The Madison's Dirty Little Secret

DON'T TELL THE NEIGHBORS
Pretend It's New
use obscure language


-- It was roaring hot yesterday and the mosquitoes loved it. There is not enough OFF or CUTTER'S to drive them away.
-- (As an aside, Ralph Cutter invented the "a bump is a win" fishing game. Just cut the hook in the middle of the bend so there is no point to stab the fish. Float the fly in a feeding lane. If a fish bumps it -- you win! He used to spend hours doing this on the Owens River while poor Joe Tomelleri was taking pictures, and making sketches of a fish that they had trapped for illustration purposes. Great fun.)
-- The Madison River is in fine shape, and the riffle and run sections above 7-mile bridge have a hatch - of sorts - going on. The cognoscenti use words like "Yellow Sally," "Thunder Bug," "Pteronarcidae," "Taeniopterygidae," "Capniidae," and other words that strike fear and awe in the casual fly fisher. The words we use generally sound like "the big ones," "the middle-sized ones," and "the little ones."

<-- Marcella's Trout Fly
Courtesy Marcella Oswald




-- Depending on what section of the Madison you choose to fish; have some of each. Right now the big ones are beginning to fly and the fish are rising to surface flies.
-- Yesterday 9-mile hole, (yup, it's nine miles from the west entrance to Yellowstone,) had some fast action from about 2:00 PM, until the sky got so dark that a headlight was necessary at about 7:30 PM. The rain was horrendous and then a little hail, and then the sky lit up with lightning and called the game. Marcella's Trout Fly dragged down a couple of nice fish.
-- The nymphal forms of all these flies are very active now, and the fish are really staying down to get their groceries. Only those sections where the emergence is in full swing are they coming to the surface.
--HERE'S THE SECRET: "As plebeian as it seems, you can fish it all with two sizes and two colors of Wooly Worm."
-- The colors are Yellow and Olive. The sizes are 10-12, and 4-6. With a double handfull of these flies and some thought you will do very well indeed. Grease some up and they float just fine. Soak some overnight and you don't need much weight to get them down. Tie a few with extra long hackle and they become a very effective fly 'on the swing' just like a soft hackle. Remember - don't tell the neighbors.