I realize my posts have been mighty thin these past few weeks due to extensive travels, but I’m back and ready to roll. Watch for posts on the trip and plenty of new stuff on the books and other fishing information.

Nancy and I arrived at the Madison River last week amid a horrific windstorm accompanied by blasting rain. Don’t let anyone tell you that driving a motorhome in 40mph+ side winds is exciting. It’s more like terrifying—especially when the wind blows you into the oncoming lane nearly in front of an 18 wheeler. But arrive we did, and plugged in at Carmen Greenlee’s home on the river. Carmen is a long time friend and widow of Jim Greenlee, past owner of Weinbrenner, the company that built the Ultimate Wading Shoe for nearly two decades. There we met up with other long-time friends from Wausau, Henry Kanemoto and Gene Koshak. They make an annual pilgrimage to the Madison, and we were fortunate that their timing linked up with ours this year.

Henry, Gene, and I headed out at 7am for a mile walk upriver to fish well above the crowd at the 87 Bridge. The hiking was good, but the fishing was slow. Much slower than in days past, I was assured, by both Henry and Gene, who had been fishing the 3 days prior to our arrival (“Should have been here yesterday”). No wonder, with the unsettled weather of the night before. But the day did improve, and we all caught fish, some of them rather nice. One of mine was so big I had to photograph it in three sections. Henry was the alpha dog for the day. His bite was much better than all the barking that either Gene or I did almost incessantly. Then, at about 3 pm the sky got a funny hazy look to it and began darkening significantly in the west. We headed back to Carmen’s, arriving only moments before another roaring windstorm and pelting rain.

The sky suddenly cleared after dinner, and the wind laid down about 8:30 pm. The caddis started dancing in vast hordes along the eaves of the house and over the vegetation along the river. I headed out for the late evening rise at 9pm. Suddenly the temperature dropped, and the evening felt chilly. Most of the caddis went home, leaving only a few hearty souls to dance over the water. I found a few small fish working, and then saw a nice head poke out. It proved to be an 18-inch brown that fought extremely well in the heavy water of the Madison, but finally surrendered to have its flash photo taken. No other fish were located before darkness pushed me back to the comfort of the motorhome.

There’s always tomorrow.

The head of a very nice Madison River rainbow.

The side of a very nice Madison River rainbow.

The aft portion of a very nice Madison River rainbow.

The browns come out at night to play.