Looking Back at 2023

In 2023, the Upper Madison River had its up and downs, that’s for sure.  Overall, we had a solid water year — the 2022/2023 Winter gifted us with a massive amount of snow followed by heavy spring rains. These showers eventually gave way to summer rains, that then turned into a wet fall both for the Hebgen Basin and the Madison Valley.  We all know that trout really love clean cold water and plenty of it, so why the ups and downs?  Read on for a few observations and speculations from my perspective as a 25-year fishing guide. While I may spend more time sneaking out and fishing for myself than I do rowing folks down the river these days, we’re fortunate to have ten of the finest fishing guides working for us here at BSA and a super fishy shop staff to boot.  One can glean a lot listening to these folks at the boat ramp or in the shop the mornings before a trip – often their accounts of days spent fishing the Madison sound more like a bunch of Major League Baseball scouts swapping stats than eloquent fishing reports. Knowledge is king and around this fly shop, and there is an endless amount of it.

In the following few paragraphs I’ll discuss the Upper Madison in terms of three distinct sections - Between the Lakes, the Wade Section and the Float Section.  This is how we breakdown our fishing report each week and that’s how we like to talk about the river when we all sit down, crack a beer and discuss the fishery.  Without going into a massive dissection of the river, which would take volumes to write about, I will break it down in this way for the sake of discussion and make some points about the river and how I consider it to fish year in and year out, and how we’re hoping it will fish in the year(s) to come.  Flows and weather really change the way the Upper Madison fishes from year to year. So does the bug life and that seems to vary as one gets further downstream from Hebgen Dam.

Starting from the top, we have the section of river between Hebgen Dam and Quake Lake – AKA Between the Lakes, or sometimes fondly known as “Betwixt”.  Hands down, this is one of the most beautiful stretches of river I have ever seen.  It’s also one of the busiest sections, for good reason.  The access to the river in here is super easy, this entire reach is National Forest land with a road running right beside it. The wading fishing is not for the faint of heart, but for those who dare to get waist-deep and risk a dunking, the reward can be high. The river is cold and the temperature doesn’t vary all that much during the summer season.  The trout are plenty and the insect hatches are regular and dependable. While I have seen better fishing years than what 2023 gave us “Betwixt”, overall it was a solid year down there. As it goes for darn near everywhere you will fish in life, sitting down and observing the water and your surroundings BEFORE wetting a line, is a must.  I am a wade fisherman at heart. I love float fishing, but there is something much more intimate about wading with a flyrod and a single dry fly. This is how I approach the Upper Madison River day in a day out.

The Wade Section by definition, is from the outlet of Quake Lake to Lyons Bridge. While one can float this stretch of river, by law one cannot fish from a boat.  While I would love to fish a salmonfly from a drift boat in the Wade Section, I am happy that there is a stretch of river that doesn’t allow fishing from a boat. The Wade Section is known for prolific hatches of mayflies, caddis and stoneflies.  The former two are still hatching in good numbers, but the latter seems to be waning and not as good as it was ten years ago.  Since I am not an entomologist, I am not going to dive in to why this may be happening. Generally speaking, all rivers naturally have ebbs and flows - hatches are different day in and day out, year to year.  I’ve heard through the grapevine that the Madison River Foundation will start studying the insect populations this summer.  That should’ve begun a long time ago, but better late than never.  The fishing in the Wade Section in 2023 was pretty darn good overall. I found plenty of fishing rising from late June all the way through October.  This stretch of river is the most consistent piece of water on the entire river, in my opinion. It’s a nymph anglers paradise, perfect for fishing streamers and for the dry fly angler, there is no other place like it on Earth.  There are days when parts of it fish better than others and for the life of me, I can’t explain that.  But, if am experiencing a day like this, I get in my rig and drive a few miles, get out and start fishing. Or I start walking and blow off several hundred yards and then begin again. Maybe it’s the time of day, maybe unbeknownst to me, someone fished this stretch ahead of me but was out of sight and I wasn’t aware of their presence on the river.  For whatever reason, sometimes the Madison giveth and sometimes the Madison taketh away.

