Forty-two winters fishing and cross-country skiing along the river seems like a long run, but for us they’ve flowed quickly by. This morning I was reading thru my old fishing logs and came across an early winter entry dated over thirty years ago. On that cold day our good friend and former business partner John Juracek joined Jackie and I for an afternoon of midge fishing on the Madison.
When we drove by Garnet Oliffee’s Ranch near Raynold’s Bridge we saw the old man feeding his cows throwing hay from a horse drawn sleigh. It was overcast, still and calm and we could hear Garnet yelling commands to his horses over a mile away. Pulling on waders at the truck we saw midges fly by, some crashing into the snowbanks along the road. We smiled knowing fish would be rising to emerging midges in the pools and pockets upstream of the bridge.
It was noon so we pocketed our lunches and slugged through the knee-deep snow to the river working our way to Ross Merigold Rock. There we sat munching elk salami sandwiches and watching fish noses poking thru the surface taking impaired midge emergers.
John and I wanted Jackie to fish first, encouraging her to quickly knot on fresh 6x tippet and a #22 Improved Zelon Midge before a herd of pronghorn standing on the shoreline across the river decided to wade to our side and through our pool spooking the rising fish. You see, we were planted on the river on the pronghorns’ migration path. Jackie’s first cast rose a small rainbow that she landed and quickly released so we could move upstream, away from the antelope and their migration route.
The Madison Valley is situated in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and plays a key ecological role in connecting this ecologically intact ecosystem to other intact areas in the Central Rocky Mountains. The valley’s pronghorns are part of the 2nd longest antelope migration corridor/route in the United States and its bighorn sheep, wolverine, grizzly and black bear populations are unmatched in the lower 48. It hosts the largest concentration of wild elk in Montana if not the world with over 10,000 animals in the valley.
Stay here with us to learn more about the incredible Madison Valley, its wildlife and migration corridors and the successful conservation efforts to keep this ecosystem intact for all future generations. Our frequent missives to follow with conservation successes that will keep you and the valley’s wildlife smiling forever!
