Madison River
Dam: 680 cfs
Kirby: 1,060 cfs
Varney: 1,570 cfs
The Upper Madison is fishing off the chart for the time being, and our hatches are in full effect. We have salmonflies and golden stones on the banks from Lyon’s Bridge down to Varney, but the bulk of the hatch has settled between Palisades and a few miles below Story. As you might suspect, that is also where you will find the most boats as well. If you are looking to float and throw dries without being part of the Salmonfly regatta then I would spend more time between Varney and Ennis as there have been tons of PMDs, caddis, and sallies and very few people to contend with. The nymph fishing in both the wade and float sections has ranged from very good to just plain obscene at times, and we have been doing best on a variety of Pat’s Rubber Legs, caddis larva, Psycho Princes, Lighting Bugs, $3 Dips, Yellow Sally nymphs, and PMD emergers. If you are heading up to the wade section between Quake and Lyon’s you’ll want to have all your bases covered. We have four different kinds of caddis popping including our great gray spotted sedges (size 10’s), PMDs, Eperous, Yellow Sallies, Craneflies, and any day now…Salmonflies and Golden Stones. Streamer fishing has slowed down quite a bit, but we have still been having some great morning sessions if you are willing to get up early enough. Long story short, the dry fly fishing is at its peak right now and it’s pretty much all down hill from here.
