A day in the Bear Trap Canyon

Last Saturday Bucky talked me into spending our shared day off, Sunday, in the Bear Trap Canyon stretch of the Madison River. The forecast promised sunshine and 40 degree temps with calm winds. We met here and left around 10 a.m.; Bucky, his dog Sadie and I. We arrived at the parking area and pulled in next to another rig. As we began gearing up the driver of the vehicle walked his dog, ( a dead ringer for "Bengie" if you recall the old motion picture named after the star of the movie a fluffy dust mop looking doggie) over to us and we began talking about fishing, the light winter Montana is experiencing, and more. BRF's Bucky introduced himself to this guy who commented, "My wife's name is Bucky" as she smiled and waved while slipping into her hiking boots. I introduced myself to the guy who laughed and replied, "that's my name too!" So we began our hike up river in the Bear Trap traipsing along with Bucky, Bucky, Craig and Craig and three dogs all the while knowing we were in for a great day with all the great Karma floating along with us!

Along our planned 2 mile hike to favorite midge water we kept our eyes off the river knowing if we stopped and watched water we'd see fish rising and would never make our destination. Slogging along in full wader regalia we worked up a sweat but arrived at our spot with fish already rising. We took several trout on Bucky's Purple Midge and Scotty's Skittering Midge before the sun sank behind the towering canyon walls at 3 p.m. and we headed back to our rig. Just short of the parking lot we came on several more rising fish and felt we had to honor the risers by presenting a Zelon Midge to them. It worked on 4-5 more rainbows before all rising stopped, the temperature began dropping and we headed in for the day. 

This week we might get a chance to fish but before we get do we have a  few important meetings to attend. The first is tomorrow in Bozeman with the Yellowstone Park Foundation to decided how to develop a program to raise money to keep the Yellowstone Fisheries Initiative program going in the Park. Next we head to Ennis Wednesday evening to attend the first Madison River Rec Planning session. Stay tuned here. And, last week I went to Salt Lake to help the Greater Yellowstone Coalition with a fly fishing program and fund raising event to raise money for their ongoing work in the Yellowstone Cutthroat vs. Lake Trout program in the park. We had a tremendous show and raised some great bucks. Stay with us in this blog for ongoing information and more on our aggressive programs and how you can help us protect, preserve and enhance Yellowstone's native and wild trout for all of us and future generations to enjoy.