Madison River
Dam: 963 cfs
Kirby: 1,670 cfs and falling
Flows have been dropping as quickly as the river went up just a few weeks ago. Only four days prior they were letting 1,580 cfs out of the dam, and about two hours ago they dropped it to 963 cfs. This will do a couple of things: First, with less clear water coming out of the dam it should take a little longer for the upper river to clear. Second, the reduced flows will help the water warm up a lot quicker than we anticipated, so we should start to see good numbers of caddis popping later in the week. The river is still running with a greenish tinge, but the nymphing and streamer fishing have been good to excellent depending on the day. Because of the reduced visibility, the float section has been pretty hit or miss when drifting straight through–the best plan seems to be hopping out from time to time in order to cover every inch of fishable holding water. We’ve been picking up most of our fish on brown and black rubber legs trailing a yellow sally nymph, caddis larva, midge, or small attractor pattern, although San Juans have definitely held their own on some days. Streamers have also been good, and olive seems to be the best color at the moment.
