09-13 September 2023

A warning to Chuck et al.
This post is filled with pictures of Robert fishing, our guide rowing, and Bonnie enjoying the sights.

We found a place to stay south of Ennis, Montana, to fish the Madison River for three days. Ennis is a charming little town with a retail district of three short blocks containing four fly shops. The economy is exuberantly devoted to fly fishing on the Madison. (Bonnie’s brother Bob, who fishes, named one of his dogs Madison.)

We became very familiar with a fifty-mile stretch of Highway 287, traveling up and down to meet our fishing guide, head back to our cabin, or drive to a restaurant for dinner. The few side roads are gravel or lightly paved, have no signs, and seem to lead to distant cattle ranches or trophy houses along the river. You occasionally see a large pickup truck come out of these roads. Where they came from, we do not know. The address of our lodging was Cameron, Montana, although there is no visible town.

The landscape is wide open with the vaunted “big skys.” You can see for miles across vast dry grasslands, edged with mountains and occasionally dotted with Angus cattle. Fluffy clouds are constantly changing, and rain showers pop up with little warning.

Cabins

We stayed in a group of knotty-pine cabins built in the 1950s, reminiscent of the PSEA cabins where Jim, Carl, Sig, Jon, and Robert have stayed at Lake Almanor, but better. We were lucky to find lodging because the cabins were booked through 20 September. We stayed in one cabin the first night and then switched to another. There were also about twenty motor homes on the property. As you drive into the site, a sign warns you to watch out for bears. Many of the people in nearby cabins were much older than Robert and they simply walked to the river to fish. Gives Robert hope for the next decade.

Galloup’s Slide Inn

The name of the fly fishing shop, the Slide Inn, refers to a massive 7.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred in 1959. It caused the earth below the Madison River to sink twenty feet, and a massive eighty-ton landslide blocked the river, killing twenty-eight people camping nearby and creating a new lake that increased the blocked depth of the river water depth by ten feet. The fly shop replaced a lodge and restaurant built hoping the earthquake-created lake would be a tourist attraction. The building makes a great shop with space for a vast collection of flies and fly-tying supplies. The founder, Kelly Galloup, is a Michigan transplant who is well known for developing streamer flies and fishing.

Bonnie has learned that a fly shop is not a place where you walk in, make a purchase, and walk out. A fly shop is always communication central for fishing. You learn about current conditions on nearby rivers, share information, book a guide, or even book a room. Purchases are secondary. Most revenue comes from the guiding service.

Our Fishing Guide Jordan

We met our guide Jordan at the Slide Inn at nine am the first day and at ten on the next two days. The Slide Inn is about fifteen minutes up the road from our cabin. Then it takes about an hour to drive with Jordan from the Slide Inn to the boat ramp where she puts her boat into the river and get ready to fish. Another local woman runs a service that takes Jordan’s truck and trailer down the road to a ramp where we take the boat out of the river at the end of the day.

Like her boss Kelly, Jordan is a Michigan transplant and has guided on the Madison for three years after guiding in Michigan for a few years after college. While driving to Montana we had listened to a long podcast interview of Jac Ford, a well-known fisherman from Michigan. When we mentioned this to Jordan, she said “He’s a friend of my grandpa. He’s the one who taught me to fish!” (Jac recently published a book on fishing titled View from the Middle Seat.) The Anchored podcasts by April Vokey (Jordan has met her, too) are a remarkable trove of information on fishers and fishing. In fact, we chose the Slide Inn for our guided fishing based on an episode we heard earlier in the trip in which April interviewed Johnnie McClure, the head guide. Lucky we made reservations promptly because this is a popular time of year to fish the Madison. On the way out of town we listened to still another episode in which April interviewed Kelly Galloup, the owner of the Slide Inn. Talk about a few degrees of separation! The fly fishing world is small and tightly connected.

But back to Jordan. We quickly realized that Jordan is in her mid twenties. She is an enthusiastic guide. Loves to row. Engages in conversation while keeping an eye on your flies, even when Robert sometimes glances away—she shouts Yep! Yep! Yep! to get you to set the hook. She is small, attractive, and delightful to spend time with. Bonnie and Robert were amazed by the confidence and focus she has at her age. We wish that we had the same back then. She has a great future ahead. She is recently engaged, and she and her fiancé live in a half-size school bus with their dog and cat. They cook outside on a camp stove. But they have purchased twenty-two acres where they plan to build a house themselves. Bonnie cannot even imagine all this. Jordan says she feels overwhelmed by all the people when she goes back to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The Fishing

Each day we floated ten to thirteen miles of river over six to seven hours or more, with a break for a great lunch prepared by Jordan. The drift boats seat three, with the guide in the middle seat. The guide rows constantly, slowing the boat down, avoiding big rocks, and steering from one side of the river to the other to approach the most likely spots for fish. Jordan dropped anchor about every twenty minutes to change flies, constantly experimenting to see what the fish would eat in that stretch of river, at that time of day, at that temperature, in full sun or shade. Jordan has an encyclopedic knowledge of what fish she has caught, remembering exactly where, when, in what weather conditions, with which flies. As she is rowing she is constantly coaching, Cast along the edge of that dark water. Mend your line. Mend again. Now cast four feet from the bank. Set! All the fish caught go back into the river, and Jordan was especially careful to handle them carefully and get them back in the water quickly.

