[Blog] Fly Fishing the Madison River with Wild Med Adventures
Live, Learn, and Explore for Medical CME
This Past Labor Day Weekend, I fished in Montana with Ben Mattingly and his outdoor medical CME company, Wild Med Adventures. It was an amazing trip and the best way to earn CME.
If you are a physician or advanced practice provider and need CME, consider joining one of the Wild Med trips. You will not be disappointed. Here is a video and article about the trip.
Check it out…
Fly Fishing the Madison River in Bozeman,MT
Hit Em!! Set the hook!!!
Our guide, Josh, stated as my strike indicator, suddenly, dipped under the water.
Zzzzzzzzz!!! – Music to my ears as my line zipped off my reel up river with a nice trout on the other end.
Live, Learn, and Explore out on the water Releasing, Relaxing, and Recharging catching hundreds of trout on the blue ribbon Madison River in Bozeman, MT.
This is how you earn CME!!
The Experience
I spent four days fishing on the legendary blue ribbon Madison River near Bozeman, MT with a group of doctors who loved fishing just as much as I do.
Ben Mattingly, who owns and operates Wild Med Adventures, LLC, organized this trip to the Madison River Lodge fishing with guides from Montana Angler for an unforgettable fly-fishing experience. Check out a video from one of his previous trips.
Being that it was during COVD-19, we were not sure if the trip would still happen. But as luck would have it, nothing was cancelled and all participants were able to make the trip (ALL COVID-19 FREE).
The trip started with smooth plane flights from Orlando to Denver and then onto Bozeman, MT. This is the first time that I have flown since COVID-19 started and I will have to say that it was pretty nerve racking.
Seeing everyone in masks constantly looking at one another waiting to be the citizen police to see who wasn’t going to wear their mask or who was sitting/standing to close to another person was surreal.
I lucked out on the flights, as they were not crowded, and I had whole row to myself. United Airlines even had wipes for you when you entered the plane and handed out goodie bags with waters, chips, and wipes in it. It was just several months ago when all of that cost money to eat and drink on the plane, and now, since they lost a ton of money with COVID-19, they are giving it away for free. Makes no sense.
After landing in Bozeman, MT, I met up with another ER doc, Ben Osborne. He is the medical director at Baystate ER program and a really cool guy to get to know. We rented a car and exchanged stories about fishing and emergency medicine. Ben is a wealth of knowledge and a very interesting doc to talk to.
We arrived at the Madison River lodge later that afternoon after traveling through some of the most beautiful countryside. Passing over the Madison River several times on our way to the lodge, we saw numerous fisherman floating down the river. My heart was racing and my palms were sweating because I know how good the fishing is here.
My wife and I spent out 5 year anniversary at a lodge out here in Montana near the Madison River and we fished it for 4 days catching over a hundred trout during that time. I was salivating at the chance to get back on the water.
The lodge is located on small plot of land right smack dab on the river. As you walk out the back porch, you are greeted with the lulling sound of the river as it meanders through the valley. Just the sound of water rushing over the rocks gets me fired up inside.
Day 1
The first morning, Ben Osborne and I fished with our guide Josh Wheal, a transplant from the Midwest, who now calls Montana home. He says he has been out here fishing for > 15 years and enjoys fishing and living here more and more each year.
Today was a float trip, something I had only done once before. The key is to keep the line floating along with the boat, mostly at a 90 degree angle so as to make the drift of your fly seem as natural as possible.
This first morning, it was raining and 40 degrees outside. Of course, I left all my rain gear and warm jackets in Florida; but luckily for me, Ben brought extra gear.
It was freezing for most of the day. We started off using nymphs and midges with strike indicators. We landed about 20 fish before lunch and lost easily that many if not more. It takes some getting used to setting the hook on a running fish while the boat is still moving down stream at a decent clip.
As the day wore on, the sun came out and we switched to the dry flies using a large grasshopper pattern. This is when it really got interesting. Because now you can see the fish rise to eat and you have to be patient enough to allow them the chance to get the hook in their mouth before setting.
Many times, I would pull the fish right out of the water when setting the hook. Though the fish were smaller, we definitely caught more of them.
At days end, we all reconvened at the lodge to swap stories and tell the truth about the first day out. SUCCESS.
Day 2
It started off with a short drive to meet up with our guide, Doug Casey, a native of Georgia but an experienced guide who has fished the river guiding for over ten years. He stated that he was just shy of 2000 trips guided in that area of Montana.
I fished with Matt Razon, a physician assistant, who works with Ben and helps him lead the Wild Med lectures and trips. Matt is an experienced fly fisherman having fished all over the US and some international.
We started off the day, I was fishing from the back, and Matt held down the front. The sun was out and the wind was calm. Great day for dry fly fishing. The pattern of the day was a thunder thigh double pink with a water walker trailing behind it.
Let me just tell you – We have all been on a fishing trip where the guide says – “Man, you should have been here yesterday.” Well, from the start, this was going be my chance to tell everyone else that same phrase. Finally, I was going to be on the other end of that conversation.
As we continued to float down the river making casts to boulders, and ripples, and deep troughs, the trout cooperated. They blasted those flies and we landed over 100 fish and hooked and lost about as many.
Now, when the guide says, on video, that this is one of his top 5 days fishing, and he has guided almost 2000 trips, you know that you just had one of the BEST DAYS you will ever have.
Matt and I killed it. Fish after fish after fish after fish. It was mayhem and madness. We couldn’t find a spot in that river that wasn’t holding fish. It was one of the best days of CATCHING I have ever had.
Trust me, I bragged all night when we got back to the lodge.
Day 3
I fished with Ben Mattingly on the lower section of the Madison River. As luck would have it, Doug was our guide and the anticipation was high having lived and fished this section of river the day before.
However, today, the wind was blowing hard, so hard, Doug said he had heard that many trips were cancelled because of the conditions.
BRING IT ON!!!
I knew it would be hard to compete with yesterday’s performance, but the fish were there and it was our job to get them to eat.
And EAT THEY DID!!!
Armed with the thunder thigh double pink and water walker, we managed to catch 20+ brown and rainbow trout, not the quantity as the day before, but definitely, the quality.
Day 4
This was a self-guided day. The 8 of us packed up our gear and headed to a river between the lakes north of the lodge.
A smaller river with access from the road, it was awesome to fish with everyone on the last day, using the lessons and techniques we learned from our guides over the last 3 days to see if we could manage to catch trout on our own.
Again, I fished the thunder thigh double pink, but this time I added a size 18 bead headed prince nymph to the back of the hopper, what they call a hopper-dropper rig.
Fish on!! Fish on!! Fish on!! Even on our own, we were successful catching rainbows and browns on this smaller section of the Madison River.
Just let me say this – If you need CME and enjoy fishing, you have to link up with Ben and Wild Med Adventures. He has done the leg-work and put together a truly 5 star experience.
Live, Learn, and Explore while you Release, Relax, and Recharge.
It doesn’t get much better than this.
To Wellness on the Water,
Graves Fromang
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To Wellness on the Water,
Graves Fromang