The furnace and the fan have both been set at high in the Madison Valley recently. Daytime highs have been in the mid-80's, and a stiff southeast wind has puffed up each afternoon. With warmer temps, I've opted for late afternoon and evening trips this week, and we've seen solid fishing. Water temps have peaked out around 65 by 3:00pm forcing bug and fish activity alike to slow somewhat in the afternoons. But, as soon as that sun starts to drop in the late afternoon, water temps plumet quickly, and the river comes alive with four different caddis, flavs, epeorus, pmd spinners, drakes, and still stoneflies.  When we rigged up at the truck this afternoon the temp read 88 degrees, and I couldn't bring myself to wear waders. At 9:00pm the water temp was 58 degrees, and I was reaching for that extra layer of fleece in my pack.

Hillman Ray from North Carolina joined me this evening at $3 Bridge, and we found an interesting variety of bugs on the water. Billions of caddis hover over every streamside willow right now, and salmonflies are still sneaking their way onto your neck. This is no place for anyone whose even slightly uncomfortable with bugs. (It's a dam good thing they don't have mouths.) Nymphing was the ticket for us early, and we hooked some nice fish on epeorus and flav emergers fished deep. By 5:30pm a few duns began to float by, and fish in the outside seems rose to them sporadically. We switched to dries when a big, chunky flav caught a ride on Hillman's leader and was inhaled by a rainbow ten feet from us. Working slowly upstream Hillman rose quite a few nice fish on sparkle duns. By 9:30 the temps had dropped, and we had caught plenty of fish. So, we skipped out before the final half hour of caddis madness at dark. Thanks for a great trip Hillman.

I'm back down there for another float tomorrow evening. So, Stay Tuned!