Madison River Flows

at West Yellowstone: 383 cfs

below Hebgen: 1050 cfs

at Kirby: 1580 cfs…..40 cfs lower than the day before

at Varney: 2300 cfs

Quake Lake has minimal visibility, the Slide has about 12 inches, yet as one travels further downstream, the Madison doesn’t look too bad at all.  The West Fork of the Madison is hardly off color.  All the tribs below Lyons Bridge are clear, so the bank water is very fishable.   Yesterday’s angling was great – we nymphed all day with a rubber leg and a sjw – red, pink and wine colored all worked.   Casting the flies into the soft water along the bank or behind a large boulder would almost always result in a tug from a nice trout.   It’s amazing how well the Madison fishes when the water is cold.  Bob and his wife Rae were a joy in the boat,  clients like this make my job easy.  I would like to give a shout out to Tim, a wonderful client of mine, who referred Bob and Rae to me.  THANKS TIM!

There were 16 rigs at Lyons Bridge, but the beauty of the Madison River is that while the boat ramp may seem busy, every boater has a different plan and is going either 8, 12 or 16 miles.  Before we ever put our boat in the water, the other boats floated on down and we were left alone….all day long.  The only other boat we saw during the day was a good friend of mine who was guiding as well.

Madison River Flows

below Hebgen: 1010 cfs

@ Kirby: 1620 cfs…..quite good for this time of the year.  Very floatable.

The General Season Opener is upon us.  Tomorrow, the season officially starts from Quake Lake to McAtee Bridge. Another guide and myself took a drive to the Madison Valley this afternoon for a look around.  Cabin and Beaver are pumping pretty good, with Cabin throwing a brown line half way across the river.  Quake Lake is greenish-brown and will hold up through the weekend…..maybe a few more days than that.  We are in full run-off mode, so expect the Madison to get a bit more brown.   Will it fish through the mud, you ask?  It did last year.  The photo above is from the Slide and up here, there is about 18-24 inches of visibility – plenty good, in my opinion.   As we headed on downstream, the river got a bit more green as some of the silt fell out.  The West Fork was tea colored and not nearly as brown as I would have thought – a thin ribbon of slightly off color water lines the left bank of the Madison below Lyons Bridge.  The gravel bars are visible and the banks look great all the way down to Mac.  2X, a rubber leg and dropper should work wonders tomorrow.  I will be on the water guiding, so stay tuned for a full report after the weekend is over.

Fished the river Betwixt yesterday afternoon, hoped for some dry fly fishing, but could not get anything to rise up to a blind fished offering.  The river is a bit cool right now and I would think that most of the fish aren’t looking up.   Rubber legs, sjw, zebra midges and golden stoneflies all fooled fish.

River Temperature below Hebgen – 44-43 degrees……water is being drawn from below the surface for now, and is NOT running through the raceway.  This will continue until the lake fills, so I would expect the water to stay relatively cold for awhile.

Cabin Creek is off color, but visibility is not an issue on the right bank, therefore it makes sense to use heavy tippet for quick play – I like 6 and 8lb Maxima……maybe 5 and 6 lb if Cabin Creek continues to clear up.

Madison River Flows

at West Yellowstone: 733 cfs

below Hebgen: 1100 cfs

at Kirby Ranch: 1310 cfs

at Varney: 1700 cfs

Beartrap: 1730 cfs

Snow pack Update

Jefferson – 65%

Madison – 85%

Gallatin – 88%

Upper Yellowstone – 86%

Madison River Stream flows  05.02.2012

@ West Yellowstone – 742 cfs

below Hebgen – 1080 cfs

@ Kirby – 1310 cfs

@ Varney – 1760 cfs

Beartrap – 1960 cfs

All this warm weather lately has me thinking about May 19th (MT General Season Opener), the month of June and what is to come for the 2012 Season.  What you are about to read are just thoughts that have occurred to me, all in regards to run-off and what might be store for us in the months to come.  A piece about the weather, snow pack and run-off is hard to nail down exactly – Mother Nature does what she wants, when she wants.  So, all this could happen, but it might not.  True outdoor enthusiasts enjoy the unpredictability of the natural world.

