Fishing the Madison

          Fly fishing.  I love it.  I really do.  I only wish I had more time to devote to it!  I think I'm in love with the rhythmic, dynamic nature of fly fishing, not to mention the fact that I'm usually fishing along a beautiful stream, creek, or river.  There is nothing stagnant about fly fishing, either.  The scenery is always changing, as is the nature of the fishing itself.
          I knew that on this particular Montana vacation, I would not fish as much as I normally would.  I was ok with this knowledge because I really wanted to focus on hanging out with my family and introducing my kids to all of the beauty of Montana and Yellowstone.  That being said, I was more than thrilled when I learned that Dad had set up a full day of guided fly fishing on the Madison River for our family!  I couldn't wait.  My siblings had graciously agreed to help watch my girls, so I was able to go fishing for an entire day.
          Mom fished with me, and we floated in a boat down the Madison with a very experienced guide.  Brad, our guide, worked hard to make the day enjoyable for us.  He directed the boat, kept our poles rigged, helped us net the fish, and directed our attention to local wildlife and scenery as often as he saw them.  For example, in addition to the trout we caught, we also saw a bald eagle, a golden eagle, an osprey, and beautiful storms building over the Montana mountains (before racing down upon us!).  I also had a spectacular day on the river.  Once I got into a rhythm, I started catching trout. Most of the trout were average sized rainbows or browns, but I was able to catch four good sized browns (18-19 inches, for those of you who care).  They were not massive by Montana standards, but they were the largest fish I've caught to date.  In fact, Brad had to teach me how to actually bring in a bigger trout while fishing from a boat in a river since I'd never experienced that before!  The truth is, I'd have loved the day even if I had caught no fish at all.  The fish were a bonus, but I was definitely excited about those big trout!  I'd bring one in, snap a picture if it was photo worthy, then we'd let it go (catch and release on the Madison).
          As we got to the final 2 miles of our float, a massive storm barreled down upon us.  Brad rowed as hard as he could to try to get us to our take out point before the storm hit.  Just as he neared the shore, the skies opened up and hail pelted us!  He sent us out of the boat and up to the truck to try to avoid the hail as much as possible.  Dad and Garrett were behind us with their guide, Ryan, so they endured the hail for much longer than we had.  We got drenched, but it was part of the adventure.  Thankfully, the first wave of the storm didn't last long and we were able to get the boats out of the water and make our way back to Bozeman.