Saturday, September 8, 2007
River-Upper Madison
Section-Varney Bridge to 8 Mile
As I was driving down the road past burnt tree I saw a couple shuttles being
run, but no cars at the Burnt Tree FAS. Got to 8 mile and only saw 3
trailers parked there - I thought I would be one of the few on the Varney
down stretch... I was wrong. When I got to Varney you would have thought it
was a trailer sale - there were probably 20 vehicles parked at that FAS...
There were two guys in line behind me waiting to put-in. Got the boat in the
water and started down past the bridge.
Surprisingly, the fishing started off with a bang! The first fish was hooked
right at the Bridge at Varney on a #8 Natural Zonker. A few more fish were
taken on a prince dropper - but we hooked up quite a few times in corners
and in back eddies stripping the Zonker out. I have pictures of some fish,
but I dropped my digital camera in the river twice in the past 2 months so I
have resorted to using a disposable (Ill get the pictures ASAP). Fish size
averaged in the 14-16" range with the first fish being about 18 followed by
a 17-18" rainbow and a brown that went 19. There were probably a couple
fish pushing 20 that weren't landed.
But after being told today that the Stone was blown out yesterday, looking
around at some points during the day and seeing 6 boats coming from side
channels made sense. IT WAS PACKED! I probably passed 8 boats within the
first 2 hours and then they started showing up like cockroaches from the
side channels... 15+ boats on the Varney to 8 Mile stretch is pushing it a
little bit.
Can't wait for the Jefferson and the Big Hole to re-open!
-Nate
Four Rivers Fishing Company
