Back-Up Plan

So this is an Instagram photo of a fish I caught yesterday on the Madison below the dam. It's supposed to look like it was taken in 1974...classic? I'm not so sure about that but I think it's interesting how technology has developed so much with the digital processing that now we are spending tons of money to make everything look like crap. We do it with music too. In fact, there's a program on my audio editing software that makes your digital recordings sound more like analog. I guess it's suppose to sound warmer or something. There's even a program to make your music sound like a phonograph...wasn't there a reason we got away from records and into CD's?

Anyway, probably the most important thing to getting into fish this time of year is having a back-up plan. Nathaniel Pehl, his roommate Torrey Ritter and I headed to Upper Madison yesterday because we knew it was going to blow like a mutha on the Stone. We set up a shuttle and picked up some streamers and snacks and headed up to Palisades fully expecting to have sun and 9 mile-an-hour winds because that's what was forecasted...Damn weather man...it was 28 degrees and 30 mph winds.

So after contemplating options for about 32 seconds, we bagged it and headed down below Ennis Lake to the dam. We got into a few fish right away and then decided to pull up and fish some different water. As we walked back upstream to the truck, we realized that everyone and their bother had the same contingency plan--every bend, every hole and every run had a angler in it. We scratched plan b and headed to the lower and found people staked out on just about every bucket and every riffle between Warm Springs and Blacks Ford. I guess that's what happens in January out here when the temps sore and they did once you got below Ennis.

So we headed down even further towards Grey Cliffs and wade fished a stretch that was open. It actually turned out pretty well as we caught plenty of fish and had a great time giving each other shit along the way. We even found some fish up eating midges, which is always a nice bonus this time of year. It just goes to show, success comes with being flexible.
Keep 'em where they live...