Madison River Fishing Report for June 19th, 2020
Dam: 804 cfs
Kirby: 1,330 cfs
Varney: 2,090 cfs
The Upper Madison has been fishing very well lately. Flows have been dropping out of the dam each day as NW Energy is trying to get to full pool by the end of the month, but the creeks are still putting in enough water to compensate for it and keeping the banks fishy in the float section. The river is gin clear in the upper wade section, with the West Fork still putting in a small stripe of dirty water down the left side. Once it mixes you are looking at around 3.5-4 feet below Palisades and we should start to see it clear up by the weekend or early next week.
Nymphs and streamers have been your best option out there for the last several weeks, but the caddis are starting to show themselves a little more each day and it won’t be long before the dry fly fishing on the Upper Madison starts to heat up. Pat’s Rubber Legs, olive and green Caddis Larva, Hare’s Ears, PT’s, Perdigons, Psycho Princes, and Three Dollar Dips have all been productive over the last week and worms have also been on the menu the day after a hard rain.
Streamer Fishing has actually been pretty good lately, particularly in the float stretch. Natural and Olive Dungeons, Olive Boogie Men and Peanut Envys, and Olive/White CH Barely Legals have all been good recently and we have been getting them on faster retrieves from early morning on.
With falling water and water temps starting to creep into the low sixties you can bet that salmon flies are getting really close around here. Our guess is that we should start to see them crawling out around Ennis over the next few days, and I would be really surprised if they were not out in force by Monday or Tuesday given the conditions. We’ll keep you up to date as soon as we start seeing shucks, but make sure to stock up on some big dries if you plan on fishing down low over the next few days.
