Slide Inn 2010 is in the books. Spent the 4th of July on the Provo and we started our journey to the Madison on the 5th. After quick side trip to REI and Cabelas we were on our way. We arrived late afternoon to cloudy/rainy skies. Stopped at Kelly?s shop just in time to get our licenses and our gazebo camp site. Set up camp during a rain free window while Joey hit the side channel to get his first fish out of the way. The good news is that he does not need a license till next year and the bad news was it rained all night and our big tent leaks and the air mattress had a leak. Had to go to plan B which was our Alaska proven 3 man tent. This year my brother Pete joined us and having another adult kind of disrupted our/my system. Joey and I have made this trip solo the past 4 years.

We decide to hit the section above $3 Bridge after changing tents and getting a load of laundry done. Joey seemed to do fine as he stuck 5 fish on a variety of dries and nymphs. Pete had landed his first white fish and I could not buy a fish nymphing for some reason.



We returned for an early dinner and found that a couple ladies joined our campsite for the night. They were biking from Billings, MT to Park City, UT and they are from Belgium. They packed light and did not have any food for dinner so we invited them to a good ole American hot dog and tater salad dinner. We loaned them our portable DVD player and they watched War of the Worlds while we fished down stream of the Slide Inn. We made them and nice hot breakfast in the morning and they were back on the road long before Joey poked his head out of the tent. That became a theme and a thorn as the Dang kid wanted to sleep in every day.

I brought my Madison pontoon boat and Joey brought his Outlaw Escape. Joey worked Dave Scadden at our annual GBF dinner and he sold it to him on the spot so he did not have to carry it back on the plane with him. We did our first float from Lyons to Palisades and it was petty crowded. During this float I realized that I could hook my anchor rope to Joey D-ring on his tube and we made a pontoon drift boat. I rowed and he fished. I enjoyed rowing and he liked fishing so it worked out well for us. We did not nymph and focused on big salmon flies and screamers. We had to deal with some pretty bad winds but made the best of it. Pete was our shuttle driver and fished solo while we were drifting. Forgot to mention that I broke an oar while we were tethered and we did a little ping pong through the low bridge as I notice Joey was not exactly in sync. My good friends at the Madison River Company in Ennis hooked me up with a used oar for $20.