Madison River
Dam: 671 cfs
Kirby: 780 cfs
Varney: 921 cfs
JUST A REMINDER THAT THE UPPER MADISON BETWEEN QUAKE LAKE AND MCATEE BRIDGE AS WELL AS FROM ENNIS BRIDGE TO ENNIS LAKE IS CLOSED TO ALL FISHING UNTIL MAY 16TH.
The Upper Madison is still fishing very well with nymphs from McAtee down to Ennis Bridge as well as between the lakes. On a quick Varney to 8 Mile over the weekend, we started with an Oregon cheese nuke egg trailing a Galloup BWO nymph in size 18 and never took it off. Although there wasn’t much in the way of midges, there were a few more BWOs popping in the late morning hours than we had seen in the previous week. We also got good reports from the Rubber Leg/San Juan crew as well, so my guess was that they were simply on the feed. Streamers have been doing the most damage in the afternoon, especially when water temps start to get above 42 degrees or so. Look for more BWOs to start riding the surface film this week and pray for cloudy skies.
The Madison between the lakes has also been fishing well under the surface, but we haven’t seen much in the way of surface activity quite yet. Nuke Eggs, baetis nymphs, midge larva, Pat’s Rubber Legs, $3 Dips, rainbow warriors, and red attractors are all doing well under the indicator. We had a small bump in the flows last weekend that we’re sure brought new fish into the system, and we should really start to see more rainbows coming in over the next two to three weeks. That said, we are still seeing more redds popping up around Cabin Creek various tailouts so please watch your step out there. The streamer bite seemed to be a little slower over the weekend from the few reports we got, but that doesn’t mean it can’t turn on on any given day. Sex Dungeons, Boogie Men, and other sculpin patterns have been the way to go as of late, but dead drifting smaller patterns such as Shiela Sculpins, Sculpzillas, and Zonkers can be code crackers if you aren’t getting fish to chase.