Midges, and “other travels in search of native trout of the world”

Things are getting busy here in Yellowstone country. Not only has the fishing been great but there are scheduled native trout and fly fishng programs coming up.This week Thursday, January 26th, our good friend James Prosek will be at Montana State University to present a lecture, "Fly-fishng the 41st Parallel and other Travels in Search of Native Trout of the World". The lecture begins at 7 p.m. and iks at the Museum of the Rockies Hager Auditorium. If the weather allows we'll be there and hope to see some of you there also! James has fished some incredible places around the world and has written several important pieces and books on native trout as well as his incredible art work dealing with native and wild trout so if you are anywhere near Bozeman on the 26th make sure you attend his lecture!

On the 9th of February I'll be traveling with The Greater Yellowstone Coalition to Salt Lake City for a great evening at The Alta Club. See the attached invitation in this blog. I hope to see you there if you can make it. 

Yesterday I fished the Madison River during midge times, 1-3 p.m. Jackie and I along with our 2 shorthairs took a nice cross country ski in the morning when temps went from 19 to 26 degrees. The wind remained calm so I headed to the river after lunch and when I arrived at a favorite piece of midge water there were trout rising. The first few fish rose to Zelon Midges. All were small browns, 11-13". Then all rising stopped for a short time so I knotted on a #20 Slough Creek Midge and scored my best fish of the month so far, a fat 19" brown still sporting a distinct kype and fall colors. I took several small rainbows around 10-12" on the SC Midge and walked up to the next spot where fish were rising again to adult midge emergers. A blood spot on the ice with double tracks leading away on the snow indicated our local pack of otters were feasting on river's trout...sure I like otters but I wish they weren't so brutally efficient at taking fish. At the otters' spot I took a couple more nice rianbows and one small brown as the wind picked up and my rods' guides began icing up every other cast so I reeled in and headed home.

This week the forecast calls for temps in the 30's with some snow. We will be on the rivers so stay tuned here.