I was going to start this post with this picture below, but did not want to scare everyone off 🙂

Yes that is a real live Salmon Fly………..the hatch is something to see, they look like hummingbirds flying

through the air.

The fish love the Salmon Flies, a huge meal for them all in one mouthful……..I on the other hand am

normally not too squeamish about bugs, but these things are huge and they love to land on you while

you are fishing…….needless to say a few shrieks  of “GET OFF ME” came out of my mouth on more than one

occasion.

Our friend, Shawn, came along one day and caught a few nice browns………I did not hear any

shrieking from Shawn.

This is Mike, he also had a nice day on the river with us………no shrieking from him either.

The views are always amazing, sometimes I have a hard time watching my fly on the water…..usually

the second I pause to check the views I miss one.

 I think Mike and Corey are having the man discussion about who’s fish was bigger.

Everything we do is catch and release, that way the fish are there to catch again another day…….however I am wondering

if in this picture Mike’s thinking this rainbow might make a nice meal………I think this was right before lunch.

Corey is good……..at the risk of making his head swell and all of his ball caps not fit anymore, he’s exceptional at fishing

and at guiding.  He always seems to grab a rod when we stop and make 3 casts and drag the biggest fish of

the day out of the water.  In the past he has not gotten much fishing time when we are in the drift boat

because he’s the one doing the rowing, however, he is very happy that I have started learning to row and this

year have taken my turn each time we are out…….I have blisters on my hands from last weekend to prove it 🙁

The upper Madison is not an easy place to row, lots of rocks to avoid and shallow riffles…..several places along

the way he turned around and asked “are you still ok rowing here?”  ……….”yep”……I did pretty well and only

had a minor collision with one rock.  When the day was over he told me that I rowed really well……I think he was

quite surprised.

I think this is my favorite part, I love releasing them back, we always give them time to rest and make sure they are

in slow water to recover…..often they will hang out behind a nearby rock or behind you foot to rest before

bolting , so it’s really fun to get to watch them.

Lindsay has been fishing with us a lot this year, this day we ended up being above the hatch and did

not see any Salmon flies…….otherwise I am sure there would have been two of us shrieking in the boat.

I managed to catch a few nice ones too and always enjoy my time on the river.