I had posted this morning in our Montana river report roundup that fishing on the Madison from the lakes to Ennis was pretty much blown – and that indeed was only partially correct. 

Several buddies have called this morning and let me have it for missing something obvious, and then they pleaded that I not say anything about it. 

Dry fly fishing has been put off pretty significantly by the higher flows, and will most likely be off while the spring-runoff level flow rates are with us (and probably for several days thereafter). 

Nymphing the deeper runs and soft water along the bank has been pretty darned productive (Rick – thanks for the call from the shoreline this morning), and we’ve heard also that guys are chucking streamers in a few spots and turning some fish. 

The beauty is that the weather is great, and the crowds are down; the over-riding caution is that wading is not something to be taken lightly at these flows. 

By the way, they’re still working on the fabrication of the steel bulkhead discussed over the past few days, and are working to enlarge a hole in the top of the intake tower to accomodate the bulkhead.  The current story is that a well drilling rig will be used to insert a steel casing down throught the tower into stable ground below which will be used to support the large bulkhead as it’s dropped into place.  They hope to divert the outflow and then fix whatever problem there is with the intake tower/ gates.  We’ve heard now from two people (and it’s up on the Madison River Fishing Company website) that current flow rates are dropping the lake only 5 inches every 24 hours, so there’s no danger of the “lake being drained” as has been circulating in some circles. 

Interestingly they are shoring up the dam, presumably given the heavy equipment that will be required to be placed on the structure.  The dam structure built in 1914 of wood, concrete and dirt was just signed off in an inspection last week - I’d like to read a copy of that report, wouldn’t you? 

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