Day 4: Madison in the Park - Match the Hatch Paradise!!

June 25th, as I checked out a motel (that I didn't intend to stay) to the original one, I headed to Madison in the Park to fish till noon or thereabout.

Madison in the Park above Seven Mile Bridge is known to "only 20 percent of those fishing this water catch fish" by Charie Brooks. I conquered this fear last June and October by nymphs and streamers. So I consider myself that I belong to a "20% Club". I started at Upper Haynes, which is one of my favorite and most promising spots. I started with a Rubber Leg

and a $3 Serendipity.

But somehow fishing at Upper Haynes was slow. I barely hooked and lost a whitefish. Since it was early, I could drive to other spots I could think of but I waded down-stream around the island. I immediately found this is the very productive deep pool!! Now it's on my list for the fall fishing. Somehow, I caught mix of rainbow and brown of $3 Serendipity over a Rubber Leg.

I caught one large bow on a Rubber Leg though.

After this, there was no more action nymphs, instead I started to see lots of trout rising. I had noticed that smaller trout were rising from early morning but now rising trout were all over and not taking nymphs. I observed the surface. It was a Pale Morning Dun hatch.

As I left my midge box of Day 1 at Cascade Lake, I forgot my Mayfly box!! This time, I could have gone back to my truck and/or use a PMD Sparkle Dun from my secret Dutch Box again. But I thought there should be some things I could do. Besides duns and cripples on the surface, I also noticed that emerging nymphs were crawling on my wader. Now it made sence to me that trout favored $3 serendipity over a Rubber Leg stonefly nymph.

I did have several PMD Foam nymph in my general box!! This is meant to fish the surface as an emerging nymph with a foam wing-case.

I also had Royal Wulff Cripple as an attractor and an indicator fly trailed with a PMD Foam Nymph.

PMD Foam nymph was taken as Royal Wulff Cripple let me know the subtle take at the surface!!

It's been while that I really fished for the hatch. Very memorable moment for my fly-fishing career because I accomplished this at Madison in the Park.

Both Royal Wulff Cripple and PMD Foam Nymph worked on the surface. I took a couple of nice 15-inchers.

In the afternoon, I checked into my original motel. I settled in for the 2nd half of the trip.

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In the evening, I went to $3 bridge again. It was not dramatic at all. I felt water was a bit colder and higher than 24-hour ago..... I thought weather had been nice enough to clear up the Madison below Quake Lake........ So I decided that I would fish Madison in the Park till my Park entrance ran out.