Part Two - The Bear Trap on the Madison River on MontanaPictures.net (Page six of ten)
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| 62206 We affectionately called this spot the "Study Hall." | |
| It was actually a noisy and bustling place to try and concentrate. Immediately to your right was a beaver sliding through the water at day's end. | |
| Way upstream on the west bank (to the right of the cars in the shadow) was a cow Moose and her calf. | |
| During the years 1980-'81, you would be occasionally startled by a low flying B-52 bomber. | |
| The trout were always present. Little "Pocket Fish" would always be flopping along the bank lunging for a flying morsel. | |
| When the hatch hit it's zenith, the water would be frantic with jumping trout. | |
| What's a "Pocket Fish?" - It's a trout so small, that you can put two or three in your shirt pocket. | |
| We won't bore you with fishing stories. We'll just have you compare the hooks (below) of the early 1960's with what we use now-a-days. | |
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| 62106 1950 - 60's era Madison trout fly. | 62106 1990's era Madison trout flies |
| The red tail on this fly was once five inches long. | Mudler Minnow, Bead Head flavor of the day, |
| The fly is in relatively good condition considering all the use | Pheasant Tail and Hare's Ear. |
| it got on the Big Hole River and Madison. | |
| You can tell this is an old fly, | |
| the barb wasn't pressed down for an easy catch & release. | Click here for a Madison River hatch chart |
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| 62206 To reach the "Study Hall" you have to walk along "Lover's Lane." (Above) The single path was once two tire tracks that made | |
| a perfect "two-lane" pathway to hold your "Sweetie's" hand as you each walked along a tire track. | |
| For over six decades local fisherman would bring their date to this area. If she loved fly fishing, even with the lack of bathrooms, | |
| the abundance of "ticks" and the occasional rattlesnake, you knew you had a "Keeper." | |
| It was here the ladies could learn if he loved to fish as a "hobby" or if he was planning to become a "fulltime" (no job) fisherman. | |
| If he was thinking about becoming a "fulltime" fisherman the lady had plenty of time to cut the line and throw him back. | |
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| 22705 What happened to the "green?" You ask. This is the Madison in February. Still pretty but a different kind of pretty. | |
| We are looking at the east bank. You can still see sections of the 1950's jeep trail that went all the way to the dam at Ennis Lake. | |
| Does anyone have a picture of the cottonwood cabin that stood next to Bear Trap Creek? It was burnt down in the 1998. | |
| The summer resident living at the cabin (1974 -'79) caught monster brown trout on a J.C. Higgins cane rod | |
| with a green 1950's era South Bend "automatic" reel. | |
| He would cut a silhouette of his recent catch on light green irrigation plastic and hang it on the north side (facing downstream) of the cabin. | |
| The light green plastic "hook-jaw" silhouettes were as long as the distance from the tip of your middle finger to your elbow. (22 inches or more.) | |
| Part Two - The Bear Trap on the Madison River (Page six of ten) |
| Instead of "rushing" to Bozeman, let's pitch the tent on the Madison. |
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