Monday May 17
Bets and I fish with Gary and do the Jefferson from Secret Squirrel to Point of Rocks. The river is skinny. Just after we leave the put in and are fishing downstream with dry dropper with a skawla on top Bets has a taker on the dropper and as she sets the hook and the line tightens a fish jumps clear on the other side of the river. It takes all of us a second to realize that is her fish and he makes a second great jump. It takes a bit to get him to the boat but he is a bright 22” rainbow. We think the day is going to be on fire.
Rooster comes up with his two sports who are the two guys who started Hatch reels. I know this but as they come up and Rooster asks if we caught any and I say Betsy just boated a 22” rainbow but it took a while as “these sorry ass Hatch reel drags keep getting caught”.. A good laugh for all.
We go along together for a while and nothing is happening so we raft up and have an early lunch.
We start again and it is slow but we pick up a fish or two now and then on the squala dry. We have been fishing a while and Bets has a take on her dry and in a minute or two in the shallow water we see the fish. He is huge and brown. Betsy plays him carefully and after we have several looks at him and we are all trying to remain calm, Gary nets the fish and we measure him and he is 24” long. This is crazy. Bets has now boated two 24” brown trout and a 22” rainbow and the season is only beginning.
It remains slow for the afternoon with a few takes. We are out at Point of Rock by about 3.30 and it has been a nice day. The temp was about 80 degrees which is crazy. We are wet wading in mid May.
Tuesday May 18
We are to go out to Pat’s for late lunch? At 2.00 pm today. It is a nice day and we go to the Schoolhouse as that is where we see her car. Norm and Gretchen were to join us but had called to say they could not make it.
We have a very nice aperitif made from Comperia, Vodka and Orange Juice. Well really we had two pitchers full so it was more libation than food although Pat had some nice cheese and had made a very nice quiche. We sat out on the deck with spitting rain and saw the young cow moose cross the river. Great.
We are back in Twin about 6.00 pm and decide that we should have a veggie pizza which is good as always. Saw Jeff and Patty Walker who sold the Shack last fall and have been in Arizona for much of the winter.
Wednesday May 19
Bets takes a bye day and Joe Willingham has a day off guiding so we go to fish together. I row for him from the Culvert on the Big Hole down past the Kuralt place and he lands one nice brown on streamer and misses about three including the first one which was a big fish.
I fish on down to Pennington and land a nice rainbow and farm one. The river is coming up pretty quick and Joe says rising rivers never fish well.
Thursday May 20
Bets and I fish with Joe today. When we get up it is raining in Twin and does not look to be a good day. We say “hell, let’s go fishing” and that’s what we do. We decide to fish the Beaverhead and as we are heading to Dillon the wind about blows the truck over. But as we get to Dillon it is brightening. We stop at Frontier to get our shuttle lined up and we head up to the dam.
It is getting colder by the minute and the wind is blowing pretty good. We get in after Joe ties up those funky “pogo” deals on very long leaders. They have shot on the bottom and then tiny nymphs tied on short tippet tied perpendicular to the leader.
We have not gone far and Bets hooks up and brings to net a 20 Inch brown trout. She is really doing a number on the big fish.
Not too much further and she hooks up again and it is quite a battle before she brings the most beautiful bright colored rainbow trout to the net. Another 20” fish but he is really fat and gorgeous.
She catches more fish and finally I get a few. This is crazy fishing. The river is along I-15 with a frontage road on the other side. Water is clear and the fish are here at about 3500 per mile. Fortunately, there were not so many people as normal so it was better than most times. There are big fish here but this is not the Montana experience we love. Amazingly to me is that some people come to Montana and do this river day after day. I would rather be lost on the Big Hole somewhere with the wildlife.
Oh, I forgot to mention not long after we started we had a few hours of “winter mix” that became mostly ice and the wind really got wound up. You forget quickly that a couple of days ago it was high 80’s and hot because now it is damn cold.
