We fished the Madison at $3 bridge for a few hours on June 26th and 27th. The first evening I headed downstream on the far bank all the way down to the private property. The wading was very tough: slippery rocks, heavy water, and lots of wind. Unfortunately, I didn't change my leader when I started - I had an old leader tied down to 6X tippet with a big girdle bug. I paid the price for not paying attention to details. I hooked into a very large bow - probably 21 inches. I had him on for a few minutes. He jumped 3 times, demonstrating his power and size. I was determined to keep him out of the middle of the river, so I held the rod sideways towards the bank and man handled him to the slower water. He was withing 20 feet of me after a few minutes when he decided to bolt out towards the middle of the stream. The 6x was simply not enough for this fish: he snapped the line. Oh well - it was a lot of fun fighting that fish. I worked my way down stream and picked up a few 10 inch browns.
We returned to $3 the following afternoon. The weather was rough and there were very few flyfishers on the river. I went downstream again, but stayed on the parking lot side. I concentrated on the heavy flow; swinging a large girdle bug through the heavy current. I managed a nice bow that took quite a bit of time to land. This time, though, I had 3x tippet, and got him to hand. I worked my way down to the large house on the hill and picked up another brown for my effort. We finished both days with dinner at the Grizzly, which was awesome. Good food and good service.
