Last week Sara and I loaded up baby Jack and took a ski tour into $3 Bridge to catch the last day of the season before the spring closure on the Madison.

I can't imagine what we looked like to the poor guy gearing up at the road. He thought he'd have the whole place to himself; a quiet walk down a lonesome, snowy winter road to catch a couple of trout. Then we roll in with skis, a sled, a baby, a dog. It was a shit show.

We managed to pull it all together and glide on down to the bridge. Fish were rising to midges in just about every piece of soft water we could see. We crossed and skied upstream to a favorite spot. Sara proceeded to put on a clinic while Jack, the dog, and I looked on. Fish rose well for a couple of hours until clouds and wind cooled both the air temps and the action.

We skied out with a sleeping baby, a tired dog, and a few nice fish to close out the season.

Well, it finally happened. After more than a month of jealously hearing how good the fishing has been on the upper-Madison, I went to check it out.  I had a slim window of opportunity between being a dad, working in ski boots, and preparing for all of next season's fishing trips. I had one day, or so I thought, to hit the Madison before it closed at the end of February.

I woke up on that faithful morning, let the dogs out, started the coffee, and shone a flashlight out onto our thermometer to see what was going on - Twenty Four Below. The music from Peanuts when Charlie Brown would miss the football and land on his ass in the mud played in the back of my head. Whah, Whaah, Whaaaaah..........

But, my luck turned out to be just fine after all. The sun rose on a bright blue day, and by 11:00 am it was already above zero. I headed down to the valley reaching the Raynold's Pass sign by noon where it was a balmy 26 degrees with tons of sun and no wind. Hiking over to the river, I was amazed at how little snow was on the valley floor.

When I hit the water there were already fish rising to large midges, and I had one hell of a time casting dry flies in the sunshine. The reports held true. it was about as good as it gets in the winter, or any time for that matter -good numbers of nice, Madison fish sitting in skinny water right next to the bank sticking their entire heads out into the air like it was the last time they'd ever eat a dry fly.

I might be ruined for the rest of the winter. Who cares about powder when you can have fishing like that?

Stay Tuned.

February is flying by quicker than Shaun White could say "half-pipe". We're down to the last week of the fishing season on the uper-Madison (Quake Lake to McAtee) before it closes for the spawining season. That means there's only one more week left on our 2009 MT fishing licenses. Don't forget to re-up on March 1.

It's hard to believe, but spring fishing is literally right around the corner. In just a couple of weeks midges, baetis, and skwalas will have fish looking up from the Big Horn to the Bitterroot. I gotta get my shit together, man. It's time to start leaving those skis behind for a five weight.

Stay Tuned.

Well, it's fair to say that we've had a less than stellar snow year so far. As a British friend of mine said on a chair lift yesterday, "it's somewhere between shitty and average".

It's snowing lightly as I write this in West Yellowstone where we sit at roughly 80% of average - not bad. However, the Madison River drainage as a whole is around 75% - closer to shitty. Other neighboring watersheds are in a similar boat. The Gallatin is around 82% and the upper-Yellowstone is 75%.

While we're not exactly choking on snow, it's not time to hit the panic button just yet. El Nino years like this are infamous for long, wet Springs. It's not uncommon at all for us to see most of our snow-pack build in March and April on years like these. So, hang in there and keep those fingers crossed for a wet end to our winter season.

There's a new vacation rental available in West Yellowstone. It's a cozy log house on Horse Butte overlooking Hebgen Lake. It's owned by a local fishing guide and his family. So, it's sure to have plenty of good karma. Hell, I bet you'd become more fishy just having breakfast there. Imagine what would happen if you spent a whole week.

For more information follow this link, http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p271324 or click on the photo above.