The Madison in the Park has enjoyed one of the better Septembers in recent memory in terms of fun and productive fishing – there have been good numbers of runners (rainbows and browns) and active fishing despite the bright sunshine dominating the weather for almost the entire month.
Speaking of weather – it has changed with a vengeance today. Driving to an early morning meeting at 0640 this morning here in Bozeman it was raining and 38 with a stiff northwest wind blowing. For the first time this season Bozeman and much of the greater Yellowstone area (including the entire Park) have been issued their first Winter Weather Advisory (purple on the map)…..
And the forecast for West Yellowstone looks snowy and a bit chilly, particularly when you compare it to the very warm temps that have graced the area for most of the month – hells bells, it was 85 in Bozeman yesterday afternoon.
As you’d expect this time of year streamers and soft hackles have been the name of the game on the Madison, and will be even more so given the advent of some genuine fall / transitional weather. We and many others have been awaiting the arrival of fall weather to push the fall hatches – you can bet the Madison BWOs will be out this afternoon.
A final thought on the Park section of the Madison – October will be a very good fishing month without a doubt. If you haven’t fished this section of the Madison during a good year you should get here sometime in the next few weeks.
Note well you won’t be alone or even close to it; there have been a large number of fisherfolk plying these hallowed waters this fall with more no doubt on the way given the weather change. Maybe I’m getting to be a more cantankerous, spoiled, selfish son of a bitch, but I just don’t like fly fishing in a crowd. The trophy waters are a great experience to fish, but there are miles and miles of smaller, lesser-known and much less crowded waters to fish ‘just around the corner’ from the Madison. Yellowstoner has been singing this song for several weeks now.
These days it will be hard to go wrong with almost any of the neighborhood waters. We’ll drive by and snap your pic on the Madison (it is a magically photogenic river) and will probably fish it very late or very early on the way to or from some other places.
And dress warmly the next few days – I’m sitting in my office here in Bozeman and figured the rain had already stopped this morning as I could no longer hear the soft patter on the roof.
It did stop raining – it’s snowing.
Wahoo.
Tags: River - YNP - Madison
