Fishing Report for March 29th, 2011

As most of you know, the section of the Madison between the outlet of Quake Lake and McAtee Bridge is closed until the 21st of May, as is the section below Ennis Bridge.  Most of the river is open for floating between Mac and 8 Mile, but it’s probably going to be another couple of weeks before the ice jams break up around Burnt Tree and the Ennis boat ramp…we’ll keep you posted on that.  A couple of us floated Varney to 8 Mile the other day, and it was pretty slow until the water warmed up around 1:30-2:00 p.m., and we started seeing more fish chasing streamers and eating nymphs.  It’s still a little early for the egg game down there, but we did pretty well throwing golden stone nymphs and midge patterns into the slowest and deepest water we could find.  The section between the lakes has been fishing well too, but its been pretty crowded down here on the weekends.  Again, the prime time seems to be a little after mid day, and we’ve been doing well on cheese colored eggs, midge patterns, san juans, and small stoneflies.  While it’s still a little early for the spawn, we are starting to see some redds around there so make sure to keep your distance whether there are fish on them or not.