Madison River Fishing Report for May 2nd, 2022
Dam: 640 cfs
Kirby: 710 cfs
Varney: 789 cfs
The Upper Madison continues to fish well this Spring, and we have a little more water to work with since our last report. Flows out of Hebgen were brought up to 640 cfs last week, and will probably remain there for another 4-6 weeks until the reservoir starts to hit that upper 80 to low 90 percentile. It’ll be awhile, but we think it will get pretty close to full pool this year as spring storms continue to fill our mountains with wet snow and our valleys with some much needed rain. Our current snowpack in the Madison range is up to 92% and we hope to continue to build on that in the weeks to come.
Nymphs are still the way to go out there but we are still getting some dry fly action during the early afternoon hours on midges and blue winged olives. Fish have been getting a little wise to stonefly and worms for the time being, so we have been doing best with smaller nymphs like midge larva, perdigons, and BWO nymphs in the upper stretches. Once you get below Lyon’s we have found more fish willing to eat rubber legs, worms, and other large nymphs all the way down to Ennis. There are a few skwallas out there as well and you can get some nice fish to come up for a small olive or royal chubby if you cover enough water.
Streamer fishing has started to pick up over the last week, especially once water temperatures start to creep into the upper 40’s. Mini Dungeons, Peanut Envys, Double Screamers, and Barely Legals have been some of our better patterns lately and we’ve had fish willing to chase a little more aggressively later in the afternoons. Also worth noting is that most of the larger browns we’ve seen have been hiding in the shallows and transition areas along the banks so don’t neglect those areas if you decide to head out.
As always, please watch your step and pay attention to where you drop your boat anchor as there are lots of spawning redds out there. If you do encounter cleared gravel it is always better to walk upstream rather than downstream as the vast majority of the eggs end up 3′-15′ behind the actual redd.
