Madison River
Dam: 851 cfs
Kirby: 956 cfs
Varney: 1,060 cfs
The Madison between the lakes has been fishing well with nymphs over the last week, and while we’ve had some good days throwing streamers, it’s been far more consistent running the indicator rig. That’s not to say that you can’t go out there and have a great day of streamer fishing right now, but you may go back a day later and wonder where all the meat eaters went. If you plan on fishing nymphs, bring a good assortment of zebra midges, egg patterns, pat’s rubber legs, $3 dips, and red patterns such as copper johns, serendipities, lightning bugs, etc and you should get into them. Cabin Creek is still running with a tinge of glacial milk, but not enough to muddy up the river too much (that could change pretty quickly though). We’ve also been getting a lot of calls regarding the ice situation on Quake and Hebgen Lakes– The ice along Quake is receding, but there is still too much ice by the launch to put a boat in just yet…we’re guessing the wait will be over in another week or so. Hebgen is still pretty frozen along the edges, but with the warmer temps in the forecast over the next few days we should start to see open water along the shore by later next week. Good reports have been coming in below McAtee and Varney Bridge over the last four or five days as well, and it sounds like good numbers of midges and BWO’s have been bringing fish up with a little more regularity than we’ve seen in weeks past. This is also a great time of year to target some of the larger browns that inhabit the lower river, so be sure to bring a good assortment of your favorite streamer patterns and start hunting for a toad.
