Flew to Bozeman for business Friday. Took my 15-year-old son along as he had a 4-day school weekend. Got done with business Friday afternoon, rented an old Suburban, and made a beeline for Ennis.
Fished the lower Madison Saturday (below Bear Trap) and the upper Madison (near Hegben Lake) Sunday. The brown trout are on the move. If you like the chance to hook (a few) large browns, streamer fishing, and cold, threatening weather, this is the time and place. We worked real hard to bring a half-dozen brutes to the net in two days. 20-23 inch pigs, bright orange bellies, hand-wide from the butt through the shoulders. I also caught one big 'bow that hurled itself out of the water and up into the air against a backdrop of a Montana snowstorm, then stripped line off my reel at will. (No whirling disease in that fish). Best of all, we saw seven total fishermen on the entire Madison. It ain't matching the hatch, but it's dramatic and primal. I love it. Gary Meyers Kirkland
