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.