I took my wife to the Lower Madison to fish on a partly sunny 50 degree afternoon. It was certainly nice to be on the water again this spring, which has produced high quality spring fishing. We parked the truck and took a short walk before fishing a deep bucket (depression). I immediately hooked and landed a spunky 14" rainbow on the first cast. Before spoiling the pool, I had my wife replace me and make the second cast. Another slightly larger rainbow agreeably received her baetis nymph offering. Our first child received her first assist, at the spry age of 8 months and still in utero! We pulled another 7 fish from this hole before wandering a little farther upstream. Before long we had our fill of fun with great action from the pods of fish stacked up in the deeper runs. Baetis were not observed on the water that day but are conceivably beginning to move more frequently subsurface as the long awaited spring baetis hatch looms ever closer. Midges were hatching productively all day. Trout aggressively began rising on the midges around 3pm once a large cloud came overhead and began spitting light sleet, hail, and large snowflakes. I took advantage and rigged up my new dry fly rod, a Winston B-IIT 9' 4-weight. Numerous rainbows quickly cooperated in selecting my midge cluster dry fly patterns, ultimately highlighting pure pleasure with the new rod. I always remember and appreciate the details of the first trout on a new rod! Time will tell if our in-utero baby girl has the same romantic memory of her first trout assist. Miles