Madison River
Dam: 749 cfs
Kirby: 1,350 cfs
Varney: 1,990 cfs
Clarity Update: The plug of mud finally made it to the end of Quake, and we are now sitting at around a foot of visibility above the West Fork. While this will certainly affect the dry fly fishing over the weekend, the nymph and streamer bite should be outstanding. Those running an indicator will want to have a good supply of brown and black rubber legs, prince nymphs, pink and red San Juan Worms, pheasant tails, zebra midges, and baetis nymphs/emergers (yup…they eat small stuff in the mud too). If ripping larger streamers is more your style, black and olive sex dungeons are usually hard to beat when the clouds roll in, and that is exactly what the forecast is calling for through the weekend. Your only shot at fishing clear water right now is between Hebgen Dam and Cabin Creek, but it has been B-U-S-Y on the weekdays and has been known to achieve complete human saturation on the weekends…long story short: Be prepared to share the water if you head up that way, and please watch out for spawning redds. We’ll keep you updated on fishing reports as well as river conditions as they roll in over the next few days, and hope to see everybody up here for the opener this Saturday.
