We couldn’t make it to Hebgen yesterday for pics and film – though Mike Lum over at Madison River Fishing Company has posted some sobering news this morning:

The news is not good. The crew working on the dam was able to remove the damaged I-beam. They then tried to place more new stoplogs. It didn’t work. The ones they tried to place were sucked through the intake tower. This means that there is damage to the concrete “guide” on the inside face of the tower. Plan B is now dead in the water. The flow is still at 3030 cfs out of the dam.

Right now there are 11 trucks en route here from Seattle with peices of a very large barge. There is a huge crane on site right now. It will take them at least several days to assemble the barge and get the crane mounted on it. They will then implement one of two contingency plans neither of which are complete. Bottom line; getting the flow back under control is very likely 3-4 or more days away. I think that PP&L is doing what they can. I also know they are freaking out. The 11th hour is fast approaching.

Ouch.

Now, the good news of sorts; this is called making lemonaide when life hands you lemons.  The upper Madison is apparently fishing quite well – here’s a firsthand report from Craig Matthews himself at Blue Ribbon Flies:

Some say the river “is broken”. To be sure, Hebgen Dam is having some problems. But we have faith in PP&L and Montana Dept of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. They are working around the clock to come up with a solution to the failure at the dam. The river is flowing at 3000 cfs and change. I fished the “broken river” this afternoon and had a banner late summer’s day using nothing but dry flies. I never saw another angler. The Madison River below Earthquake Lake is fishing very well, even in the heavy flows. The fish are rising to Baetis, Fall Green Drakes, caddis and a wide variety of terrestrials like bees and beetles and grass and leaf hoppers and ants. Our float trips are having fine fishing, perhaps as good as we have seen all year all along the river from Lyon Bridge to Ennis. Streamers and nymphs, big hoppers like Grand and Fat Alberts are all bringing fish to net. If you’ve never been on a float this is the time to do so. Glowing aspens, flaming alpine current bushes and brightly colored browns and rainbows will bring you to your knees!

The browns are coming into spawning colors and the males’ sides have the brilliant colors of fall alpine current leaves. Vivid red spots and bright yellow bellies and flanks, and sporting pronounced golden colored hooked jaws. The females are gorgeous too, brightly colored and bellies showing the heaviness of eggs to be laid later this fall. Rainbows made up a goodly part of my catch today too. They are heavy from gorging on the fodder brought to them by the heavy flows of the river. One male rainbow I hooked came out of the water 5 times and reminded me of the steelhead I used to take on dry flies many years ago on rivers like the Buckley and Dean in British Columbia in September. The Madison is NOT broken, and it is fishing very well. Few anglers are fishing it now. I will be on it daily this month, and next, and until the good crew entrusted to repair the dam get things right. In the meantime say tuned here for information.

Mike Lum has been making the same pitch, the river is quite fishable, and there are few fisher folk on the water.  Sounds like we all should be endeavoring to enjoy the Madison as much as possible this year, the crystal ball is cloudy in terms of what next season might bring. 

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