Madison River Fishing Report

Madison River Fishing Report for July 13th, 2022

Dam: 903 cfs

Kirby: 1,200 cfs

Varney: 1,560 cfs

It’s been another incredible week of fishing on the Upper Madison, and we are still in the midst of the best dry fly fishing of the season.  Water levels are back to normal for mid to late July, but we wouldn’t be surprised if flows out of Hebgen Dam are increased a little bit as the forecast is calling for much hotter days this week.  It’s still busy out there, but there are always places to find a little solitude if you are willing to walk a little further around the bend.

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Madison River Fishing Report for July 7th, 2022

Dam: 913 cfs

Kirby: 1,300 cfs

Varney: 1,840 cfs

The Madison is about as good as it gets right now — Flows are perfect, bugs are popping from top to bottom, and fish have been looking up for the dry fly very well over the last week.  Suffice to say, life is good here in the Madison Valley.

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Madison River Fishing Report for June 29th, 2022

Dam: 787 cfs

Kirby: 1,280 cfs

Varney: 2,020 cfs

The Upper Madison has been been fishing well this week, and flows out of Hebgen Dam have been cut back drastically since our last report.  Water clarity is roughly 3-4 feet depending on the section of river you are fishing and we should start to see the river clear up entirely in the next week or so.

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Madison River Fishing Report for June 21st, 2022

Dam: 2,300 cfs

Kirby: 2,980 cfs

Varney: 4,220 cfs

The Upper Madison is coming back into shape after the incredible amount of rain we received just over a week ago.  Flows out of Hebgen peaked from June 15th through June 17th, and NorthWestern Energy has been dropping them steadily every day since then.  We anticipate flows out of the dam to drop below 2,000 cfs in the next 24-36 hours, and visibility to start to improving by the weekend.  In the meantime the upper wade stretch has been fishing well in the mud with nymph and streamers.

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Madison River Fishing Report for June 6th, 2022

Dam: 382 cfs

Kirby: 1,010 cfs

Varney: 1,970 cfs

The Upper Madison has been fishing well over the last week, and we have continued to receive some much needed moisture all across the region.  The river is still very fishable above Palisades but it gets a little dirty once you get between Pal and Ruby…visibility in Ennis today was under a foot and brown.  We are currently sitting at 2.5′-3′ of visibility above the West Fork of the Madison, and flows out of Hebgen are still very low as Northwestern Energy continues their effort to fill the reservoir by the end of the month.  Right now the lake is over 89% full and we think there is enough water still to come in order to fill it.

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Madison River Fishing Report for May 28th, 2022

Dam: 361 cfs

Kirby: 1,130 cfs

Varney: 1,870 cfs

Up she goes.  After several days of warm temperatures and overnight precipitation, the Upper Madison is on the rise and it doesn’t look like the faucet is turning off in the foreseeable future.  The forecast is calling for heavy rain through Monday morning and a fair amount of snow up in the mountains, so it looks like we are going to have a fairly sizable runoff after all.  Water clarity is still over three feet with a slight green tinge above the West Fork, but the creeks are starting to pump out a lot of muddy water as you can see from the picture above.  Right now the West Fork of the Madison is putting in a sizable stripe, but clarity is still very good on the right side of the river all the way down to Palisades — Once you get between Pal and Ruby it definitely starts to get a lot dirtier though. Also worth mentioning is that with Beaver and Cabin creeks putting in over 700 cfs into Quake Lake we expect the mud to make it to the river by Monday or Tuesday at the latest which could make fishing the float section below Lyon’s Bridge a lot more difficult depending on the visibility. As you might have noticed, flows out of Hebgen are extremely low as NorthWestern Energy continues to hold them back in order to fill Hebgen Reservoir by the end of June.  Currently we are just under 80% of full pool, but are going to get a lot of water coming into the lake over the next few weeks.  All that being said, you might consider giving those fish between the dam and Cabin Creek a break as there is very little water they can hold in.

