I could not have asked for a better start back on the water, after a two week break. The second stretch of water I swung produced a really beautifully colored rainbow and the third seam had a nice brown eat the soft hackle I tied yesterday.

The winning fly I tied was a variant of Blue Ribbon Flies Grouse and Pink, tied with Veevus UV pink 140 thread instead of the Uni-stretch.

There was a break in the action as I had to work around groups of Utah anglers camping on the two favored big bend holes, and a trio of otters was swimming around in the fist bend. A sight I’ve rarely seen apart from early morning or dusk.

I got a some more fish out of the connecting straight stretches of water, both on new flies I tied the previous day. I made some more yellow and brown Bakers Hole Buggers with white rubber legs, and that fly accounted for one fish. The Hungarian Princes that I tied (also a Blue Ribbon Flies pick) got a couple of smaller fish that both had an early release. In the end, i switched over to a dry fly setup to try and catch one of the rising fish that I spotted in a tailout. I thought I saw a couple of big noses, but they were small fish and I did manage to get two of them to eat my size 20 BWO cripple.

All in all, a nice afternoon on the Madison.