An attempt at seeing the future…..snow pack as well.

Lots of snow exists in the high country and the snowline is hovering around 7500 feet, with north faces holding a bit more lower in elevation.  Snow will continue to fall around Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas throughout the next month or two.  Cabin and Beaver have blown out (for a week straight and still a bit dirty) already, pushing brownish-green water through Quake Lake and into the upper Madison.  The Gibbon puked mud as well.  To the south of West Yellowstone, there is more snow, to the north and west of Hebgen Lake, it is a bit lighter.  The West Fork of the Madison melted out some, although this drainage holds an amazing amount of snow pack, even in low snow years.

I wouldn’t bet the house on it, but, the upper Madison could be finishing up with run-off around the 22nd of June and hatches not far behind.  Below Hebgen Dam to the West Fork, the river will fish well from May 19th through the rest of the summer.  As for the Yellowstone River in MT, it could be fishable by the end of the first week of July, a full month earlier than last year.  The Firehole generally drops and PMDs hatch around the first week of June.  I bet the Gallatin will be clearing in late June, unless the Taylor’s Fork get hammered with wet snow over the next month.

After the snow melts, then what?  This is the tough part.  Will it be hot and dry during July and August?  Or, will it rain in the afternoons and keep the rivers cooled off…?….nobody knows.  On the Madison, we are dealing with Hebgen Dam issues and that hasn’t done the river any favors since 2009.  The upside is that the trout are there, they just get moody once the river warms up.  Last season’s runoff fished great and the Salmonfly hatch was the best in a dozen years.  Huge trout were caught on big flies.  Fishing was solid, but got somewhat hit and miss during August and September, depending on where you fished.  This winter’s angling was pretty darn good, showing us healthy fish and positive things to come. Currently, the Madison from Mac to the Town Ramp is dropping, clearing and fishing better each day.   Belows Ennis lake there are caddis….I hear it’s been good. Construction is progressing at Hebgen Dam, with work this summer to be done inside the new discharge structure.  Yellowstone NP waters will be lower than last season, providing for spookier trout.  However, angling will be wonderful in the Park.  The Yellowstone River in Montana should fare well after last few seasons big water….will there be salmonflies on a green river?  Hopefully so. And the Missouri River will prove to be one of the greatest western trout streams ever.  It may get a bit warm in late summer, but this could be the year of the dry fly with pods of trout similar to 1999 -2002 era.

For now, we wait and see.

Rain is pelting the metal roof of the house, has been on and off since the sun set.

There was a flash a crack, then a rumble – lightning turned to thunder…is it snowing up high?  Shit, I hope so.

The low tonight in West Yellowstone is 16 degrees, a far cry from the summer like temps we have enjoyed for the past week.  I actually started a fire in wood stove, haven’t had to do that much lately.  More time at the vise is needed, but tonight I cranked out BWOs for an upcoming trip to the Missouri River.   I love the black wing for overcast days and the magic hour before dark.

The weather for the weekend and early next week, all over Montana, is calling for rising fish and streamer fishing.  We are headed north and you, where are you going?

Word has it that the flows out of Hebgen may be dropping here in the next few days.  That would be nice since the Madison Range is sitting at 82% of snow pack all the while the flow is sitting at 1290 cfs……just a little high……the 73 year average for today is 758 cfs.

Madison River Flows: 04.26.2012

at West Yellowstone: 992 cfs

below Hebgen: 1290 cfs

Kirby Ranch: 1760 cfs

Varney Bridge: 2490 cfs

below Ennis Lake: 2810 cfs

Madison River Flows

at West Yellowstone: 670 cfs

below Hebgen: 1260 cfs

Kirby Ranch: 1430 cfs

Varney Bridge: 1830 cfs……spiked to 1900 cfs today.

