I start each day

I start each outing hoping to catch one trout. Because I still think it's still kind of magic or miraculous that you can catch a wild trout on a fly, and because skunks stink. Catch one trout and I'm happy.
After one, however, I reevaluate. Depending on how that went, I will adjust my goal to five, 10, 12, 20, 500 .... whatever. And I never reach my goal because once I catch 12, I want 15 etc.
Yesterday my goal never got very high because I only caught one. As we'd heard, the upper Madison is fishing a bit slow right now.

But we fished new water: the slide, the islands upstream of Lyons, and the West Fork. The slide is particularly fun because if you hook a decent fish, you have to land it quick lest it take into the HEAVY water. You'll lose that battle. You have about a yard along the bank where you can let the fish play, but they know the game and will run away. And fish-god knows there are some bigguns in there. It's exciting.

But salmonflies will be on Varney Bridge soon and angling fortunes should flip. And the fish should be hungry because they don't seem to be eating much right now. May your goals be on the constant rise. Enjoy!