Bids for the long-planned upgrade at Meadow Lake Fishing Access Site were due in Helena at 2:59 p.m. on October 14, 2026. That bid opening never took place. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks now lists the project on its Recently Bid Projects page as "CANCELLED - Meadow Lake FAS Improvements." The page gives no reason and no new date.
On its own, that looks like a small paperwork note. It reads differently once you set it beside what happened this year at the other two public spots where McAllister gets onto Ennis Lake. Two agencies run the three sites, and every one of them has a limit the other two make up for. In 2026 the lake's access held together because those sites kept covering for each other, more than because anything new was built.
Three shores, two agencies, one fund
The public lake access near McAllister comes down to three places:
- Meadow Lake Fishing Access Site. FWP runs it. The site covers 8.2 acres on the north shore. To get there, go 6 miles north of Ennis on Highway 287 to milepost 55 at McAllister, turn right onto North Ennis Lake Road and drive east 2 miles. It is listed as open January 1 through December 31, with a 7-day stay limit and a 25-foot trailer limit. The description on FWP's site page is brief: "Very shallow shoreline; boat ramp available at BLM site Kobayashi Beach."
- Kobayashi Beach. This is a day-use area on the north shore run by the Bureau of Land Management. People use it for picnicking, swimming, boating, waterskiing and fishing. It sits roughly nine miles north of Ennis.
- Clute's Landing. BLM's Dillon Field Office runs it, and the BLM site page calls it "the only public boat launch on the west Shore of Ennis Lake." It has two camping spots, with camping limited to 14 days.
The money that keeps these sites working mostly comes from one source. The Missouri-Madison River Fund grew out of the hydropower relicensing on the Madison and Missouri. According to NorthWestern Energy, the fund has paid for 181 projects worth $7.2 million since 2007, or about $350,000 a year spread from Hebgen Reservoir down to Fort Benton. Andy Welch, NorthWestern's hydropower license compliance manager, described the scale this way in the April 29, 2026 announcement: "When you have about a million visits a year along the Madison and Missouri rivers, even small improvements make a big difference."
On Ennis Lake those improvements are small, and the sites lean on one another.
How the sites have covered for each other
Each site's official notices point people to one of the others. Put in order, the last eighteen months look like this:
- Summer 2025. High winds damaged the floating dock and its anchoring system at Kobayashi Beach. BLM put in a temporary anchoring system so the dock stayed usable through the summer.
- September 30, 2025. According to a BLM notice, BLM started repairs at Kobayashi and closed the boat launch, floating dock and nearby parking during daylight hours while crews worked. The agency sent boaters to Clute's Landing, 5.5 miles away. The same notice said Clute's "is intended for smaller motorized vessels and may not be suitable for all watercraft." Once repairs were finished, the dock came out for the winter.
- April 10, 2025. FWP signed the decision approving the Meadow Lake upgrade, which included a rollout dock for hand-launching.
- April 6, 2026. Clute's Landing closed for a planned two-week repair, and this time the advice went the other direction. Boaters were pointed to Kobayashi Beach.
- October 14, 2026. This was the scheduled bid opening for Meadow Lake. The project is now listed as canceled.
Kobayashi has the bigger ramp and the dock, Clute's gives the west shore a launch for smaller boats, and Meadow Lake has the campsites but a shoreline too shallow for a ramp. All year, any closure at one site meant a referral to another.
The fix at Clute's Landing, and the spring behind it
The Clute's closure was smaller than a "closed" sign suggests. KULR 8 reported the details of the BLM notice:
The lower access road, lower parking lot and boat launch will be closed. The upper parking lot, vault toilet, campsites and day use area will stay open.
KULR's report said the work would deal with erosion from a nearby spring and improve safety and lake access. The River Fund's project summary describes the job as redirecting runoff and improving "the access road, parking area, and boat ramp where damage has occurred due to erosion."
The project costs $27,425 in total. Of that, $20,425 comes from the River Fund, $3,500 from NorthWestern Energy's matching funds and $3,500 from the applicant and partners. River Fund grants plus NorthWestern's matching funds came to $410,701 in 2026. With $118,900 from agencies and partners added, the six projects totaled $529,601, which means the west shore's only public ramp accounted for about five cents of every dollar. Another project in the same batch from the Hebgen-Madison region widens the boat ramp and adds a rigging lane at Varney Bridge Fishing Access Site on the Madison River.
What Meadow Lake was set to get
The canceled project would have changed how the north shore works more than anything else in this story. FWP's decision notice calls Meadow Lake "a popular spot for walk in boat access to the lake." It says use has gone up across fishing access sites with camping, and that this site draws people because it is close to Ennis, Bozeman, Big Sky and West Yellowstone.
The approved plan included:
- five more campsites
- a new rollout dock for hand-launching personal watercraft
- a bigger camp loop and a new entrance and exit so traffic moves one way through the site
- a new day-use parking area that serves the launch
- a second vault latrine built to ADA standards
The rollout dock matters most for anyone who paddles. FWP's own listing still sends boaters to Kobayashi because the Meadow Lake shoreline is so shallow. A dock for kayaks and canoes would have given the north shore a second launch that does not rely on the BLM ramp.
The plan drew no objections. The draft was open for public comment from March 20 to April 4, 2025, and FWP "did not receive any comments during the public comment period." The work had reached the point of a project manual and an invitation to contractors. A pre-bid walk-through was set for 10 a.m. on September 29, 2026, with participants meeting at the site on Ennis Lake. Two weeks after that walk-through date, the project was off FWP's schedule.
Meadow Lake works the same as it did before. It is still listed as open all year, with the 7-day stay limit and the 25-foot trailer limit. The River Fund gives out its awards every December, so that is the next regular funding round for recreation projects on the corridor.
Using the three sites from now into ice season
The way the sites cover for each other sets the plan for the rest of the season.
Launching a boat late in the season. Last year the Kobayashi floating dock was taken out for winter once its repairs were done, and the new anchors were "designed to increase holding capacity" given the weather on Ennis Lake. If you plan to fish or cruise late in the fall, call the Dillon Field Office at 406-683-8000 before towing. They manage Clute's and Kobayashi. Keep BLM's own guidance in mind too: Clute's is meant for smaller motorized boats.
Paddlers. On the north shore, Meadow Lake is still a walk-in launch over a shallow shoreline, and no hand-launch dock is coming yet.
Camping into the shoulder season. Clute's has two spots with a 14-day limit. Meadow Lake has more sites with a 7-day limit and is listed as open through December 31.
Ice. One local outfitter lists Ennis Lake among its ice-fishing waters and puts its usual season at mid-December through early March, depending on weather and ice. Montana FWP recommends checking current ice conditions with local FWP offices and sport shops before heading out. FWP's approved list of 2026–27 ice-fishing contests has no Ennis Lake derby. The closest one in Region 3 is the Hebgen Lake Ice Fishing Tournament at Kirkwood Marina on January 23, 2027.
Since September 2025, Kobayashi Beach and Clute's Landing have both had repair work, while Meadow Lake has an approved plan and nothing on the schedule. If you live near North Ennis Lake Road, all three of these places are close by and worth knowing well.
If you're thinking about a McAllister property and want to know how far it really is to each public launch, or how lake access figures into what it's worth, Jenny Rohrback can walk you through it with local, on-the-ground detail. Request your personalized Madison Valley market valuation.