Run-off has started on the upper Madison River…..yes….run-off.  Cabin is puking chocolate milk, Beaver is grey and the West Fork of the Madison is pushing a heavy brown stain down the left bank.  Just how long this will last is anyone’s guess….the weatherman says a cool down for week end, hopefully he’s right.  The river is much higher than normal right now on the upper Madison and may rise a bit more if the rain and warmish nights continue.  Cross your fingers that we don’t loose too much of the white gold……..of course next week there could be a huge snow storm – springtime in Montana brings it all.

We floated Varney to Burnt Tree on THE nicest days I have ever seen in late April on the Madison River.  At one point there was a young woman, in a bikini, fishing from the bow of another guide’s boat.  I had to apply Sunscreen twice this afternoon with the high sun.  A thunder storm blew up in the late afternoon producing double rainbows over Sphinx Mountain and more snow in the high country…..windows rolled down, cruising down the highway…….it felt like July.

This morning started out pretty well, fishing with rubber legs and a red worm, but as the day went on things got tougher. Switching flies around seemed to help, but it was not too consistent around lunch time.  The bite did swing back our way and we caught some nice fish, including this 20 inch rainbow on a rubber leg.  Once the river drops back down, the dry fly game might get going, that would be so nice.  I saw march browns, caddis and a few blue wings throughout the day.

The photo above is from today.  Can you see all the debris floating in the lake?  I’m not exactly sure when the two avalanches occurred, but there was a huge pile of trees and logs stacked up on the bank near the highway.  My guess is that it happened in the last week or so, and I would bet that more debris keeps melting out of the slide.  The motor boat in lake looked to be clearing out the race of larger trees.  Downstream of Cabin Creek, the river was a bit off color, but green none the less.  Lots of shit was drifting in the river – limbs with green needles, lodge pole pine stumps and a few full length trees had floated down and lodged themselves on the boulders throughout the river.  A couple of new pools had formed from the debris……gotta love that.  Since the wind was blowing, I nymphed through the late morning and early afternoon, snagging the bottom quite a bit.  However, the trout were on the bite right away, eating stone flies and midge patterns.  Some of the rainbows were in full spawning colors and others were chrome – all of them were hot fighters.  At one point I hooked a brown, a large one, and after jumping to eye level, it ran straight at me and under the bank, only to come out about 5 feet downstream and break off.  How big?  At least 20, maybe in the 22 inch class…..girthy as well.

We are headed back over to Cody again for the next week and will be dragging the drift boat with us.  I can’t wait to get back over to Thermop.

With flows hovering around 1300 cfs, the upper Madison is in super good shape.   Our forecast was for 55 and slightly sunny, with increasing clouds in the afternoon, but the weatherman didn’t get that right at all.  Actually, it blew downstream all day – really hard at times – and never got above 45 degrees.  Forecasting weather this time of the year is for the birds….they never get it right.  Your best bet is to buck up, get your ass off the couch and go fishing.  Weather delays are for baseball….GO CARDS!

Dave came over from Wyoming for his first float trip down the Madison, he wanted to fish streamers so we started out with that.  After moving two fish with one grab, we switched to nymphs and anchored up on one of those classic upper Madison runs….you know the type………anchor dropped in slow dead water, off the tail end of an island with waist deep, flat water but moving at that oh so sexy of a pace about 15 feet from the boat.  It didn’t take long to figure out that the fish were keying on nymphs.  With a rubber leg and various spring droppers, we caught fish in damn near every spot.  The rubber leg did most of the work and at one point we fished just that fly…on 2x, at 6 and half feet.   From time to time we did go back to the streamer, but only landed one rainbow – almost 20 inches – swinging it through a deep pocket.  All the fish were shit hot, jumping three or four times with a couple good long runs.  Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

This is, hands down, one of my favorite seasons on the Madison River.  We will be running spring trips until the water turns brown from mud, so if you’re interested in fishing this very productive stretch, please give us a shout.  The fishing is only going to get better……and if you can come out during the work week, you might be the only boat on the water, just like yesterday.

