Madison River Fishing Report for 4/26/2016
Dam: 861 cfs
Kirby: 1,140 cfs
Varney: 1,610 cfs
Madison river fishing report. The visibility has improved on the Upper Madison above the West Fork and we are now sitting at roughly 2 feet of visibility in the wade section. That said, the West Fork is still putting plenty of mud into the river, and the visibility around Ennis is holding steady at about a foot. The mud seems to be mixing between windy point and palisades, so there is still good visibility to be had in the float section below Lyon’s. The good news is that colder nighttime temperatures have produced decent amounts of snowfall in the mountains, which will slow the creeks down for the remainder of the week. The nymph fishing is still going strong from Quake down to Lyon’s Bridge, and we are still doing best on tan/brown pat’s rubber legs, $3 dips, lightning bugs, small princes, zebra midges, BWO nymphs, and san juan worms. As water temperatures start to drop into the low to mid 40’s from the 50 degree peaks we saw last week, be sure that you’re targeting the slower moving insides and pockets that fish will be gravitating towards. We haven’t seen much in the way of BWOs hatching up high, but we are still seeing decent numbers of fish rising to midges in the early afternoon hours. Most of the adults are still in that size 20-22 range, but we have also seen plenty of larger midges that are a solid 18, and a good selection of goober midges, griffith’s gnats, and stillborn midges should be all you need out there. The streamer bite continues to impress in the wade section as well, and the olive dungeon and peanut envy have been the hot patterns this week with all the cloud cover we’ve been receiving. We’ve also heard good reports from guys throwing white and olive and white streamers such as silk kitties and barely legals in the float section too, but the darker colors seem to be doing best up high. There have been good numbers of BWOs hatching lower down towards ennis, but the real story is still on the lower madison below bear trap canyon. If heads are what you seek then you will hard-pressed to beat the mother’s day caddis and baetis action there right now. As always, please watch out for spawning fish this time of year, as there are still plenty of fish on beds throughout the upper river. Be sure to keep checking back for another Madison River fishing report from the Slide Inn.