Madison River
Dam: 953 cfs
Kirby: 994 cfs
Varney: 1,100 cfs
As Fall temperatures continue to keep water temps at more ideal levels, fishing has picked up throughout the Upper Madison. We are starting to see our first waves of fish coming out of Ennis Lake, and even the resident browns have started to put on their Halloween costumes…good news for the streamer fishermen out there. We’ve been doing best on a variety of olive and black streamers such as butt monkeys, sex dungeons, and peanut envys in the morning and during periods of low light. When the sun gets high, start throwing more brown/yellows, whites, and olive/whites and you should do well out there. The float section below Lyons has fished best with a zonker/beadhead combo under an indicator and some of our better trailers have been lightning bugs, bloody marys, and various soft hackles. If you decide to pull over and isolate water, try smaller serendipitys, baetis nymphs, and black or red midge larva/pupa. The wade section has also fished well with similar small nymphs, and a black zebra midge in #18-20 has been pretty solid pattern over the last few weeks around Raynolds and Three Dollar…but it can’t hurt to try some ants or hoppers out there during the afternoon either. We thought the cloud cover yesterday would have brought out the baetis, but it seems we’re still a little ways out…we should start to see them get going here in the weeks to come.
