River Flows:
Hebgen Dam: 449 cfs
Kirby: 684 cfs
Varney: 904 cfs
The Upper Madison has been fishing well over the last week, and visibility has improved throughout the entire river with the recent cold front that rolled in last week. Right now water clarity is around 3 feet or better with a nice green tinge, but the West Fork and Indian Creek will likely start dumping in some dirty water again here shortly. Flows remain extremely low for this time of year, but it’s still floatable in a hard boat from top to bottom – You’ll be painting your fair share of rocks in the Flats and between 8 Mile and Town though. Northwestern Energy continues to hold back water in order to fill up Hebgen, which is currently 94.2% full and only 1.8 ft. from full pool so there is a very good chance that we could see flows increase to match the inflow in the next 2-3 weeks.
Nymphing is still the name of the game out there, and we have been doing best with smaller bugs in the upper wade stretch between Quake and Lyons. BWO nymphs, Caddis Larva, Small Perdigons, and Dips have been some of the better producers up high and will likely remain that way for the next two to three weeks. Once flows start to increase we should start doing better on bigger patterns such as Stonefly nymphs, worms, and cranefly larva. We have had similar luck in the float section with the smaller stuff since the river cleared up, but they are still looking at larger bugs such as rubber legs and worms on the lower river down by Ennis. If you aren’t having any luck getting them on a two fly rig under the bobber, try switching to a dry/dropper system and work the shallow banks that haven’t been hit as much.
Dry fly fishing hasn’t been great around here but there have been some opportunities on the cloudier days. We still have BWOs hatching up high but there are larger numbers of caddis and even a few PMDs on the lower river down by town, so I would head that way if you are looking to throw the dry. You can also commit to a smaller attractor like a Micro Chubby for the day….throw in all the right places and keep moving and you will get some shots at some nice fish. We are looking at another 2 weeks before things really get going around here but it’s right around the corner.
Streamer Fishing has been decent but not great. As we said in the last report, some of our better streamer days have been in the upper and lower wade sections, but the float section has been pretty inconsistent on the strip. If you are looking to float and throw streamers I’d go down low…We’ve had some decent days below Lyons, but most of the good fish are coming out of random shallow riffles and we don’t seem to be getting a lot of chances at them either. Some of our most consistent patterns this week have been Peanut Envys, Mini Dungeons, Mini Whiteys, CH Barely Legals and other small sculpin patterns. Look for the streamer bite to improve once water flows begin to increase and we get a little more color in the water.
