Fished the Yellowstone on Thursday and Saturday, and the lower Madison (below Ennis Lake) on Friday. What an incredible place! Dave Weitl, you missed out on gale force winds on the Madison. The weatherperson reported 30-40 mph sustained winds for that day (Friday), with gusts of 50! A wee bit challenging. To help combat the wind, I used a Teeny 200 and deer hair head sculpin bugger for nearly the whole day, and turned several nice and wee fish during the day. The largest fish (of course!) were lost, with the largest fish to the boat a chunky bow of 17". The winds on the Yellowstone, Wednesday, were only 25-30 mph, so we were able to fish hoppers. We turned a lot of fish, mostly cutts, who rose with painstakingly slow speeds. Again, the largest fish of the day were in the 17-18" range. The Bozeman/Livingston area received a shot of rain on Friday night, with Saturday weather intermittent clouds and forecast winds only (!!) in the 15-25 mph range. Fish rose sporadically to the hopper (parachutes and Chernobyl patterns). In the afternoon they ate the parachute adams (#14) pretty well (a small hatch of grey drakes happened mid day). Our plane was scheduled to leave Bozeman at 6:30 pm, and we were of course running late, so the guides had to row us down stream the last couple of miles. Using a beadhead prince nymph behind a hopper for that last few miles, I caught several cutts, 'bows, a brown, and whitefish that last hour. Any day of fishing in the Yellowstone and/or the Madison Rivers is wonderful, and catching fish makes it an awesome day! The wind made the fishing challenging, particularly for my four beginning/intermediate buddies, but they came through it with only a few hook penetrations in the back or the back of the head, and are now battle-scarred and experienced and ready for another go-around. No lunkers caught, but several fish in the upper-teens were boated, and we rolled several larger. We fished with absolutely wonderful guides who were hard-working, extremely patient, and instructional, and we had some great dinners at some rustic steak houses. If you are considering fishing in the Bozeman or Livingston area, and need recommendations on guides and where to eat, let me know! Richard