Friday May 21
It was supposed to be cold with snow showers this morning but when I looked out it was all about sunshine. It was at freezing but this may be the last good weather day so time to go fishing.
I decide to head over to the Madison as the Big Hole is blown out and that seems like a logical choice. I give Connie a call at Meadowlark Shuttles over in Ennis and after we say hello she says, “You still got that orange Honda?” and I say I do and it is ready for it has been resting all winter. I tell her Varney to Eight Mile and gas to gas and she tells me $25 bucks and we are ready for the Madison season to begin.
When I get to Varney only one guide is there with his two sports and I am ready while he is still tying knots so I am in the water and floating. I stop at the bridge just in case the bridge fish is still around but get no love.
Float down to the first corner river left and nymph a bit and get nothing not even a whitey. Just down and around the corner pull in to try an inside seam and nothing.
Float on down a ways and pull up where the first river right channel from Varney returns to the river and wade up to a good drop just below a riffle and do the size 10 rubber legged green nymph with the san juan and nothing. I take off the San Juan and put on a size 14 March brown emerger I had tied and on the second cast a nice rainbow is brought to hand. Two more casts and I hook it in a low lying tree and it is the only one. Slowly I make the wade across and stay dry and don’t fall in a hole and retrieve my stuff and for a bonus get a fly someone else has contributed.
I work along and have a go or two at likely spots and get nothing. The river is at 1000 cfs and has a little color but is fine. A few changes but nothing major for last year.
I stop for lunch and then hop out and work back upstream to a nice drop and work it pretty hard but no luck. Just downstream there is a braid to the right with some deep water beyond so I work from the bank and make a cast or two and there is a taker and I roll a very nice brown trout which I fell to get a good hook set on.
Right back in and there is a taker and a nice 15” rainbow. A few more casts and a very fat and thick 18” rainbow, a few more casts and a big ole white fish and then a few more and a 14” rainbow. This is a great spot and then that is that.
I float on along and with the weather beginning to make its fun from the south and west I just float merrily along. I love to be out in the water, seeing bald eagles setting in trees near their nest, deer along the shore, ducks paired up and cattle aimlessly grazing with the spectacular Madison Range as a backdrop.
I row on past Burnt Tree heading to Eight Mile and when I get there to the new ramp built last year there is no truck and then I realize I am at Burnt Tree and have the order screwed up. I get to the road, get a pick up from the first passing van and am ferried to Eight Mile and hop out but there is no truck. I call Connie but no answer. I walk up to the road and in just a minute here they come. I tell her the season is off to a great start as I rowed passed Eight Mile and she is late. We have a good laugh.
A wonderful day on the river and I can’t wait for more and more.
Saturday May 22
We wake up to rain on the roof and it is a welcomed sound as the water is needed. As the day progresses we have more rain and then snow. It is very unusual for in the five years we have been around Twin there are days of showers but not days of rain. It is snowing just up on the bench and that means the higher elevations are getting meaningful amounts of snow. Great.
We were supposed to go over above Wise River with Pat to visit a woman who has a cabin up in the mountains that is off the grid we think. She has been around the area for some time with her family originally from back east but now winters in California. Anyway she is quite a good photographer and we have bought a couple of her things from the Old Hotel who displays them from time to time. We wimp out with the weather and call it off. Pat comes by for lunch and we have a good time.
A good nap in the afternoon, tie a few flies which are getting better. It always seems as if they are never good but always getting better.
Dinner at the Old Hotel which is incredible. Donald Rumsfeld who bought the ranch out the Burma Road last year with what looks like a brother and their wives. He is a little guy and maybe that is his problem with the “little man complex” of always trying to be a bad ass.
Sunday May 23
It is a day of rain and snow but we take a ride around the Tobacco Root Mountains, up to Whitehall, then to Harrison, Pony, Norris, Ennis, Virginia City etc. It is a beautiful drive and the valley opposite Twin is just an incredible landscape.