Robert fished almost constantly, casting from the front of the boat. We used both the six weight rods with an indicator, with a streamer and dropper fly. The five weight was devoted to dry flies (typically a hopper with an “ant fly” attached or a hopper with midge fly attached. The “Shop Vac” midge fly seemed to be most productive. Bonnie fished a bit, but mostly watched and listened. Robert brought his own rods, but it is possible to use rods supplied by the guide.

The Madison River originates in Yellowstone National Park and can be fished along a fifty-mile stretch. The river is typically at least sixty-feet wide, so there is plenty of room to maneuver back and forth across it or pass other boats. The water flows very rapidly and noisily, but is quite shallow. The bottom is extremely rocky so the guide is constantly steering around large boulders and the boat is often scraping over the stony bottom.

At this time of year, the Madison is in between fishing action. Hatches have diminished and the hopper action is not yet in full production. Streamer action will be better in few weeks. Nevertheless, we caught a lot fish the first two days. A mix of browns, rainbows, and mountain whitefish. All mostly small but a few in the 14, 16, and 18 inch range. It was a lot of fun and gave Robert lots of practice to improve his casting accuracy, especially with the five weight rod.

Unlike in New Zealand, where you do not expect to see another fisherman at any time, we encountered plenty of other drift boats along the river, and we waved to them, bantered with the guides, and watched the fishermen and women casting and sometimes catching. Bonnie observed the clothing, guessing who had fished in New Zealand where grey or tan clothing is demanded by guides, and who was decked out in lively light blue or white. A few guides protected themselves from the constant sun with sun hoodies or even face coverings. We encouraged Jordan to do the same. It was especially fun to see the boats with dogs, sometimes two labradors watching the action intently.

On one day Bonnie kept fishing statistics, noting every time Jordan called strike, when Robert hooked a fish, and when he landed one. There was lots of activity. In the first hour of the day Jordan might yell Strike ten times, Robert might hook three fish, and land all of them.

The Podcasts

As mentioned above, we listened to these podcasts from Anchored, hosted by April Vokey.

Johnnie McClure on Fishing the Madison River

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anchored-with-april-vokey/id951475911

Kelly Galloup on Innovative Fly Tying and Fishing Trout Streamers

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anchored-with-april-vokey/id951475911

Jac Ford Takes the View From the Middle Seat

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anchored-with-april-vokey/id951475911

En Route from Missoula to Cameron

Lunch in Ennis

When we first arrived in town, we ate lunch at the soda fountain, where we ran into the actor William Devane (of Knot’s Landing and a zillion other films and movies), our first of two encounters with him that day. We strolled the three blocks of Main Street. Visited at least three of the fly shops. They are quite plentiful and most are well stocked and seem to be managed by 28-year-old guys who probably wished they were fishing.

The Cabins in Cameron

The River Landscape

The Madison River is carved into a broad valley surrounded by mountains. The river terraces are quite dramatic in form and height. The terraces are often quite lengthy and can be interrupted with smaller land forms like smooth scoops of ice cream or by stunning rock formations. Along the river, Bonnie saw two bald eagles, osprey, two blue herons, a crane, several clusters of merganser ducks, a kingfisher, and swallows. Watching an osprey dive bomb into the river and come up with a fish was thrilling. But with only three feet of water in the river, how do they avoid injury?

Houses on the Madison

Large houses dot the river landscape. Some perch precariously along the edge of terraces that line the river. Others are near the water’s edge. Some cattle ranches are cashing in and selling parcels for home sites. One development requires each owner to invest no less than one million dollars in their house. Many owners do not live there year round. Bonnie overheard folks in the fly shop say they are delayed in building their houses because of the lack of workers. One brought in crew from Utah.

Floating and Fishing the Madison

The several reaches of the Madison we fished are one broad ripple-filled river. The average depth is eight inches to several feet with the occasional deep hole. Boulders pop up sporadically along the way.

Eats, Cell Tower, and Some Clouds

Finding a meal that goes beyond a hamburger is a challenge. There was one place, the Grizzly Bar and Grill, that had no open reservations but were able to seat us at the bar one night and the next evening at a table later in the evening. Typical dinner hours are four to eight pm. Every night at dinner Bonnie noticed that cowboys never take off their hats. The hat remains on throughout the meal.

Next stop—Heading Home!