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Montana Closes a Stretch of the Madison and Puts Six Rivers on the Clock
Warm outflows from Ennis reservoir are keeping the river from cooling overnight, and the drought policy has started to bite.
Fish, Wildlife and Parks closed the Madison from Madison Dam to the footbridge at the NorthWestern Energy powerhouse to all fishing from Wednesday. Warm water leaving Ennis reservoir is preventing the stretch from cooling off overnight, and officials say sustained high temperatures are lethal to native fish.
Six more rivers went under hoot-owl restriction the same week, which closes fishing between 2 p.m. and midnight. Two sections of the Big Hole are affected, along with the lower Gallatin from Cameron Bridge Road down to the Missouri, and stretches of the Jefferson, Beaverhead, Smith and Sun.
The trigger is written into the department's drought policy rather than decided case by case: restrictions follow when flows drop below critical levels, when water quality falls off, or when daily maximum temperatures hit 73 degrees three days running. At 77 degrees trout start dying.
The practical version is get up early. Morning is usually the better fishing anyway, and the department is pointing people toward high lakes and deep reservoirs, which hold cool oxygenated water through the afternoon when the rivers cannot.
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