TTFFT Week 2: The Madison (Chapter 1)

Despite our inherent competitive nature, despite our pride, sometimes it's not about catching fish, it's about the adventure.  After all, the true purpose of fly fishing is not numbers, it's exploring new venues, embracing old ones, enjoying the process, living in the moment.  On the Tailwater Tribe Fly Fishing Tour, I've been swinging solo in some of the most remote, breathtaking trout rivers in America, flying by the seat of my pants, traveling from fly shop to fly shop garnering what information I could.  Gazetteers and river maps are my best friends as I move from access point to access point.  Today is no exception.  I must admit when I took Highway 84 out of Bozeman for a day of exploration on the Madison River, I had visions of wadable water and massive hatches of Salmonflies in the air.  Naiveity of geography and limited knowledge of this storied river were my enimies on this beautiful day.  But this naiveity led me down long, dusty gravel roads and into remote areas that I would otherwise not have traveled.  I began the day's adventure at Black's Ford Access, an area normally reserved this time of year for the "inflatable hatch," a flotilla of drunken 18-22 year-olds in various and sundry tubes and rafts.  When the rafts and tubes are absent, this place is really nice and features wadable water up and down.  After assembling my rod and moving streamside there was a minor hatch coming off: caddis, PMDs, yellow sallies--no big stones.  Despite my efforts, I did not raise a fish.  I decided to take the seven-mile dirt road to Greycliff Access.  I stopped along the way and fished some promising-looking spots, some probably on private land I didn't know about, but to no avail.  My limited knowledge about where to fish and what to fish was working against me, despite my best efforts.  Even so, the scenery was awesome and the experience of being in such a remote place totally alone was a complete rush.  I headed back to Bozeman fishless, but certainly not deterred.  Tomorrow was another day...

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