The blizzard which came through over the past fours days, bumped up the snowpack to respectable numbers.  We are slowly getting it, but it will take all winter to accumulate a normal snowpack.  The south entrance to YNP, near Flagg Ranch, has been hammered with snow over the past month.  Once again, on the way home from Flagg, I almost buried my bombardier on the road. 

Jefferson – 84%, 90%

Madison – 78%, 87%

Gallatin – 80%, 87%

West Yellowstone – 78% with 104% of overall snowfall.  Remember, the first number is snow water equivalent and the second number is actual snow fall. 

The fishing continues to be productive on the upper Madison.  If time allows, I will head down for a couple of hours.  Don’t forget, this stretch of river closes on February 29th, next Wednesday.  From then on out, the stretch in betwix the lakes and the river below Mac is open, down to Ennis.

Streamflows

Below Hebgen – 1090 cfs

At kirby – 1180 cfs

73 year Median – 789 cfs

Yes, the river is flowing higher than normal at this point in the winter.  Will PPL drop the flow come spring time and hinder the spawn of the rainbow trout, again?  Probably so.  It seems as if the Madison is being managed for brown trout rather than rainbows.  However, PPL really doesn’t care about this as they are concentrating on Hebgen Dam.  Which, they say, will be fixed by 2014.  That is a long time from now…….

A word on the Hebgen Dam and trout behavior…….the flows are coming off the top lake.  By the end of June, the water is very warm on the top 2 feet of the lake.  This warm water is flowing into the Madison and changing…altering… the behavior of the insect hatches and how trout feed.  Salmonflies are hatching inbetween the Lakes before they hatch around Ennis. NEVER has this happened, but is happening since the Dam broke in 2008.  Once PPL decides to lower the flows out of Hebgen, typically around the middle or end of July, the rest of the Madison River – from Quake Lake to Ennis, gets warm quickly.  While FWP says this isn’t hurting the population of trout, it is hurting the catchability of the trout.  Trout don’t like to bite when the river is warm.  When trout don’t like to bite, anglers think that the river sucks and believe the Madison doesn’t have any trout left it in anymore.  NOT SO.  There are are good numbers of trout in the Madison, they are just tough to catch when the water is warm……Duh, we all know that. 

Which leads me to my point:  Since Hebgen has been out of commission, there are anglers/landowners who believe the river sucks because there are too many people on the river.  Be wary of this opinion….the river has been tough during August and September because of warm temps coming from warm water off the top of Hebgen Lake.  Fix the Dam and the river will fix itself.

Madison River Recreation Management Plan Update (MRRMP)

There are two scoping meetings left in the process:  Feb 28th in West Yellowstone and March 1 in Whitehall.  If you choose not to go, or simply live too far away to participate, please take the time to visit FWP’s web site and fill out the Madison River Questionnaire.  Filling out the survey and actually writing down your comments will go along way.  BUT, you should read through all the surveys on FWP’s web site before you make comments….get informed first.

This plan is being discussed all over the web.  Check some of this out here…..here…and here.  While our local paper doesn’t have a voice on the MRRMP, I am hoping this changes after the West Yellowstone scoping meeting next Tuesday night.

YNP continues take up most of my time these days.  Running around Yellowstone in a vintage Bombardier is a fabulous way to get a paycheck, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

The shot above didn’t turn out as good as the real thing.   If you tilt your screen the shot gets better……

My folks are in town visiting for a week.  They spent some time in Missoula with my sister and are now here in West Yellowstone for a trip through YNP, some fishing, skiing and a litte quality time with the family.  Dad and I took a few hours yesterday and fished the Madison…….yes it was good.  I wore the Rock Grippers once again and continue to be surprised at just how bad ass they are.