Madison River

Hebgen Dam: 688 cfs

Kirby:  959 cfs

What an opener!  Opening weekend on the Upper Madison was filled with partly-cloudy skies, sixty degree temperatures, gin-clear water, and very willing trout.  The fishing wasn’t on fire, but it was still pretty damn good.  There were some decent heads up on BWOs and midges in the afternoon, but nymphing was definitely the way to go.  Small golden stones and sallies, midges, caddis larva, san juans, and baetis nymphs have been the way to go with the lower flows, but with the creeks just starting to kick in mud we’ll be throwing rubber legs before you know it.   We are also seeing an unusual amount of skwallas in the wade section, and we’ve had a few customers tell us that fish are looking up for them.  The West Fork is throwing a pretty good stripe of chocolate milk well past Lyon’s Bridge, as are Cabin and Beaver Creek between the lakes, and its looking more and more like the mud will reach the outlet of Quake within the next few days.  Streamer fishing has been good as well…we haven’t had any epic days like we did last year for the opener, but we are still catching plenty of healthy fish.