GORE-TEX, the official sponsor of JUNE '09!

For the first time this month the forecast calls for mostly sunny skies. We've had 19 straight days of precip, and the blue skies this morning in West Yellowstone are awesome. Keep those rain jackets handy, though. It looks like more thunderstorms for the weekend.

After a few days floating the Madison, I headed down to Last Chance to check out the Fork. When I hit Wood Road there was a break in the weather. The skies parted, the sun came out, and I just had to take a picture. Blue skies and sunshine have been rare around these parts. Five minutes after I took the picture another storm rolled through and drenched us.

Fishing on both the H-Fork and Madison seems like it's just about to get really good, but it can't quite get going. We're catching some good fish, but we're working pretty hard for each one.

The Madison is flowing relatively low for June (1330cfs at Kirby) and clear above Kirby. Flows from the West Fork were looking great, but heavy rains this week brought the mud back briefly. This shouldn't last very long, and the river is still very fishable downstream. Nymphing has been the name of the game with the standard rubberleg/dropper combinations. Sparse baetis brought a few fish up below McAtee two days ago between monsoons, but that's all I've seen for dry fly fishing.

Maybe some warm sun will do the trick, and get those fish looking up. We'll be back down there today. Stay Tuned.