On Hold...

Computer problems have me down for awhile but thanks to the very knowledgeable computer geek fixing my laptop, I should be up and running soon. In the meantime, the fishing remains very good! I will keep you updated on all things relevant to fly fishing with CK Outfitters as well as the front that is going to push through tomorrow.

Hot out of the gate...

We put in in the town of Livingston and 14 miles later got out at the Hog farm (Joey you will love that!) and had a blast. My first cast of the day was a sweet 19" Brown, about 30 minutes later we hit this neat run with a streamer and I had two break me off. Then this really nice colored up 19" Rainbow takes the fake and once stuck jumps 4 to 6 times right at the boat. It was hard to keep tight but he was hooked good and no problem landing him. Great day today landing lots of whitefish (20+) - which are still fun to hook and land, along with the two fair sized fish mentioned and a couple others that did not need the net. I sure hate to go but got to make some bread so I can come back soon. Thanks Craig! Scott

Fall Baetis just around the corner

The Fall Baetis hatch is on the brink of breaking loose. All we need is some cooler weather and some overcast skies and it will be go time around this place. In the meantime, I think we are out of the seasonal transitional funk that we experience every year. Fish are still looking for Hoppers but will inspect closely before attacking with any sort of vengeance. Nymphing has been solid all the way around but my favorite means of catching this time of year would be the streamer/bead combo. Try fishing a zonker (olive, copper or pearl) in sizes #2 - #6 trailed by a #16 - #20 beadhead flashback pheasant tail nymph.

Ritchie Family Float

This is two years in a row of great fun with the Ritchie family. The morning started slow as expected after the first freeze of the year. Sorry, grasshoppers - next season, R.I.P
The wind blew but did not deter us from catching fish!
Lana, aka Ace Ritchie boated a beautiful 20" Yell0wstone brown. Thanks and you all did a fantastic job on the water today. I'm looking forward to next year.

Everyday is Different

The day before yesterday the fish were crushing foam Hoppers. Different story today. They would not even look at a Hopper today so we nymphed until we were blue in the face. It paid off BIG! This 22" pre spawn male took a # 6 copper zonker.

New York Minute

By the looks of my fly patch, it's still Hopper time. Hard to believe the hopper fishing is still hanging around but with temps in the mid 80's and low 90's coupled with dry conditions, we may be throwing the locust into October. Weird. I think this week has been the best Hopper action I've had on the river this season. Yesterday was good on the Yellowstone. Today was epic action on top > Lower Madison. Had a great day with Ray and Steve today!

2009 GHC Official Results Are In

Mark E. Mark B. Dave E. Cesar S.
Day 1 9/7/2009 upper madison Day #1 2/18" 13/19" 2/12" 6/15.5" (#fish/longest)
Boat#1 Day #2 6/16.5" 6/17" 8/15.5" 5/13"
guide: Blaine total fish longest poker hand
front M Baker 13 19 QQQKK Day #3 5/14" 3/12" 2/13" -
back C Soto 6 15.5 AA
Day #4 3/12" 8/22" 9/15" -
Boat#2
guide: CK total fish longest poker hand
front D Ellwanger 2 12 Total 16/60.5" 30/70" 21/45.5" 11/28.5"
back M Ellwanger 2 18
Day 2 9/8/2009 lower madison
Boat#1
guide: Blaine total fish longest poker hand
front D Ellwanger 8 15.5 910JQK
back M Ellwanger 6 16.5 66
Boat#2
guide: CK total fish longest poker hand
front C Soto 5 13 JJ
back M Baker 6 17 33
Day 3 9/10/2009 upper yellowstone
Boat#1
guide: Blaine total fish longest poker hand
front D Ellwanger 2 13
back M Ellwanger 5 14 55
Boat#2
guide: CK total fish longest poker hand
front M Baker 3 12 77
back -
Day 4 9/11/2009 lower madison
Boat#1
guide: John S. total fish longest poker hand
front D Ellwanger 9 15 flush
back -
Boat#2
guide: CK total fish longest poker hand
front M Baker 8 22,19.5. 18 JJJQQ
back M Ellwanger 3 12
bold=winner

BTW it's a new moon

Current Phase of the Moon:
Updates every 4 hours):

underlined=bought dinner

Reflecting... With a scotch.

It's like the fish was walkiing down the red carpet or something. All eyes and cameras had this fish in the scrapbook. The Johnny Walker eases the pain slightly but I have fallen victim to the blog this season.
I'm constantly searching for the "Big Fish" photo. Today's fish would of fallen into that category. If I have your attention, please read on because this is no fish story.
After having a very slow morning, Scott Ritchie wanted to change flies. " You guides have been throwing the same flies all season and I think you might be in a fly rut". I agree whole heartedly. It's easy to fish the zonker that is proven or an ity bity nymph that the fish are always seeing. I liked what Scott was thinking so I switched him up to an olive Bow R. Bugger. We hadn't moved more than six feet before he was hooked up. Then a second fish and then the bottom... so we thought. I am so glad Scott had the patience to feel this supposed snag out.
The short of a could be long story is that the brown snag measured 25"! This is the second largest fish I have ever boated. Now what's to follow is a series of events that may have some of you wondering if I'm full of BS
The fish was on the tape and measured 25". It was a toad! I don't know if the fish had stage fright or what but it decided to make a grand exit catapulting out of my boat. Scott literally jumped into the river to nab the fish for a second photo op. He wasn't able to recover the loss. Scott, I'm glad you didn't hurt yourself.
What I'm wondering is why after we boated the fish and there were two witnesses to the fish being taped at 25", and no photo, this hurts?
I see a lot of fish being caught throughout the season and for some reason this one rattles me a bit.
Does it matter that the fish was never photographed? No. I think the blog is therapy for a fishing guide who likes big fish in his boat.
I had a fantastic day on the water with Scott and his wife Lisa, until we meet up again...Cheers and Happy Birthday Lisa!

