Madison River
Dam: 1,620 cfs
Kirby: 1,910 cfs
Varney: 2,510 cfs
Yesterday was another great opener on the Upper Madison, and we had good reports all through the wade section. Water clarity remains around 8 inches of visibility, and the usual suspects were top producers: Warbirds, Pat’s Stones, San Juans, midges, and caddis larva all caught fish. We also had good streamer reports from our buddy Trey who ended up floating Lyons to Ruby Yesterday. Trey said it was a toss-up between the Olive Peanut Envy and the Olive/Black Double Screamer, but fishing got a little tough once they got a mile down from Palisades. Similar reports of slower fishing came in later in the afternoon, and there was a reason for this…water levels around the West Fork started to rise right around 4:00 p.m.. PPL raised the flows out of the dam yesterday, so that would explain why things seem to shut off for everybody at around the same time. That being said, look for the fish to hug the bank a little more today, and just hope that they don’t raise the water again for another few days. We’ll keep you updated as conditions change.
