The temperatures rose to near 30 degrees by 11A.M. so Jackie and I had an early lunch and drove to the Madison near Eagle’s Nest. I’d not fished in nearly 2 weeks due to cold temps. Arriving at the river we watched a small herd of elk feeding above the road as we readied our gear. I was excited as I thought the day might bring temperatures above the freezing mark and my guides wouldn’t freeze up. I was wrong, see the attached photos of my rod’s guides!

There was a stiff breeze from the south and I saw no midges or rising trout as I knotted on a $3.00 Bridge Serendipity behind a Micro-Madison Midge. At 11:45A.M., and on my second cast, I hooked and landed a 15” brown for the camera. I was cold, the wind chill was near 10 degrees, and my guides froze quickly but we stayed with it for awhile longer taking a couple more nice rainbows to 17”.

At 1P.M. I had to thaw out in the truck, and so did Jackie, so we decided to head downstream and find a spot out of the wind. I knew just the area, behind some willows protected from the stiff breeze and a short walk from our driveway. After taking several fine rainbows, one taped at 18”, and a couple browns we’d had enough and headed home. A nice long cross country ski in the late afternoon was fun and a wonderful workout. Diner with our ranch friends from downstream on the Madison, and our kids and grandkids….it can’t get any better than our Christmas! We hope yours was as fun too! Stay tuned for our next report, it might come in the next few days as reports call for wet and warm conditions. We’ve have over 80% of “normal” water in our snow pack and the mountains are becoming very white in and around Yellowstone!