Madison River
Dam: 722 cfs
Kirby: 1,150 cfs
Varney: 1,800 cfs
Water clarity has improved throughout the upper river and we are now sitting at around 2 feet of visibility in both the wade and float stretches of the Madison. We had our first report of decent dry fly fishing from a few customers that were throwing baetis duns above Raynolds today…they didn’t kill it by any means but it’s a good sign for the weeks to come. It seems like the nymph fishing has slowed down a little bit on average, but the customers that have been doing well seem to have one thing in common: small droppers. While you can still get a fair amount of fish to eat your rubber leg, most of the quality fish we are landing under the indicator have come on #18-20 baetis nymphs–Other honorable mentions have been #16-18 red serendipities and copper johns, purple lighting bugs, olive hares ears, and zebra midges. Streamer fishing has ranged from good to extraordinary and most of the larger browns have all been within 6″ or less of the bank. As usual, olive and black have been the go-to colors on the overcast days, but we’ve had some good reports on white and yellow patterns when the sun has been on the water.
