The Madison, the Upper Madison, anyway is having a pretty good year. There are lots of insects in the water and the fish are happily gorging themselves. The Lower is gone until the fall. Don’t even bother going out there, unless you wanted to rent some scuba gear and poke holes in all the [...]
River – Madison
Not too much has changed on the Madison in the past week. The summer pattern is here, and is likely to be here for some time. The Lower is still out of it. Hit it early if you have to fish it at all. Should be getting better this fall. Damn tubers. The Upper [...]
The Lower Madison is pretty much effectively shut off at this point. The combination of rising water temps and the damn tubers is killer. Look for this stretch to improve come fall. If you do feel compelled to fish the Lower, hit it in mornings before the legions of tubers awake from their drunken stupor. [...]
We’ve been hearing bits and pieces of this story for a few weeks now, and lo and behold Richard Lessner, PhD, the Executive Director of the Madison River Foundation in Ennis has just published a nice report on the project in the 14 July 2009 MRF newsletter. Here’s his piece in its entirety – [...]
Ah summer. The time when one part of the Madison shuts down and one part hits its stride. Such is life. The Lower remains under siege from the armies of drunken tubers. The only time you can really fish this stretch right now is in the mornings, when water temps are cool and before the [...]
Any river as large and complex as the Madison is never going to be the same along its entire length. Some parts of the river are fishing wonderfully, and others are under siege by an army of colorful drunks. But, that is summer on the Madison. The Upper is in great shape. Lots of Salmonflies [...]
Taken about 8 pm on the lower Madison on the 4th….
From the road yesterday. 3 Dollar. Bugs galore. Magnifico.
The Madison is one of my favorite rivers this time of year. All along its length, the fishing is good. Flows have been up and down somewhat this week, but are stabilizing. Clarity is good, and the big bugs are out! The Salmonflies are on the Upper. Last I heard, the hatch was concentrated around [...]
As famous a fishery as the Madison River is, few fly anglers see the Madison Dam at the head of Bear Trap Canyon. We were doing a bit of scouting (raft launch and salmon flies) on the Madison yesterday afternoon – the Dry Fly Media team is about to upgrade their raft and we’ll be [...]
Not much has changed from last week on the Madison. The Upper is fishing well. Salmonflies are very close, perhaps days away. Water clarity is good right now, not gin clear but enough visibility for fishing. Flows are up to 1,400 cfs. It would be better for the Salmonfly hatch if there was a little [...]
The Madison is kicking ass right now. There are good hatches on the Lower, and the entire Upper is clearing up. The rain is going to have hurt things somewhat, but not enough to really make a difference. The feeder creeks and streams that were throwing a lot of mud into the Upper last week [...]
The recent cool weather and rain has only improved the Madison. Most of the tribs and feeder creeks are still pumping in a lot of mud, but you can find some clear water that is fishing well. The same spots that were fishing well on the Upper last week continue to do so. Between Hebgen [...]
The Upper Madison is a little more clear than last week. Flows out of Hebgen have surprisingly dropped over the past few days. A stretch of river just below the dam is closed, so heads up. The river between the dam and Cabin Creek is your best bet between the lakes, but the rest of [...]
Don’t interpret the title of this post to mean that the Madison is fishing great. It isn’t. Fishing well in a few places, but not great. With the recent rain and warm weather, water clarity is dropping along the entire river. However, there are still some places where you can fish relatively clear water and [...]
