Madison River Fishing Report

Madison River Fishing Report for July 9th, 2017

Dam: 1,210 cfs

Kirby: 1,630 cfs

Varney: 1,980 cfs

Madison River fishing report.  The Upper Madison is still fishing very well these days with both nymphs and dry flies alike.  We’ve had some good streamer action in the morning and then again at night, but it has been a little slower once the insect activity begins to shift into full gear.  We are still seeing decent amounts of salmonflies between Raynolds and the West Fork, but there have been a lot more golden stones flying around over the last several days and fish are still looking for the big dry in these areas. 

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Madison River Fishing Report for June 25th, 2017

Dam: 1,300 cfs

Kirby: 1,800 cfs

Varney: 2,280 cfs

Madison River fishing report.  The Upper Madison is in full swing and the river is literally exploding with insect activity.  You’ll find good numbers of salmonflies and golden stones from Palisades all the way down to Cameron Flats, and it shouldn’t be long before they start to make their presence known in the wade section between Quake Lake and Lyon’s Bridge.  Our guess is that they should be up here by the first or second of July and they should hang around for at least a week or two.  The hatch is definitely more concentrated in certain sections, but you’ll find plenty of nymphs still staged up along the banks even in the high density areas, so we are still in store for more amazing dry fly fishing in the weeks to come.

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Madison River Fishing Report for June 18th, 2017

Dam: 1,610 cfs

Kirby: 2,190 cfs

Varney: 2,840 cfs

Madison River fishing report.  The Upper Madison is still running at over 2,000 cfs above the West Fork and just under 3,000 cfs at Varney but it’s in great shape and fishing well.  Visibility has improved to around 3.5-4 ft and green, and with the forecast calling for fairly sunny skies and warmer nights, my guess is that we should start to see a drop in flows here soon.

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Madison River Fishing Report for June 8th, 2017

Dam: 1,440 cfs

Kirby: 2,520 cfs

Varney: 3,630 cfs

Madison River fishing report.  The fishing on the Upper Madison continues to hold its own, and the nymph and streamer fishing has been excellent throughout the wade section between Quake and Lyon’s Bridge.  Flows have been hovering between 2,400-2,600 cfs above the West Fork for the last week or so, and it could very easily go up even higher depending on how much precipitation we get over the next five days.  Visibility remains at roughly 8″ and green.

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Madison River Fishing Report for May 24th, 2017

Dam: 1,700 cfs

Kirby: 2,300 cfs

Varney: 3,100 cfs

Madison River fishing report.  The Upper Madison has cleaned up nicely since last Saturday and we are now sitting at roughly 3.5′ of visibility and green above the West Fork.  We should have relatively clear water for the next 3-5 days, but it looks like Cabin and Beaver Creeks are pumping mud into Quake again so my guess is that the plug should hit river by Saturday or Sunday.

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Madison River Fishing Report for May 13th, 2017

Dam: 1,700 cfs

Kirby: 2,700 cfs

Varney: 4,330 cfs

Madison River fishing report.  Well, a lot has changed from our last report in late April and just about all the rivers in the region are in the midst of a very solid runoff that is likely to stay put for quite some time.  That said, the Madison between Quake and Lyon’s is currently running at about 10″-12″ of visibility and green.  You can still find about the same clarity from Lyon’s down to Windy on the right side of the river, but the mud is pretty well mixed by the time you get to Palisades and you’ll be looking at about 6″ of clarity from Pal down to Ennis.  Beaver and Cabin creeks have been pumping a lot of chocolate milk into Quake, but there has been enough clear water coming out of the dam to keep it on the greener side of things for the time being.

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Madison River Fishing Report for April 26th, 2017

Dam: 1,290 cfs

Kirby: 1,360 cfs

Varney: 1,530 cfs

Madison River fishing report.  The Upper Madison is still fishing extremely well throughout its entirety, and we just saw the first good emergence of blue winged olives yesterday in the wade section between Quake Lake and Lyon’s.  That said, the dry fly fishing has remained good to excellent from late morning through the afternoon with midges, BWOs, and skwallas.  Most of the midges have been popping anywhere from 10:30-3:00 depending on the day, and a #20 Goober midge or Griffith’s gnat is still about all you need out there.  Now that the Blue Wings are back on their usual schedule you can expect to see them hatching from noon into the early afternoon hours.  If you do run into a pod of fish sipping BWOs, some of our favorite patterns are Nyman’s BWO Cripple and Kelly’s Tilt Wing Dun in size 18, and you can also hang a #18 BWO Barr’s Emerger off the back for any fish eating just below the surface film.

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Madison River Fishing Report for March 24th, 2017

Dam: 1,290 cfs

Kirby: 1,350 cfs

Varney: 1,550 cfs

Madison River fishing report.  As most of you know, we had two weeks of unseasonably warm temperatures in the region in addition to several days of rain, which muddied up many of the creeks and rivers at lower elevations.  The good news is that the forecast is calling for cooler nights and highs in the forties through next week, which should slow the melt down considerably from what we saw earlier in the month. Flows out of the dam were raised another 100 cfs yesterday morning, putting us at roughly 1,350 cfs above the West Fork and 1,550 cfs at Varney, which is pretty much perfect for wade and float anglers alike.

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Madison River Fishing Report for March 13th, 2017

Dam: 1,150 cfs

Kirby: 1,180 cfs

Varney: 1,370 cfs

Madison River fishing report.  Not much has changed on the Upper Madison over the last month, and fish are still eating nymphs and dry flies very well throughout the Upper River.  As you can see from the river gauges, the flow out of Hebgen was increased  by 300 cfs last week, and we are currently running at just under 1,200 cfs at the Kirby gauge for the time being.  While much of the low level snow has started to melt from the Slide area down to Ennis, the vast majority of our snow pack is still sitting pretty above Hebgen and they are taking the reservoir down in order to make room for an above average runoff coming out of Yellowstone National Park.  The forecast this week is calling for highs in the mid forties to low fifties, so it’s definitely starting to feel a little more like Spring around here, but our guess is that we still haven’t seen the last of Old Man Winter quite yet.

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Madison River Fishing Report for February 17th, 2017

Dam: 861 cfs

Kirby: 892 cfs

      Madison River fishing report.  Not much has changed on the Upper Madison this month except for the presence of warmer air temperatures that have descended upon the valley over the last several weeks.  It’s strange to see rain in the forecast this early, but at least we are still getting some snow in the mountains and we still have a good amount of Winter left to go.  The Madison Range is currently sitting at 135% of total snow pack with a moisture content of 100%, so it looks like we are still on track for an average looking runoff.   

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