FISHERY MANAGEMENT STUDIES ON THE MADISON RIVER SYSTEM 

 IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 



The Madison River drainage in Yellow- 

 stone National Park includes the Madison, Fire- 

 hole, and Gibbon Rivers (fig. 1) and has had a 

 reputation for providing some of the best trout 

 fishing in the western United States . It is part 

 of the Missouri River Basin. The brown trout 

 ( Salmo trutta ) of the Madison and lower Gibbon 

 have achieved nationwide fame because of their 

 large size, and brown trout of the Firehole 

 River are well-known because of their abundance. 

 The postwar increase in number of tourists in 

 Yellowstone focused additional attention on this 

 stream system, and the Fish and Wildlife Service 

 was consulted in 1951 regarding two problems 

 in the Firehole and Madison Rivers . One 

 problem concerned the advisability of continuing 

 the planting of brown trout in the Firehole; the 

 other pertained to the tremendous upsurge in 

 fishing pressure anticipated for the next 10 or 

 15 years . 



Biological field investigations began in 1953 

 on the Madison, Firehole, and Gibbon Rivers and 

 were terminated in 1957. The studies consisted 

 of a creel census to learn the characteristics of 

 the catch and of the fishermen, marking a large 

 proportion of fish planted under the regular 

 planting schedule, recovery of marked fish in 

 the fishery, studies of scales of wild and hatchery 

 fish, and electric shocking to determine the sizes 

 and compositions of the populations . 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



Mr. Harry Baker, Superintendent, U.S. 

 Fish Cultural Station, Ennis, Montana, and Mr. 

 Lloyd Justus, Superintendent, U.S. Fish Cultural 

 Station, Bozeman, Montana, gave invaluable help 

 by providing fish for marking and planting, by 

 making the facilities of their hatcheries available, 

 and by providing personnel to help in the marking 

 and handling of fish. 



National Park Service personnel who coop- 

 erated and assisted in various ways were Edmund 

 Rogers, formerly Superintendent, Yellowstone 

 National Park; Lemuel Garrison, the present 



Superintendent; Carl Gilbert, Frank Anderson, 

 and Les Gunzel, District Rangers; Walter Kittams, 

 Park Biologist; and several rangers. 



Special thanks are due Mr. Joseph Chen- 

 nault and Dr . William Sigler for the loan of the 

 electrical seine, and to Mr . Lynn Peterson of the 

 Homelite Company for the loan of the generator . 



Fish and Wildlife Service personnel who 

 had important parts in the planning and execution 

 of the work were Orville P . Ball, Jr . , and 

 Martin Laakso, Fishery Research Biologists . 



MANAGEMENT HISTORY 



The management of fish populations in the 

 Madison River drainage in Yellowstone began in 

 1889, when rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) were 

 planted in the Gibbon River above Virginia Cas- 

 cades and brown trout were planted in the Firehole 

 River above Kepler Cascades. Prior to that time, 

 the Firehole River above Firehole Falls and the 

 Gibbon River above Gibbon Falls were barren of 

 fish. The Madison River had populations of cut- 

 throat trout ( Salmo clarki), whitefish (Prosopium 

 williamsoni ), and grayling (Thymallus signifer), 

 as did the Gibbon River in the six -mile section .■ 

 below Gibbon Falls and the Firehole River in the 

 four-mile section below the falls. 



Stocking of fish continued to be the pri- 

 mary management procedure in this drainage for 

 many years. Additional plantings of brown trout 

 were made in the Firehole River and its tributaries, 

 and rainbow and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) 

 were also stocked in this stream. Rainbow and 

 brook trout were added to other sections of the 

 Gibbon River, and in 1907 rainbow were planted 

 in Grebe Lake, followed by cutthroat in 1912. By 

 that time, the Madison contained cutthroat, brown, 

 rainbow, and brook trouts, as well as whitefish 

 and grayling. Grayling were introduced into 

 Grebe Lake in 1921, and have thrived there. 

 Various stocking practices were used after that 

 time, and natural adjustments were made by the 

 fish themselves through upstream and downstream 



