After being forced into waders in late August and September we have had a beautiful October.  Warm weather and sunny days have made October fishing on the Madison river feel a lot more like summer than winter.  The trees started to change color early but the leaves are still hanging orange on the cottonwoods.  It has been a great season to float the Madison river or the Jefferson river and fish as low fall light shines through the golden grass and bright trees.  A nice fall day is a real treat regardless of catch.  The last days of the guide season are upon us and most of the best fishing lately has been on the Missouri River rather than the Madison river.  

The upper Madison is still fishing well.  Most days have been good for bigger fish on streamers.  The hopper thing has still not come together yet.  You can catch fish on hoppers but it is not  really consistent yet.  For those who are interested in dry fly action Ennis Lake is hard to beat.  Not much is better than seeing a fish chomp a size 8 foam grass hopper but sight fishing to a flat full of big rainbows audibly slurping mayflys is pretty fun too.  This time of year there are huge hatches of tricos and callabaetis in the mornings where the upper Madison river flows into Ennis lake.  The south end of the lake is shallow enough to wade and there are plenty of pods of risers to chase throughout the mornings.  Most of the fish are large...15-22inches but the water is flat and they are all pretty spooky.  If you make a nice cast and have some patience you can usually end up with good number of hook ups on big strong trout.  Keeping them out of the weeds long enough to get them to the net is another story.  It is not a fishery where you get a lot of freebies but it is great to have a place where we can consistently find big fish eating dries ten minutes from home.

We are starting to see more and more grass hoppers along the banks of the upper Madison river.  So far there are already more than I saw all of last year.  The fish are not really keyed in on them yet but as they see more hoppers in the water, the dry fly bite should get better.  For now, fishing has been pretty good on the Madison with streamers.  Most days we have been able to put a bunch of nice browns and bows in the boat.  The flows are great and having plenty of water in the Madison seems to have kept the fish from getting too shy to eat meat even in the sun.  The Yellowstone has been at a nice flow for awhile and should just get better and better on nocturnal stonefly and hopper patterns but with the Madison fishing well and not crowded it has been hard to leave. With good water levels on all of our rivers the crowds are spread out. Even a late start on the Madison near Ennis has not been a recipe for getting caught in a boat hatch.  In fact I have been hearing a lot of people say "I thought we would see more people than this...".

After the salmon flies and golden stones have passed on the upper Madison river south of Ennis Montana, we see a stone hatch without bugs.  The shucks are all over the rocks but there are none to be found in the air, on the water or in the bushes.  These golden stones hatch at night and usually come off thickest around the full moon in July and August. They are very active in the mornings, the evenings and throughout the night.  Rolling over rocks reveals the adults hiding from the sun.  Once exposed they race to the nearest rock in search of shade and they are fast.  Starting early in the morning with dry flies can be a lot of fun.  Before the sun breaches the mountain tops and the shadows leave the water, the fish seem to be poised in the shallows waiting for a stone or a Chernobyl ant to skitter by. This is a great hatch and usually gives us a bit of big dry fly action between the giant stone hatch and hopper season.  The Madison, Yellowstone and Jefferson all have the midnight stone hatch which makes early floats this time of year a great way to beat the heat and the crowds and catch some big fish.

We can get some wild weather swings in a day of fishing here on the Madison. Afternoon thunderstorms can rip across the valley and hammer the Madison range with rain and lightning. We can usually see them coming and they usually pass quickly... and they are pretty darn beautiful when you're not in them.