Hi Todd!
Looks like I won't be able to make it this weekend. :-( We'll be driving over towards Sun Valley to take our 12 y/o daughter to a church camp. DAMN! I was looking forward to meeting you and fishing the Madison. (again...)
I fished the Madison today at three different places, caught fish at all three places. As a matter of fact, I "slammed!" Madison River Grand Slam: Rainbow, Brown, and Whitefish, unfortunately not in that order... I caught a couple of browns on a copper john, whitefish on copper johns and beadhead prince. The rainbow hit what I had hoped to be nailing them all on, a size 2 brown rubberleg stonefly nymph.
I was disappointed with the stonefly activity. I saw no signs of bugs, or an impending hatch of any kind. I wouldn't go as far as to make a silly statement like "If you see one I'll eat one...," but I'll be really surprised to hear that you had any action on adult stones at all. I think the best you could hope for would be increased nymph activity which would still be great action. Soooooooo, I'd have plenty of brown rubberleg bugs in 2,4,and 6; copper johns in 16, 18, and 20, and beadhead princes in 12, 14, and 16. I hope you get to use your adult stone dries, and just for the hell of it, I'd put one of those on with a small copper john dropper. Other possible dry selections would be stimulators and large western coachmen. You can still drop a small nymph off of one of these.
Sorry I couldn't have conveyed better news about the fishing, and once again sorry I'll miss the opportunity to meet you! Maybe there'll be some warm weather in the Madison Valley this week and the stoneflies will take off for you.
Have a great trip!
Tom
