Opening weekend was this weekend on the river and small creeks and it was prime condition for slaying!!! The West Fork is spitting out a little mud above Lyons Bridge, so it is a little murky making the fishing awesome. The guides were all out in full force as this section has been closed for most of the winter and spring. On Saturday, the bite was on right out the gate, and it never really stopped all day. Kelsey and I floated from Lyons to McAtee, I rowed while she cranked the browns and rainbows out of the mighty Madison into the boat. We started out with double stoneflies and did real well. We did get a few fish on the smaller nymphs but most of the fish were caught on the stoneflies. The rain has been steady throughout the weekend letting up a few times here and there. The fish were hungry and the rain didn’t bother the bite too much, so it was nothing short of epic for a first day!!!
Marty floated with Hienie on Sunday from Lyons to Ruby Creek. They had action in the morning on streamers, but it wasn’t hot enough for Hienie to keep stripping streamers:). Black was the streamer color that got them one nice fish. The Delektable Mega Prince and the Delektable Hurless Stone along with Pat’s Rubber Legs in sizes 6 and 8 were the best flies of the day. Later in the afternoon they started getting fish on pheasant tails and lightning bugs. Overall the weekend was a killer one.
The patterns that worked are as follows: Size 6 and 8 Delektable Mega Prince, size 6 and 8 gray Delektable Hurless Stone, size 6, 8 and 10 brown and black Pat’s Rubber Legs, size 12 red threaded prince nymph, size 10 and 12 Delektable Pheasant Tail ‘Lil Spanker, size 14 Delektable Pheasant Tail Big Spanker, size 14 and 16 silver lightening bugs and pearl lightening bugs. Check out Harry with this nice one he got on an Adams dry! Meat ‘n taters! Happy fishing!!! -DanG
