Madison Flats

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Nice fat rainbow from Madison Flats.

Guided Madison River Float Trips…Walk and Wade Trips…Full Day, Half Day…Lunch, Flies, Rods, Reels, Casting Instruction…

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Rise
The “ring of the rise”
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Heavy morning midge hatch on the Flats.

After a bouncy fifty three mile run from Quake Lake, the Madison River finally starts taking a breather. It slows down below the town of Ennis. At Meadow Lake, the water smooths out and things get interesting. Large trout from the lake cruise around sipping dry flies and slurping emerging nymphs. Caddis and mayflys…large callibaetis and tiny tricos…damsel flies and crane flys…they all join the party. Brown and rainbow trout over 20 inches are on the prowl. The fly fisher is surrounded by rise rings, noses, backs and tails, slurpers and sippers. 

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     I like to wade this fishery. The water is glassy and waist deep. It is classic spot and stalk, closer to bonefishing than trout fishing…more like New Zealand than Montana. Angling methods vary from basic dry fly fishing to slow retrieve nymphing and fast twitching. These fish are large…bring lots of backing. We fish in the morning. We get there in my Lund WC14 Camo with 20HP Yamaha 4-Stroke. We get home dry and safe. This is truly a unique flyfishing opportunity. Join me. 

 My fly boxes for the flats shown below… 

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My chironomid home-ties phase two!
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Above, top to bottom: my olive leech home-tie, damsel fly nymph natural, PT chironomid

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The O-Leech and Blood Leech…two deadly patterns on The Flats

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To book a guided flyfishing trip, email me: rbdowntown@3ivers.net

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Bill Owen fishing to the rise—Madison Flats