Hebgen Dam: 843 cfs
Kirby: 942 cfs
Varney: 1,110 cfs
The Upper Madison continues to hold its own this summer, and we are still having good dry fly fishing and early morning streamer fishing depending on the day. Flows are still hanging around 950 cfs at the Kirby gauge above the West Fork with just over 1,100 cfs down by Varney Bridge. My guess is that it will stay that way through October unless we get some hotter temperatures in the weeks to come.
Streamer fishing has been the best early morning option out there, but other than that there isn’t a huge need to get on the water before 9:30 am if you are looking to throw dries and nymphs. Our best bite window for streamers has been from dawn until 8 am and then again in the last few hours before dark. Smaller sculpin imitations in black, olive, and natural have been our best producers and we the fish have been eating them on a fairly fast retrieve. Mini Dungeons, Baby Gongas, Mini Loop Sculpin, Mini Kill Whiteys, and Mini CH T&A’s have been some of our favorites over the last week and we should start to see fish keying in on larger patterns in the next 2-3 weeks.
As mentioned above, we are still getting good fish to come up for terrestrials during the late morning and afternoon hours as the long as the sun is on the water. Dark skies are generally unproductive for hopper fishing on the Upper Madison so lean a lot heavier on ants and beetles if you find yourself over here on a cloudy day. Even though we are seeing some larger grasshoppers along the banks, we are still doing best on smaller imitations in the size #12-#14 range in pink, flesh, tan, and yellow. Small Chernobyls in similar colors, flying ants in #14-#18 range, beetles, and other attractors have been getting it done out there as well.
Nymph fishing has been decent, but it seems like they want something different every day. Most of the patterns people have been having success with have been in the #16-#18 range and are usually small mayfly emergers, caddis pupa, and attractors. Three Dollar Dips, Olive Hot Spots, CDC Emergers, Perdigons, and Krystal Dips are always good choices this time of year, but don’t be afraid to show them they haven’t seen yet either.