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Madison River Fishing Report for May 17th, 2022

5/23 Flow & Clarity Update

 The Upper Madison is still running clear in the wade stretch between Quake and Lyons and the float stretch is running with just a tinge of green below Palisdades.  Flows out of Hebgen dropped to 405 cfs as of yesterday as Northwestern Energy is making sure they can fill Hebgen Lake by the end of June.  Flows at the Kirby gauge are 619 cfs and Varney is running at 795 cfs. We expect the clarity to get worse from Lyon’s down to Ennis with the warm weather in the forecast on Wednesday and Thursday, which should get the West Fork of the Madison running brown again.

 

Dam: 640 cfs

Kirby: 886 cfs

Varney: 1,160 cfs

The Upper Madison has been fishing well this week, and the cooler temperatures have kept the creeks low and clear up until last night.   The river is still running clear from the Slide Area down to Pine Butte, but the West Fork is putting in a good stripe of mud down the center of the river and Cabin and Beaver Creeks have started to put a lot of dirty water into Quake Lake.   Our guess is that Quake will start to get more brown-olive in color in the next week or so. If you are looking to float the river, the mud starts to mix evenly between Palisades and Ruby and there was approximately 8″ of visibility in Ennis this morning.  There is a good possibility that the cold front coming in on Thursday could slow things down a little bit, but I think it’s safe to say that the first stages of Spring runoff have started on the Upper Madison.

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Madison River Fishing Report for May 2nd, 2022

Dam: 640 cfs

Kirby: 710 cfs

Varney: 789 cfs

The Upper Madison continues to fish well this Spring, and we have a little more water to work with since our last report.  Flows out of Hebgen were brought up to 640 cfs last week, and will probably remain there for another 4-6 weeks until the reservoir starts to hit that upper 80 to low 90 percentile.  It’ll be awhile, but we think it will get pretty close to full pool this year as spring storms continue to fill our mountains with wet snow and our valleys with some much needed rain.  Our current snowpack in the Madison range is up to 92% and we hope to continue to build on that in the weeks to come.

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Madison River Fishing Report for April 21st, 2022

Dam: 537 cfs

Kirby: 627 cfs

Varney: 692 cfs

The Upper Madison has been fishing well, but we are still in the midst of an extremely low water situation so be sure to use caution if you choose to float…there are rocks being hit out there that haven’t seen fiberglass in a very, very long time.  You can expect to see flows out of Hebgen Dam between 480-600 cfs for at least another month, as NorthWestern Energy tries to bring the reservoir up to full pool by the end of June.  Once daytime air temperatures start getting back in the 60 degree range we should start to see the tributaries kick in some much needed water to the areas below Quake lake, but the river as a whole will continue to be extremely shallow until that happens.   The good news is that April has been much colder than usual and a steady supply of rain and snow has started to build up relatively lack-luster snowpacks throughout the entire state.  We are currently sitting at a moisture content of 82% in the Madison Range, but you can count on that number to increase a good bit after the winter storm comes through tomorrow through Saturday morning — The forecast is calling for 1-2 feet in the mountains, and we welcome every inch of that.

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Madison River Fishing Report for March 23rd, 2022

Dam: 565 cfs

Kirby: 643 cfs

Varney: 673 cfs

And….we’re back.  We took a little hiatus from the Upper Madison this Winter in order to give the fish a break from the Hebgen Dam catastrophe that happened last Fall, but we have been hitting the river consistently over the last several weeks and fishing has been very good.  It’s going to be a little boney with regard to river flows this Spring, as our snowpack in the Madison range is currently sitting at 80% and Hebgen is only 68% full.  Our guess is that NW Energy will hold flows out of Hebgen Dam to around 550-650 cfs until runoff begins in mid to late May.  Until then all we can do is cross our fingers for a lot more moisture in the forecast in order to make up for another mild winter.

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