Madison River
Dam: 2,240 cfs
Kirby: 2,480 cfs
Varney: 3,220 cfs
The Madison is on the rise again, which will usually put the fishing off for another 24 hours or so, but reports have been good over the last few days. Water clarity remains at around 4-6 inches, and as of yesterday, the float section below Lyons has cleared up considerably…most likely due to the snow and cold temps we’ve had in the mountains over the past few days. In the wade section, the morning bite has been where its at, for both streamers and nymphs, and it seems to be tapering off around mid-afternoon. Not much has changed as far as effective patterns go…brown and black warbirds, pat’s stones, pink san juans, red midges, eggs, and red copper johns have all had their moments, as have green caddis larva. Between the lakes continues to produce the most consistent fishing, and while the crowds have thinned out a little with the poor weather, its still getting pretty hammered. Nuke eggs and midges seem to be taking the most fish out of that section, but don’t hesitate to throw some bigger stonefly nymphs and worms at them as well. Streamer fishing has been fair to excellent throughout the wade section, and the front runners have been the black sex dungeon and the olive/black double screamer. Most of the nicer browns we’ve been taking have all been tight to the bank or right behind the bigger boulders. We’ve also been getting good reports from Hebgen between Kirkwood Marina and Yellowstone Holiday. There are TONS of crayfish in the shallows right now, and people have been doing well on darker colored (olive-ish) imitations as well as general leech patterns.
