al simpson
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Fished the Madison this morning. It was cloudy and cool, with temperature in the fifties. After a bit, a stiff wind came up as well.
Bottom line, no significant hatch and very slow fishing. Need some sunny weather!
I returned to the Ruby, a short distance downstream of the damn. It was a sunny morning, with little wind. The tricos began to come off the water around 9:30, collecting in ever increasing clouds for an hour, before falling spent to the water’s surface. With that, fish began to surface. But our anticipated moment of dry fly fishing was cut short, by clouds and a northerly wind.
This section of river has many large brown trout, but one must hit the hatches to get them. The tricos are still hatching by mid-morning, if sunny. Worth a visit!
I fished the Varney Bridge section of the Madison last evening. The outflow from Lake Hebgen has been reduced about 25%, which has reduced the number of holding areas. In addition, the water temperature is rising into the mid-seventies during the afternoon.
With these changes in the water, even though hatches are recovering from last week’s rains, the fish are not looking up, at least in the evening.
Best fishing should be in the morning, before the water warms. Tricos are still hatching in the morning, providing some “match the hatch” opportunities.
After a week of rain, high winds and cool weather, we finally had a sunny day, in the 70’s. I returned to the Madison, where I saw a pair of bald eagles with juvenile, and 5 moose, plus other assorted wildlife.
More importantly, the trico hatch came on schedule at 9:30, with spinner fall an hour later, prompting surface feeding by 10-12 inch rainbows. Fishing subsurface with a small wooly bugger, I caught several 15-17 inch rainbows, and one 14 inch brown trout.
The good fishing should continue for a bit, as the weather forecast is clear with moderate temperatures during the day, and cool nights, keeping the water temps comfortable for the fish!
fished two sections today. in the afternoon, i fished the $3 bridge section, which was slow, but caught nice fish on a small, #16 purple nymph, with a soft hackle collar.
in the evening, explored the Madison arm of Hebgen Lake, and caught the evening calebaetis hatch. good hatch and numerous rising fish. great fun!
returned to the channels today, around 8 am. the tricos started shortly afterwards, and the fish were looking up for about two hours. landed lots of 10-12 inch rainbows, and a few in the teens.
after the hatch stopped, fished buggers underneath, and landed a 25″ brown, probably the largest trout i’ve caught on the Madison. he was fat, and wouldn’t fit into my net, so no picture!
another stormy afternoon/evening, but I managed to wedge in an hour of fishing between storms. Fished below Varney Bridge. there were no bugs in the air, but the fish were active under the surface.
I caught several 10-13 inch fish, and my first big one this year, a better than 20 inch rainbow. everything was caught on small woolly buggers.
Fished the Madison this evening at 3$ bridge. unfortunately, the weather the last few days has been cool with afternoon/evening showers. this has put a temporary halt to the evening caddis activity. there were a few black caddis in the bushes, but no activity in the water.
fished subsurface again; caught a couple moderate sized rainbows.
I hit the South River SRW this morning. Despite our recent rains, the water level was low. The water temp was ok, 66 degrees, but due to the low water, the streambed was covered with algae, complicating any subsurface fishing.
There was a slight midge hatch, but nothing else, and no riseforms in sight. So, I did fish subsurface, frequently removing algae from my flies. Did catch two rainbows, a bunch of fallfish, and 1 sunfish.
I fished Mossy last evening; arrived streamside about 7:30, and fished into darkness. I fished upstream from the parking area near the church. Conditions seemed perfect; sunny day, no wind, fairly clear water. Only one thing was missing- the sulfurs!
According to my fishing log, the sulfurs hatch on Mossy from mid-May through June. Yesterday I saw NO sulfurs, only a few tan caddis in the streamside brush. Consequently, there were no rising fish until near-dark, when an occasional fish could be spotted.
All was not lost, as I did catch several browns, running 10-14 inches, BUT, something is wrong with Mossy. The sulfur hatch used to be robust, both morning and evening.
I went to Mossy last evening, and fished from 7 pm until dark. I was fishing the section that VDGIF restructured. If you haven’t been, they breached the old dam, narrowed the stream, stabilized the banks with rocks and hemp mats, and created deep runs every 100 feet or so, with large rocks at the head. The water looked great, like a real trout stream, although all the mature streamside trees were removed, probably to allow them to get heavy equipment to the stream.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see any sulfurs, only a few tan caddis in the streamside brush. Does anyone know whether the sulfurs have shown up on other sections of the stream? Perhaps it’s still early, but I wonder whether the work done on this section of the stream has disturbed the aquatic bugs, and will need a few years to recover.
I fished the SRW of the South River today. Water levels are dropping to below average here in central Virginia, and the South was running about 50% of norm for this time of the year. But water temp was good, in the mid 60’s, and a storm last evening left the river a bit off color. No hatch, but the fish were on the feed, subsurface. Caught both rainbows and browns, in the 10-14 inch range.
I just returned from an evening on Mossy Creek. I went over to see whether the sulphur hatch has started- it hasn’t.
the water level remains good, although a little off color. I caught one nice fish on a wooly bugger.
at dusk, a sparse caddis hatch and spawn occurred, which brought a few fish to the surface. i caught several 10-12 inch browns on a black caddis pattern.
suspect that the sulphur hatch is a week or two away.
I finally made it out fishing today, and went to the nearby South River, SRW. Since I last went, the water level has dropped to a comfortable 140 CFS. It was a bit off-color, but nice temp at 60 degrees.
The fish have moved from their deep holding runs, and being rainbows, were found in the sections with good pocket water. There was no hatch, but they savaged a small, brown wooly bugger. they ran 10-14 inches and had lots of fight for their size.
’twas a nice morning!
I took a new acquaintance, Lawrence Newhook, to the Jackson yesterday. He’s a PA steelhead fisherman who will be spending some time in Va, and wanted to explore trout fishing here. I thought the bigger fish of the Jackson would be more appealing than native brookies.
Va had a hard rain several days ago, raising the river’s CFS to 2000. By yesterday, it had fallen to 400, still a bit high, but definitely fishable. I thought the fish would be ravenous, but the water temp was low, high 40’s, and the fish were few and far between.
A modest caddis hatch occurred in the afternoon, a mix of tan and black flies. A few stoneflies were also noted. Neither drew the attention of the fish. I suspect that it will be another few weeks before the Jackson hits its springtime form.
