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.  

September and October are two of my favorite months in southwest Montana. Cooling water temperatures make most of the rivers in our area good fishing options. The upper Madison, lower Madison and Jefferson all fished well this past month.  We had lots of options and saw a lot of the bigger fish moving for streamers. Hopper fishing was even working until just days ago.  With more nice days in the forecast for the first week of October there should be a little more hopper dropper action ahead.   We pulled some great brown and rainbow trout out of the upper Madison and the bigger fish should just get more and more aggressive as we move closer to the brown spawn at the end of October.  

We are finally seeing some hopper action on the Madison. The terrestrial bite was delayed a bit by a push of cooler than normal weather. In the past week our weather felt more like October than August.  The daytime highs plummeted to the low sixties and it rained almost every day.  The cloudy weather made for pretty good streamer fishing for those who were tough enough to fish in the rain.  We caught a lot of nice trout on the Madison river. The cooler days and nights dropped our water temps a lot, which has kept the big fish happy.  The biggest side effect of the rain was dirty water and rising fishing flows on some of the freestone rivers in the area.  The Yellowstone and Jefferson spiked and saw come muddy water but in the long run having a little more and cooler water will make for good fishing. 

We see a lot of wildlife on float trips.  I have never seen as many moose in a summer as I have this year.  The braids of the upper Madison river just south of Ennis Montana have been a hot spot for moose sightings.  This photo was taken on the Jefferson river, which is always a great place to see a moose because there are usually no other boats to scare them away.

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.

Here in Ennis Montana, runoff on a year with 100+ percent of normal snow fall creates the worst fishing conditions of the year on the upper Madison river.  However, you can always find somewhere good to fish.  The upper stretch of the Madison between Hebgan and Quake lakes can be about as good as it gets this time of year.  The runoff usually comes shortly after the upper Madison river opener on the third Saturday in May.  Consequently the fish are about as dumb as they will be all year on the upper river.  We also have a few tail waters in the area that never get too dirty to fish.  The Land of the Giants section of the Missouri River is at its best in the spring when many other Montana rivers like the Yellowstone or Jefferson are a waste of time.  We spent a lot of days this spring over on this section of the Missouri and found a ton of trophy trout.  If you are planning a spring trip and are afraid of runoff keep in mind that we can always find somewhere good to fish, we may just have to drive a little farther.