guided trip I did last year.[up]

Day 1 - leave Newark at 6:00 AM. Bad start, 1 hour delay for some stupid paperwork reason and we miss our connection in Minneapolis. Our party get's split up - 2 of us on to Bozeman, 1 they have routed through Salt Lake City to arrive late night. Total airline BS. We decide to put him through Billings and then he would drive so he didn't lose the whole day.

Hit my friends property on the upper Madison around 4:00 PM and fish til 9:00PM. Good action nymphing, tons of caddis but no risers. Some nice fish. walk back to the camp site for steaks and cigars. Cold/breezy night but we were prepared for it.

Day 2 - up, breakfast, fish. We hit the river until about 4:30 with only a break for lunch. Good action again but this time we get to do some dry fly fishing. Did well with salmon flys and caddis. Landed my best brown to date but couldn't manage a picture before he dropped out of my hand.[mad]

Day 3 - back at the house. Wake up, drive over to the Gallatin and start nymphing. Smaller fish but lots of em. Everyone is catching fish but me, can't get myself sorted out. [wallmad] so I decide to walk upstream a ways. I'm starting to see some mayflys and I finally hit on a pool with some rise action so I switch over to a pattern that looks right and I'm catching rainbows immediately. Continued up river and hit two more pools full of browns. Good dry fly action for 2 hours off and on. Wrap back to town for lunch and beers, then we hit the river again and fish until day end - another couple browns and we're off for dinner, sleep and an early flight home.

GREAT trip! Hope I get these pictures right

Madison River in the morning

Salmon Fly

Gallatin

Gallatin
 
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#8 ·
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#11 ·
Thanks it was a great trip. Getting out of bed this morning and going to work instead of fishing was a real bummer. I wasn't ready to come home.

We fished the upper Madison this year but waded the entire day and a half within 1 mile of my buddies property which is 30 miles north of Ennis - so we didn't cover tons of ground. Last year we hit both those areas you mentioned. "beartrap" canyon is what it's called IIRC. We hit the upper and lower Madison but that was really the only fishable river last year due to the run off in late June.
 
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