Madison River Fishing Report for August 25th, 2016
Dam: 861 cfs
Kirby: 892 cfs
Varney: 875 cfs
Madison River fishing report. The flow out of Hebgen was increased to 861 cfs this afternoon, which should give the fish some much needed breathing room, and make sections of the river such as Cameron flats and 8 Mile to town a lot more tolerable than what we’ve seen over the last week. That said, the Upper Madison continues to hold its own throughout the month of August, and the good news is that the warmer nights and 90 degree days appear to be on the way out. The wade section between Quake and Lyon’s Bridge has been a little more challenging in the mornings, but we have still been getting some good fish to eat small zebra midges and hares ears until the bite starts picking up around 10:00 a.m.. A good way to counter the lack of activity is to cash in on some of the dynamite streamer fishing that has been going on from O’ dark-thirty until 9:00 a.m., and we have been doing best on small sculpin imitations like Mini Loops, Trevor’s Sculpins, and Galloup’s Wooly Sculpins over the last week. However, we have also had some good activity on larger streamers such as Sex Dungeons, Silk Kitties, and Boogie Men until the sun hits the water. If you are looking to stack up some numbers, then nymphing is still your best bet out there and some of our better patterns this week have been #18 black and original $3 Dips, #18 PT Green Machines, #18 Micro Mayflies, #20 BWO nymphs, and #18-20 RS-2’s…in other words, a lot of small stuff. There have been quite a few Pseudos starting to hatch in the mornings as well a slightly larger (#18-20) mayfly emerging in the early afternoon, and a #20 parachute adams or #20 Nyman’s BWO Cripple are both good choices if you start to see heads poking up. We’ve had a few reports of decent hopper fishing in the afternoon, but ants have been far more consistent, as is usually the case this time of year. Our best ant patterns in the upper stretch have been Kelly’s Ant Acid in cinnamon and black/purple, with the Delektable CDC Ant in cinnamon and Bloom’s Parachute Ant tied in a very close second. There have been good numbers of small black flying ants starting their migration as of late, so it shouldn’t be long until the larger honey ants begin to take flight. If you plan on fishing into the late afternoon hours on the Madison this week, do yourself a favor and make sure you have at least a few #12-14 flying ant patterns in your box or you could be missing out on the biggest suicide bite of the year. Most of the flights tend to occur between 3:30-5:30 pm, and our favorite places to fish them are usually around Three Dollar Bridge and pretty much anywhere downstream from Ruby Cliffs. There are still a few caddis out at night, but their numbers are dwindling with each passing day. However, we are still seeing decent amounts of Epeorus spinners around, and a #16 rusty spinner has been about all you need to stay bent during that last hour before dark.
