Thursday, September 17, 2015

$3 Dollar Bridge - Madison River

Thursday was cold.  We went to $3 dollar to try our luck; figured it would be a little warmer outside of the Park. I headed downstream on the road side of the river, chucking an articulated on my six weight.  The flow was much lower than last year, which made for easier wading.  I hooked in to a large fish in the main stream of the current within a few minutes of fishing. He thrashed back and forth, and after about 20 seconds, threw the hook. I saw the fish clearly, and it was a trophy to be sure.  John caught a decent rainbow shortly thereafter.  I decided to explore further downstream and fish a little along the way. I spoke with a few other anglers. The fishing was tough for everyone, and the only thing that seemed to be working were streamers.  Strangely enough, despite the cloud cover, lighter colored streamers were catching a few fish.  It started to snow after a few hours so I went back to the car to meet up with everyone.  We drove around trying to find a place to eat, but nothing was open.
We returned to $3 for the afternoon.  I worked my way upstream on the other side of the bridge, and right about the time I started to get in the water, the thunder emerged.  A cold rain mixed with snow was coming down by now. I put on a large black articulated streamer, and eventually waded out to the middle of the river. This allowed me to throw to the bank. I hooked a few fish, and finally, caught a nice brown.  My hands were numb, so I didn't take a picture.
I enjoyed the experience, even though we caught very few fish between the four of us.  We capped off the evening with a trip to the Grizzly, which is always a nice end to a day on the water.