Madison River Fishing Report for October 26th, 2018
Dam: 921 cfs
Kirby: 1,040 cfs
Varney: 1,090 cfs
The weather around here has been nothing short of spectacular over the last two weeks, but it looks like cooler temperatures will be moving back in after the weekend. Normally we’d be ok with keeping a little more sunshine around, but something has got to pick up the streamer bite on the Madison and hopefully this next cycle of rain and snow will be exactly what we need. We will be looking at highs in the low 40’s after Sunday with plenty of clouds in the mix, so now is a good time to get your Fall fix on the Upper Madison before Winter engulfs the Greater Yellowstone Region.
Crowds have remained fairly sparse on the Madison between Raynold’s and Ennis Bridges, as the majority of the traffic seems to be focused in Yellowstone National Park, between the lakes, and down in Valley Garden. We continue to have good success on small midges and baetis nymphs, as well as random attractors, san juan worms, and small pat’s rubber legs. Most of the effective patterns haven’t changed much this October, and you will see good numbers of small blue wings in the #20-24 range emerging from late morning through the early afternoon hours. Larger BWO’s are easily matched with a size 20 imitation, but if they start honing in on pseudos then you’ll need to keep it in the #22-24 range. Kelly’s Tilt Wing BWO, Nyman’s DOA Cripple, and a good old fashioned Parachute Adams are all good choices for representing these Duns at the time of emergence.
As previously mentioned, the streamer bite has been mediocre at best on the Madison over the last two weeks. A lot of folks have been chasing migratory fish that don’t seem to be there in huge numbers quite yet, so it’s looking like a late spawn again in 2018. Our best reports have been coming in from the upper river between Raynolds and Lyons bridge, and peanut envys, barely legals, and mini dungeons have been doing the most damage as of late. We should start to see more fish moving around with the change in weather after the weekend, and hopefully they will start chasing a little better in November. Be sure to keep checking back for another Madison River fishing report from the Slide Inn.