P.S.
Thank you for the Caymus wine and cheese. Looking forward to cocktail hour tomorrow night!

Getting better everyday!

The fishing is improving daily as we transition into fall. Fish seem to be bulking up on large bites of food like sculpins and crawdads. Today we got most of our fish to eat a #4 copper zonker trailed by a #20 baetis nymph. Scott boated this beauty with guide Louis Bishop.

Scott Ritchie and the Maddie

This gorgeous specimen was caught today on the Madison (appropriately known as the Maddie) river in Montana. Guide/Outfitter/boat driver/Ace/knot tier/Craig Kalpinski of CK Outfitters put me on this fish and others and has for years. Had a great day catching toads not numbers! Also landed a nice Bow in the 18"+ range and lost one about that big too. Total about 8 fish with one 1" monster at the Greycliff take out. It was sunny, 80 degrees, no clouds, not a typical day for big fish. Lots of fun and reminds me of why I come to this wonderful area! Got home about 7 p.m., grilled a T bone, corn on the cob, made a salad, opened a bottle of Caymus and watched the KU football victory! Can't wait for the wife, kids and daughter in law to arrive next week...

Scott Ritchie

2009 GHC Champ

The trophy is going home with Mark Baker this year! A 22" Brown stole the show. Everyone had a good day on the river. The GHC invitational was a huge success and I'm looking forward to next year. Thanks to all and more on this on Sunday (my day off at last). Cesar, we missed you the last couple of days but I know it meant the world to your wife to be home on her birthday. See you soon big guy.

Day Three GHC Invitational?

Not quite sure what was with the fishing today? At times I wanted to pull my hair out. Baker was fishing like a champ. If the fishing had been any good, he would of worn them out. Mark Ellwanger got a few and Pops tied Cesar Soto's whitie record with a few trout mixed in.
It all comes down to tomorrow on the Lower Madison. Baker rolls into round four with a 19" lead. Will this be enough to bring the GHC trophy back home? I will keep you updated on all the action tomorrow.

Day Two GHC Invitational

Fished the Lower Madison on day two. Not red hot but not stone cold. Both boats put some good fish in the net. All in all, it was a great day and fun to be out there with this crew. Today is a day of rest before we resume play on Thursday. Not sure yet if Cesar will be joining us but I'm sure it's nothing a few flowers and some chocolates can't fix. Hope to see you out there glitter man! Will this 19" brown pictured here take the cake?

Day Uno. Success!

Day one took us to the Upper Madison. Mark Baker is sitting on top of the leader board with a healthy lead. The Ellwangers both had a good first day back on tour and Cesar Soto continues to build upon his skills. Props to Cesar for an excellent performance today. Not sure where the GHC tour will take us tomorrow but Blaine and I will keep you posted on all the highlights of this much anticipated event.

Rise and Shine...

Early morning floats on the Lower Madison are one of my favorite things to do. We hit the river early this morning to avoid the Labor day weekend crowds. It payed big dividends. There finally releasing water out of Hebgen making a float down to Greycliff comfortable. The big water push has sent crawdads and other tasty morsels down the river. Some local shop owners and Outfitters will say we are in a transitional funk as the season changes over. Based on what we did this morning, I cannot tell. Paul's big mouthed brown, pictured here measured 22" and some change. More evidence that funk or not, this is hands down one of the best times to be fishing here in Southwestern Montana. Best flies today were an olive bow river bugger with a bush's crawad dropped below.
Tommorow begins round one of the GHC invitational. This is the premeir event of the season. Looking forward to seeing the gang tomorrow and glad to have Cesar Soto on board this year!

What's my name?

Cesar Soto rolled into town and was the hot hand on the Yellowstone today. Who say's Dominicans can't fish? It was the last day of Spring Training for some and now the games begin. It has been a fantastic preseason and for those that are in this competition , you must bring your A game to fish and fight with this hard hitting crew of anglers.

Full Moon?

Fishing was pretty good Thursday for being a sliver away from a full moon. With cooler weather in the forecast I would suspect the Fall baetis activity to begin picking up. The crawdad molt is also on - diver down. This fish (new generation) crushed a copper zonker, went air born, freaked out and then took Baker down to his backing. One of the best fighting fish I have ever seen on the lower Madison. One more day left of Spring training. Let the games begin!

September

Ahhh... at last September is here and today we hit it hard on the Lower Madison. Fish were eagerly pouncing on zonkers. I started fishing a #6 copper trailed by a crawdad. We began catching a bunch of rainbows so I made the switch to pearl to imitate juvenile bows darting around. It worked! I stayed with the pearl the rest of the day and hacked off the crawdad and switched to a #18 flashback pheasant tail. We rocked em' all the way to the take out. It was a great way to begin the month and I'm looking forward to more great fishing.
This is a fantastic time of year to be fishing Southwestern Montana with CK Outfitters so give us a call to reserve your spot this coming fall.