Hebgen Dam: 665 cfs
Kirby: 788 cfs
Varney: 960 cfs
The Upper Madison continues to fish well this Spring and I think everyone will agree that the river has been fishing a lot more like late April and early may since the better part of February. Flows out of Hebgen are holding steady at 665 cfs, and we don’t anticipate that to increase until mid to late June unless we get some biblical precipitation that brings Hebgen up into the 95% of full pool. That said, most of the fluctuation in flows we will be experiencing over the next several months will be the result of the creeks rather than the Dam so we should have fishable conditions from top to bottom for the foreseeable future.
As far as the fishing is concerned it has been good for quite a while, but mostly we are talking about your standard fare of nymph patterns, with a small window for dries and streamers if you are there on the right day. The Upper wade stretch has been all about the midge drift for most of the year and a good assortment of zebra midges, jujubees, small dips, and other assorted midge larva/pupa will be your best bet at numbers. For as many BWOs as we have seen in the mid to lower river, it was a little surprising that they were not making an appearance around Raynolds or Three Dollar until just recently. If you do start to see those little dark sailboats riding the surface film, Tungsten Rednecks, Juju Baetis, Kelly’s BWO nymph, Dark BPs, Olive Hot Spots, and Barr’s Emergers will get you into fish in a hurry. If you can’t seem to get them on the small stuff, it’s never a bad idea to cover some water with some small Pat’s Rubber Legs as well.
The Float Stretch has been a little more consistent with larger patterns such as stonefly nymphs and worms trailing BWOs and Caddis nymphs. There hasn’t been a huge rush to get out there super early, but the bite seems to be coming on around 9:30-10:00 every day. We have started to see a lot more caddis hatching on the lower stretches between Varney and Ennis lake over the last week, which is a welcome addition to the spring menu. Normally they don’t hatch until much later and visibility is usually an issue, so we could have amazing Mother’s Day caddis fishing on the Upper Madison this year.
Streamer fishing in the float stretch hasn’t been great over the last month, but that should change here very shortly. We have had a few good days out there, but they have been few and far between. Once we start to get water temps back into the high forties and low fifties we should see fish willing to chase down some bigger flies but nymphs are still the name of the game for numbers unfortunately. Most guys in the float stretch have been doing best nymphing small streamers like Zonkers and Dalai Lamas in natural, olive, and black and getting them right in their face…definitely not as much fun as fishing the stripped fly, but it can be very effective when fish refuse to chase. If you are looking to break out the streamer rod, I would recommend attacking on foot as it has been much better for us from Ennis Bridge to the Lake or from Quake down to Lyons. Smaller baitfish and Sculpin Patterns such as barely legals, mini dungeons have been best, along with thin articulated patterns such as peanut envys and double screamers.
As always, be sure to watch your step out there (or where you drop your anchor) if you plan on heading over, as there are quite a few spawning redds throughout the entire river. If you do encounter cleared gravel, be sure to walk in front of the redd rather than behind as most of the eggs wind up 3-10 ft behind the actual spawning bed.
