Madison River

one

because look it's something I've been on boats before and I've told you my various boat mishaps before I have sunk a boat with me my father and another guy in the middle of the Madison River and had to wade to shore I've sunk a boat I've been on a boat in the middle of a lake with no one around for 200 miles, practically in the Yukon of Canada, and I fired up the motor, and the boat was so dry rotted, the motor just snapped off the back.

The whole back of the boat snapped off, and the motor went to the bottom of the lake, and I'm there with oars in the middle of this lake.

So I've had boat problems.

canoes.

Just outside the western edge of Yellowstone, in Montana, the Madison River runs west out of a lake called Hebgen Lake and down through a deep, narrow canyon.

In the summer, people camp along it.

In 1959, the Forest Service had a campground on the floor of that canyon called Rock Creek, and just below it, by the river, there was an overflow camping area for when the campground filled up.

And I just, I don't know, I just want to put a pin in that and just kind of highlight that again and just make sure people that are listening realize that, I mean, we're talking about it in the context of this trip to Brazil, but...

That's not something that you can't do if you're taking a fly fishing trip to Pennsylvania or you're going to go try euro nymphing for the first time or you're going to go fish for stripers or you're going to the Madison River in Montana.

I think myself included, sometimes people are hesitant to... show vulnerability you know that they kind of have to or that I have to kind of be just I'll go with the flow I'll figure things out when I get there and sometimes people are busy so maybe they or maybe they just don't enjoy the preparation experience as much as you or me might but I just think that that is really cool that you embrace that and that you have the humility to kind of just say well I don't know about this let's ask some people because there's Nobody invents things in fly fishing, right? Everybody's copying someone else.

Someone else taught someone, you know, there's no monopoly on good tactics in fly fishing.

We have a herd of a little more than 1,400 yearlings.

They have been on range for the summer and they're currently up in the West Fork of the Madison River on the north side of the Centennial Valley.

So it's August and kind of a typical day is to ride them, check them and move them.

The priority is... making sure that the cows are healthy making sure that the land is healthy and making sure that we are working with wildlife in a way that everyone gets to exist on the landscape so i guess what connects all that i think it's paying attention and being present on the landscape

And what are you doing for employment at the moment? I am currently cowboying for the J-Bar El Ranch in the Centennial Valley in Montana.

So we have a herd of a little more than 1400 yearlings.

They have been on range for the summer and they're currently up in the West Fork of the Madison River on the north side of the Centennial Valley.

So it's August and kind of a typical day is to ride them, check them and move them.

But not only did he not stock, the ma- He, he had two test streams.

One was Odell Creek, one was the Madison River.

And the Madison was stocked, um, uh, uh, intensely stocked, and, and Dick separated the Madison in two parts.

He continued to stock one part and stopped stocking another part, and then watched for four years to see what the wild fish population response would be.

His 1987 paper reported a 49% decline in wild trout aged two and older in the stocked section.

On the Madison River, those older wild browns increased 160% in the four years after stocking stopped.

Those findings don't measure the impact here, but they give us a serious reason to scrutinize the practice.

A private fishing experience doesn't establish a public conservation benefit.

Then back here in Bozeman, within a hour you have, uh, uh, most of the Yellowstone.

Uh, you can get to the Madison in just, just about an hour, uh, with opportunities to catch everything from real small to real big.

Uh, then within two hours, the Missouri, uh, the Bighorn, um, uh, there's, there's- There's more opportunities for an angler, uh, i- in these two valleys than, than you could probably see in a lifetime.

Yeah

You know, I spent 10 years in the hunting industry, which, you know, if you went to a hunting spot and there were 50 cars in your hunting spot-

[laughs]

... you'd be like, "Oh, no." But, like, when I show up on the Madison, I expect to see 20 boats, and everyone's friendly.

Right.