29 August 2009 - Saturday

AM up at 5:20 am; left the El Western at 6:15 for the bicycle ride up by Harrison and Cardell. Cruising in the dark northward on Highway 287, I just missed another deer in Norris calmly walking across the highway. Starting just outside Harrison, I ride alone (no surprise!!) for an hour of a wonderful Montana morning just as the sun was coming above the horizon – fabulous light and colors! A few curious deer and horses are my only company! Road surface is a chip seal but which has been worn down to be pretty smooth with none of the irritating vibrations one associates with chip seal rides (like we had on the Skagit Spring Classic last May). The hills max’d out at about 9% grade with most running 5% to 7 %. Back to the El Western for breakfast with the fishers at 8:35 am

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We head over to the El Western office for a chat with Kris and John to get the latest info on fishing on the Madison down in the canyon. They have a nine month old female golden named appropriately "Tippet" – very energetic, likes to nibble on people’s toes, and has a few tricks which Kris taught her. Very friendly and loving!  The following pix show the wonderful grounds which Kris and John maintain - The El Western is a very relaxing place to vacation!

We mosey (this is Montana after all!) into town –checking out the fly shops, AM picks up a nice winter fleece vest from The Fly Shop – AB asks the somewhat younger store clerk if they have any earthworms – the poor fellow looked a little dazed! GK and AB head out to check out some other shops to replace all of AB’s lost gear, while JR and AM head over to The Shedhorn Sports store – pretty complete outdoors store but hunting really trumps fishing. Now I assume they have all those military version guns (and racks and racks of them!) for hunting but if you told me this was a local militia supply store I would have believed you. As JR and AM were walking back down the main street, my peripheral vision sees this truck due a U turn and pull up next to us and then "HOOOONNNNK!" goes this huge truck horn – I sort of knew this was coming at the last minute and didn’t react except that I generally don’t like loud noises. JR, however, did not see the truck coming and about jumped out of his shorts when the horn went off. If we could have performed an analysis of the level of adrenaline in his blood, he probably would have been off the charts! When everything calmed down, I did tell AB and GK that they should check out the Shedhorn sports place as "they had more guns than the army!"

After gassing up the rigs at the local Exxon, we checked out the Tru Value Hardware store for a light for AB’s truck to no avail – we picked up lunch from the Madison Foods deli (we have become regulars!) – chatted with a local lady in the parking lot – they used to own Riverfront land but sold out some years ago and bought land with more privacy. Bird hunting is big in the Ennis area and they have done a lot of that over the years. She is migrating toward more bird watching and less bird killing over time however.

We drive up 287, then around the north end of Ennis Lake, and finally take the dirt/gravel road leading up to the dam and powerhouse. The fishing we are seeking will be below the dam in the tailwaters.

We drive past the dam to the parking lot where the waters can be accessed on foot up and down stream. AB and GK went further downstream to below the Powerhouse where John had recommended. There were more people down there indicating that usually the fishing is better down there. However, that better fishing was not happening today. As they moved back up river, they did finally hook into some rainbows.

It is a clear, blue sky day again! AM enters the river into some pocket water runs above the Powerhouse. Fishing an orange stimulator with legs, we start bringing up rainbows! Woo hoo!!

Great little fish in the 14-16 inch range with lots of fight and aerial antics. Later I caught another brown but the rest of the fish were rainbows. It seemed as though we hit the timing right as other locals had been in the waters earlier that day and had not done so well.

JR continued fishing with hopper patterns, picking up nice rainbows! 

We took a break about 3 pm to take some pictures of the dam and do product placement shots (both Coke and Pepsi since we don’t know who will offer us funding!!)

Now 2009 is a yeqr in which many communities have felt the effects of the recession and I am sure the banking industry is among them. We did see this fellow who used to work Lehman Bros. fishing in the new Wall Street approved fishing attire. If this spreads to other groups, companies like Orvis may be in trouble or have to expand to more "no See-um" clothing lines!

The Dam face itself is pretty interesting. We saw this plaque on a rock on the way back - quite a drop to the water below from here - we suspect the accident may have involved alcohol but don't really know.

We finally got off the river at about 6 pm and headed back to the El Western for a quick cleanup and then off to dinner at the Reel Decoy restaurant.