Madison River Fly Fishing Season : 2018 Looking Back
The Madison River produced great fishing for fly anglers this past season. If you ask most of The Madison River Guides in Ennis, Montana what they thought of the fishing, you would probably hear that it was the best dry fly/hopper seasons in years. The fish seemed to be looking up exceptionally well this season. On top of that, we saw more grasshoppers along The Madison River than I have seen in 10 years. This was especially welcome after years of apparently declining grass hopper densities along the banks of the Madison River.
In 2018, we finally saw the completion of the Hebgen Dam repair project that was underway since the dam's failure on August 30th, 2008. On that day, one of the four hydraulic gates on the dam failed sending nearly four times the normal outflow down the Madison River. The flow was restrained after roughly a month of high water but the dam was still damaged. During much of the subsequent repair period, the Madison River outflow from Hebgen dam came from the top of the lake over the spillway rather than middle of the lake. The result was higher than average water temperatures on the Madison River and the necessity for spiking flows out of the dam to cool the river during hot summer months.
While the river produced higher numbers of trout than ever, most Madison River fly fishing guides noted a decline in the quality of our dry fly fishing. The warmer water and less consistent summer flows seemed to have changed the aquatic insect hatches and make the fish more interested in feeding subsurface. Indeed, in 2018 when the Madison River finally received the cooler mid release water from below Hebgen Dam, the fish seemed to respond by rising to a dry fly. Flows were more stable, the water cooler, the grass hoppers more prolific and the combination produced one of the best dry fly seasons I have seen on the Madison. The best part is that now that the dam is repaired, we can probably expect more great summer dry fly fishing this season!
In 2018, we finally saw the completion of the Hebgen Dam repair project that was underway since the dam's failure on August 30th, 2008. On that day, one of the four hydraulic gates on the dam failed sending nearly four times the normal outflow down the Madison River. The flow was restrained after roughly a month of high water but the dam was still damaged. During much of the subsequent repair period, the Madison River outflow from Hebgen dam came from the top of the lake over the spillway rather than middle of the lake. The result was higher than average water temperatures on the Madison River and the necessity for spiking flows out of the dam to cool the river during hot summer months.
While the river produced higher numbers of trout than ever, most Madison River fly fishing guides noted a decline in the quality of our dry fly fishing. The warmer water and less consistent summer flows seemed to have changed the aquatic insect hatches and make the fish more interested in feeding subsurface. Indeed, in 2018 when the Madison River finally received the cooler mid release water from below Hebgen Dam, the fish seemed to respond by rising to a dry fly. Flows were more stable, the water cooler, the grass hoppers more prolific and the combination produced one of the best dry fly seasons I have seen on the Madison. The best part is that now that the dam is repaired, we can probably expect more great summer dry fly fishing this season!
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