Madison River
Dam: 749 cfs
Kirby: 799 cfs
Varney: 845 cfs
With colder nights and thus colder water temperatures, things have been picking up on the river this week. While nymphs are still the way to go if you are looking for numbers, we’ve been having better reports of dry fly fishing over the last few days. That’s not to say that you can go out there and rip 50 fish on hoppers right now, nor has it been a great hopper year in general, but the ant and attractor bite has been bringing more than a few good fish up in search of food. Purple Hazes, Cinnamon Ants, Royal Wulff Cripples, and smaller hoppers in tan or gold have all been good options as of late. If you are looking to run an indicator out there, make sure to carry a good assortment of baetis nymphs along with the usual fare of serendipities, rubber legs, caddis larva, and midges. When the usual suspects haven’t been producing in the float section, the bunny fur/bead head rig has been the way to go, so make sure to have some zonkers, sheila sculpins, or sculpzillas along with you if you plan on heading out below Lyon’s bridge. For all you streamer junkies out there, the tug has been pretty solid over the last three days…some mornings have actually bordered on the “obscene” as far as chases, bumps, and hook ups are concerned. There has also been a noticeable change in terms of the effective fly size as well– We had a hard time getting fish to commit to the big stuff once the sun hit the water for the better part of two weeks, but we have been getting good fish on an assortment of dungeons, barely legals, butt monkies, and double screamers throughout the day. With the cloud cover and thunderstorms predicted over the weekend, now might be a good time to string up your sinking line and go looking for a toad…it should be good out there.
