Yesterday, I finally made a drive to West side of Yellowstone National Park. Fishing Madison and Firehole in late June has become my favorite over last several years. Everything (water level, temp, weather pattern, hatches) seems to settle down and shape up for summer. There aren't numbers of summer tourists yet. But at the same time rivers on this side may not be attractive in summer due to geothermal feature (too high water temp!) so late June is the short but best time for me to fish.
When I drove along Madison, surprisingly there was NOBODY fishing!! Let me guess......everyone went home after a week-long vacation. Or they head to Madison in Montana, chasing Salmofly craziness.
I was expecting PMD and White Miller Caddis. When I pulled in "Upper Haynes" almost 11AM, I didn't see apparent hatches and rising trout so I rigged up my 6wt with nymphs. Right after that, I started to see a few to several risers. So I grabbed my 5wt for dry-flies. It was somewhat different from PMD in Madison that I remember. It was size 14 and wasn't really yellow-ish/light olive-ish. It could be some kind of "Drunella"?
I had some bites on my dry-flies but didn't get into hook-ups. Eventually rises became slow. So I grabbed my nymph rig again. For some reasons, I'm recently into smaller stonefly nymphs. So again, Minch Stone from Parks' Fly Shop is the meal ticket.
Nice rainbow!
I took a liberty of sampling.........
I caught a huge whitie too!! What's wrong? It's a true native to both Montana and Yellowstone Park!!
Then I started to experiment my new pattern; Purple Nymphaze, trailed behind.
OH!!! Small whitie!!
I kept fishing the same rig around "Madison Junction". I hooked something HUGE!!!!!.....You see why it felt extra heavy..........
YES my Purply works!!?? Anyway this is one of the biggest Whitie I ever caught in Madison. I'm very proud of myself!!
To be continued to Part 2.
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