Folks in Montana are gathering to develop a management plan for the famed Madison. While something like this seems overdue considering the tales I have heard of the rubber hatch on the lower river (see the link above for more info), one can’t help but worry about what Malcolm Gladwell described as “creeping determinism,” or the law of creating a problem while trying to solve a problem. Lets hope that doesn’t happen here.

If you are wondering what this means to you who fish the Madison, I can only quote this fine blog entry from Big Sky Anglers:

“Your opinoin, what ever it may be, is needed.  In the months to come, issues will come to light.  Pay attention, this will affect you.”

I am guessing Mark might weigh in with some more info on this topic so keep your dials tuned to Chi Wulff.

Tags: River - Madison

mad from Yukon Goes Fishing on Vimeo.

We told you he does good stuff.

Tags: Fish Stories

As unlikely as it might sound, we’re entering one of my favorites times to be on the water back home – those weeks (pending the year) that the rivers run clear and cold before they ice up completely in the depth of the winter freeze.

The combination of low river flows, the winter sunlight, unique combinations of anchor and shore ice and who knows what the hell else has made for some interesting river images over the years.

Yep, it’s cold and you’ll need to take some extra precautions with gear. (Personal best minor frostbite trip – snapping the images above on the Gallatin…..)

Get out there and see a river world most fly fishers never even imagine. Then you’ll really appreciate that bonefish trip to Belize coming up……

Tags: Photography

Hot off the press from the Madison Gallatin TU Chapter:

As you may know, thousands of trout typically are stranded in the 16-mile-long ditch when the head gate is closed in the fall. In the past volunteers have returned thousands of fish to the Madison River. Valley Garden Ranch, the ditch operator, has been very helpful in drawing down the water progressively and this has allowed more fish to escape. Still, we want to rescue any that remain trapped and will need your help. We’ve asked FWP’s Pat Clancy to apply for the required permits to allow us to move the fish we find in the ditch.

If you are interested in helping out, here are the details:

What: West Madison ditch fish rescue
When: 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19
Where: Lions Club Park
Bring: Rubber boots or waders, fine mesh net (if you have one), appropriate clothing, gloves, buckets.

Tags: River - Madison

Big Fish Tenkara: Daniel Galhardo vs. Large Brown Trout from Ashley Valentine on Vimeo.

Damn, this looks fun.

Tags: Tenkara

Tags: River - Madison

Trying to hold to a reasonable standard of optimism, given that July is a couple of days away and that river flow trends had been looking a tiche better over the past few days, yesterday we planned to post this morning a few area river flows that had been improving.

That post was to have been titled The Trend IS Your Friend.

A hot sunny day in southwest Montana (93 in Bozeman yesterday, 90 in Missoula) changed that reality pretty quickly.

Tailwaters are still your friend these days – SOL has the skinny on the Missouri here.

Tags: Weather

On the road this morning pondering the perplexities of river flows, fly fishing, timing and life, pretty much in that order.

She Who Must Be Obeyed and I are returning home to Bozeman this weekend for a while. Our timing from a river flow and fly fishing perspective certainly ain’t the best this trip, though home country is home country and there’s always some fishing to be done.

Looking at flows this morning my attention wandered to the Missouri, which by report continues to fish decently despite lots of water leaving Holter. Flows are damned high there, and even higher above Canyon Ferry (the largest storage pool on the ‘mountain side’ of the Missouri’s run through Montana) at Totson (second graph below). Canyon Ferry is only at 92% of full pool this morning with inputs running at more than 30,000 cfs now – that’s a lot of water coming in. It’s cooler now, but with a forecast return to seasonal weather (70s) next week, Missouri flows will probably kick up above and below Canyon Ferry. Odds are flows down the chain will have to go up next week – time will tell.

The Jefferson is still rolling at record levels as is the Madison (more or less mid-valley at Cameron).

We are looking forward to leaving country that is already feeling like the sun parched gates of hell (central Texas) for a while; as our home country floats away the last meaningful rain here was last October and daily highs for the past week or so have been in the 100-104 range. The local texicans are talking about it getting really hot in the next few weeks. Ouch.

Tags: River - Missouri

fly fishing the madison, the ruby, and some ponds from Ivan Orsic on Vimeo.

Tags: Fish Stories

Craig Matthews midging at Three Dollar on the Madison last month. From the (sorta) recently launched / updated Blue Ribbon Flies blog – our old friend John Juracek is blogging with the gang a bit.

Tags: Fish Stories

Another ‘damn I wish it was summer’ pic from Fire Girl Photography.

Tags: Pic of the Day

(Bandwith be damned, we like images you can sink your teeth into….)

Tags: Pic of the Day

Jess at Fire Girl Photography grabbed this image as part of a project for American Angler article covering the earliest days of the Quake Lake Hydroelectric Project a few years ago.  As always a busy day on the river during high season.

Tags: Boats

Jake managed to relieve himself from household duties yesterday afternoon, as did I (the boss was taking a nap and watching Casablanca).

It was the last day for 2009 Montana fishing licenses to be in effect and needed to be spent at least in part on a river.  Winter still controls the upper half of the Gallatin, though the lower Madison environs have shed most of their snow and you can even imagine the earliest hint of green beginning to color the hillsides.  Greycliff access was amazingly vacant of fishers; there was only one raft rig shuttled and parked.

Fishing and catching were nice – shirtsleeve nymphing on the last day of February with temps pushing 50 is an afternoon well spent in anyone’s book.

Northbound in the Big Sky – I’d rather be fishing.

Tags: River - Madison

Lower Madi at Greycliff yesterday afternoon.

Sunshine.

37 degrees and little wind.

Fishing rising to midges.

Hot damn.

Tags: Fish Stories