The weather was unusually windy and we had several storms pop up thought out the day. We were trying to get to Cliff and Wade lakes on the weekend since we knew the Madison would get hammered. We never made it to the lakes but we decide to fish the Madison between the lakes. We got off to a late start as Joey was trying to convince Kelly Galloup to let him work in the shop. Kelly told him to go fishing. We parked at the end of the road with the plan of crossing the river and fish the other side as it was less crowded. Pete decided to try and cross solo and after watching him take a swim Joey and I decided to work our way up stream for a better place to cross. It was pretty crowded and there was an older gentleman with a 14’ European float rod that was whacking and stacking them. We kept looking for spots to cross but the current was strong at hip depth and your footing would break free. We found a nice spot to fish on the way. Joey was fishing tight to the bank and I noticed some fish eating Salmon flies near a log jam. Joey had been talking with Kelly’s guide John McClure about how the big fish from Quake Lake come into the river to feast on the Salmon flies. Joey armed himself with 2x tippet and made a cast to log jam. He said Dad I hooked him and he’s a laker and he was psyching himself out. I did not see the fish yet but told him to shut up and land the fish. It looked like a Salmon and we had some experience tailing them in Alaska. It was tough landing that fish but when it was all said and done it taped out at about 28-29”. We used his rod as a measuring stick and came up with 28” but the fish still had a few wrinkles. We revived our trophy and let it go without any thoughts doing anything else to it. It was a few inches shy of Bob Jacklins 31-32” trophy caught in the same section of river. Joey’s fish took a big Salmon fly and Bob’s took a sz14 caddis nymph.



We were so psyched from landing that fish we decided to look for Pete. I did land a nice rainbow in the same hole. We crossed the river way up stream from Pete so we went looking for him. Pete for some reason decided to head down stream so it took a while to find him. While I was resting Joey caught this nice old bow on a Salmon fly after his attempts with a streamer failed.



We decided to make a second trip to the same section a few days later. We decided to go later in the day and fish till dark. Fishing was not on fire but the later it got the better the fishing got for big fish on big flies.




I had just hooked a nice fish and missed a few on dries when Joey came walking up with an Olive Sex Dungeon and a full sink Galloup line. I showed him where the fish I missed were and he went to work. He pulled this nice brown after a few casts.



We had great time and ended up spending 10 nights at the Slide Inn. We did not fish super hard but tried to get out once or twice a day. Having Pete there did increase my beer & cigar consumption which did cause us to camp instead of fish a few nights. Joey has evolved into a fishing machine and I vow to take fewer pictures a fish more to try and keep/catch up.

One that did not get away


Tight Lines,

Jet