Started the trip on the Madison. We stayed in Ennis at the Madison Valley Ranch. The food, service, rooms and guides are all A+++,the price is high to stay there, but we had great time.
Day-1 Madison float-temp was in the 90's(it was in the 90's for the entire trip)and sunny. Trip started out with a bang with a 19 inch brown on my first cast. We fished mainly nymphs the entire day, girdle bug on top and a usually a caddis or caddis emerger on the bottom. Fished dries for a little while(also 2 at a time) hoppers, caddis,adams, but only managed a few dinks. Usually all we fish is dries this time of the year, but because of the real wet spring, the hopper population took a dive. Over all had a good day, landing 8 fish between 16-19 and about a dozen smaller.
Day -2 Madison-slowest day of the trip, real windy and hot. Landed maybe a dozen fish between 8-14 and a bunch of whitefish.
Day-3 Madison-day started out real slow again, hot and windy. Tried numerous flies, dries, zonkers, nymphs but only managed a few small fish before lunch. Right after lunch we had a nice thunderstorm that lasted about an hour. After the storm the fishing erupted for non stop action for the rest of the float which was about 6 miles of river. Almost all nice browns on caddis emergers.
Next stop was the Missouri were we stayed at The Trout Shop in Craig.
Day 1 Missouri- fished from Holter Dam to Craig. Fished nymphs mainly caddis again. The action was pretty much non sop from the dam down to the first bridge, about 2 miles. This is where we spent most of the day catching all rainbows between 14-22 inches. Every time we would float through a productive stretch, the guide would row back up stream through the same spot again. All the guides seem to this in this part of the river and they all work together very well. Once again we fished almost all nymphs becauss the fish were not loooking up at all, very few rises.
Day-2 Missouri- floated below Hauser Dam-probably the best day of fishing I ever had. The fishing was non stop using caddis and a pmd emerger nymphs. The smallest fish we landed was 20 inches, the biggest was a 27 inch rainbow that my fishing partner Carl caught. We had a blast with nearly every fish taking us into our backing, and we also had a doudle with 2 cookie cutter 25 inch rainbows, this all before lunch. After the lunch the action continued. I hooked a huge brown that was close to 3 feet long and guestimated around 15 lbs I had the fish on for maybe a minute before he rolled on the surface and snapped the line. We later switched to hoppers with a pmd dropper. I caught my biggest fish on a dry ever, a 26 inch rainbow. I also landed 28 inch brown that was close to 10 lbs that took the dropper. Carl landed a the biggest fish of the day, a rainbow just under 30 inches that also took the dropper. the action was still fast and furious the rest of the day, with most of the action on the dropper( we only caught 4 fish on the hoppers). But ,wow, what a day.
Day 3 Missouri-fished from Stickney to Cascade-tough to top the day before, but we still had a great day. We fished a 3 inch crayfish pattern all day, stripping in the fly over the weed beds. The action was pretty much non stop and you got to see most of the strikes. Sometimes there would be 2 or 3 trout chasing the fly at the same time. this is a real nice scenic drift. We also did not see a single other person fishing, and this was a Saturday. In the evenings we would wade the river for a couple hours after dinner. This was the first year on the Missouri that I caught fish under 12 inches.(this is my 4th year in a row out here) I fished mainly below the Craig Bridge and every evening I would see hundreds of small trout lined up along the bank rising to mainly caddis. I thought this was a great sign for the river because I have read alot of gloom and doom about the Missouri and how it will be a dead river in a few years because of the whirling disease. I hope this is a sign that its not true. Sorry for the long post.