From Lyons Bridge all the way down to the Town take out in Ennis is referred to as the Float Section. This is an enormous amount of water and shouldn’t really be discussed as one section, because it’s not. But, it’s called the Float Section and in this entire reach one can fish from a boat as well as on foot.  This section obviously has the most boat traffic. In my early days of guiding, I spent a ton of time around Ennis and guiding the river from Mac to Town.  My favorite time of the year is when the Salmonflies and Golden Stones are hatching.  These hatches bring out the anglers in full force, but honestly, the hatch in 2023 wasn’t that great and the fishing was just ok.  Don’t get me wrong, I had some fun days on the river with the Big Bug, but it was not world class. I highly doubt there is one deadly arrow leading to decline of the large stone flies in the upper Madison River.  It's more likely a combination of things that have happened over the years. Maybe this is the year that the hatch explodes and we talk about it like the year the Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years.  But, I digress. For me, the Float Section fishes well once it starts to clear through the third week of July. Then it gets a little hit and miss from time to time, especially when wanting to fish dry flies. From all the reports I heard and experienced myself, the nymph bite in the float stretch was tough in 2023 after mid July.  2023 was a wet summer, which means cloudy weather with rain showers and barometric pressure changes happening quite often. During Salmonfly season, I have had great dry fly angling on the cloudy overcast days.  But for the rest of the season, I really want sunshine and consistent weather for fishing dry flies.  August 2023 was wet and rainy and the hopper fishing never got going like it can. Another insect that really likes the rain is the flying ant.  In early September, the ants take to the air to recolonize and mate.  For some reason, right after it rains, they fly.  If you happen to be on the river when this happens, you will never forget your day of dry fly fishing.  This scenario will repeat itself a handful of times during September and 2023 was pretty solid on this front.

Madison trout are smart, weary fish. They move around in the river system and don’t always inhabit the same piece of water throughout the year – this happens more in the float stretch than anywhere else in the river and it seems like it happens more so from Palisades to the Cottonwoods above Varney Bridge. 

Looking Ahead to 2024

This year, 2024, looks promising. Honestly folks, every single year on the Madison looks promising to me.  I love this river, the way it fishes, the scenery, variety of water, the puzzle it gives you day in and day out. The fact that the biggest fish you might ever catch can live anywhere, makes me excited to tie on a fly every time I step in the river.  When your life is completely surrounded by the pursuit of fish with a fly, one must always keep a positive outlook. It’s the only way to keep sane.

Our snowpack is currently less than ideal, but it could be a lot worse.  2023 was a big water year and the upper Madison usually fares well for a few seasons after a big water year.  Another feather in our cap is that the water level of Hebgen Reservoir is much higher right now than in years past (4.5 ft from full pond), therefore it won’t take as much water to fill it this spring. We also have the advantage of being at high elevation.  So while things can warm up, the overnight temps are cooler than most other locales and our rivers here usually cool off once the sun sets.

The long term forecast for our area is to transition out of El Nino (warmer and dryer) and into a more neutral weather pattern with it possibly switching to La Nina (cooler and wetter) summer sometime around June.  I am no weatherman, all is do is read long term forecasts and then wait to see if it happens week in and week out.

The fishing will completely rely on the weather, as it always does. If the Madison turns green and clears up by the third week of June, the hatches will likely explode for a few weeks and then the stone flies and the mayflies will peter out.  The caddis generally hatch all the way through July and into August and give us dry fly anglers some hope.  The Epeorous mayflies always bring fish back up to the surface, especially in the Wade Section, so we have that to look forward to as well.  If we have a warm and sunny late July and August, the terrestrial fishing should be pretty darn consistent.  September will bring on the streamer fishing and if things stays warm, the hopper and ant bite will continue until the frost comes. October is a great month on the upper Madison, if you can handle the cold weather it’s a ton of fun to walk the banks and search for rising fish. 

I’m looking forward to the upcoming season on the Madison. The current snowpack, water levels in Hebgen Lake, and long-term forecast models have me feeling optimistic about the start of the season. With any luck, we’ll have fish rising to Salmonflies, PMD’s, and Caddis before we know it. Swing by the shop next time you’re in town for the freshest report.

See you this Summer, 

Joe