Fishing in Ennis

Ennis sits in the Madison Valley with the Tobacco Roots to one side and the Madison Range to the other, a small, welcoming town built around fly shops, drift-boat trailers, and the rhythm of trout seasons. The Madison River flows right past Main Street on its way from Yellowstone country to the Missouri headwaters, and nearby stillwaters like Hebgen and Ennis Lakes round out a fishery that feels far bigger than the map suggests. What sets Ennis apart from other Montana destinations is how much first-rate water is immediately at hand: famous walk-wade reaches, classic drift sections, a shallow weed-lined lake tailor-made for sight-casting, and a deep, cool impoundment just up the road—all linked by good access and a community that lives and breathes fishing.

The Madison is the star, and around Ennis you’ll encounter two distinct personalities of the same river. Upstream lies the Upper Madison, the fabled “fifty-mile riffle,” where quick current slides over a cobble and boulder bottom and the river is rarely very deep—often a couple of feet to mid-thigh with the odd slot and boulder garden. That uniform gradient creates endless holding water: seams, pocket water, and shoulder-deep runs that fish beautifully from a drift boat yet remain wonderfully wadeable at dozens of access sites. Downstream from town begins the Lower Madison, emerging clear and cold from Ennis Dam before spreading into long weeded flats and gentle bends. Here the current softens, the water warms in midsummer sunshine, and trout set up along weed edges, drop-offs, and mid-river troughs; when afternoon winds lay down, it can fish like a giant spring creek. Stillwater adds a completely different gear. Ennis Lake, really a broad, shallow impoundment of the Madison, is dotted with weedbeds and sandy cuts and is often less than ten feet deep across wide flats. Morning slicks reveal dimples and porpoising trout, and the lake’s drop-offs and inflow plumes concentrate fish whenever the breeze pushes food. Up the valley, Hebgen Lake is deeper and more structured, with stepped shorelines and pronounced bays; on calm summer days, its famous “gulpers” rise rhythmically to Callibaetis and trico spinners—an entirely visual game that rewards patience, stealth, and a long, accurate cast. Threading between these marquee waters are small meadow tributaries and side channels that offer intimate, knee-deep fishing when you need a quiet hour to yourself.

Wild brown and rainbow trout anchor the fishery, with mountain whitefish common in the faster runs and an occasional brookie or cutthroat in cool tributaries. Browns dominate many of the boulder gardens and undercut banks and turn predatory with the first hint of autumn. Rainbows spread throughout the system, feeding high in the column when mayflies and caddis pop or sliding into deeper lanes when the sun is bright. On the lakes, same brown-rainbow mix grows thick on a diet of midges and mayflies; Hebgen in particular produces outsized, surface-oriented fish that can humble even seasoned anglers.

Fly fishing or bust! This is dry-fly country at heart, and when conditions line up you can fish a single floating pattern from the first cast to the last. Spring brings skwalas and blue-winged olives, give way to the salmonfly and golden stone spectacle on the Upper Madison in early summer, and roll into waves of PMDs and caddis that keep trout looking up. By mid- to late-summer, terrestrials take over—ants and hoppers tight to the bank on the river, and tiny mayfly spinners and Callibaetis duns over slick water on the lakes. When fish won’t rise, a tightline nymph or dry-dropper with a stonefly nymph and a small mayfly or caddis pupa covers the riffles efficiently. Streamers shine at first light, on stormy afternoons, and especially in fall when browns prowl—swing them through boulder fields and shade lines or strip them along channel edges on the Lower Madison. On Ennis Lake, long leaders, small flies, and quiet approaches are the ticket; on Hebgen, study the cadence of rises, lead the rhythm, and present without a ripple.