Madison River Fishing Report
The Tackle Shop Fly Shop and Fishing Guides in Ennis, Montana
Fishing Report for the Madison River in Montana 9-6-2016
The rapid cool down and rainy fall like conditions are just what The Madison River needed to jumpstart the fish into the happy fall zone. Barring summers return we will see fall like fishing going forward. This rain, snow up high and cooler weather dropped the river temps and energized the fish. What does this mean for fishing going forward this week? The powers that be at the dam just sent around an email saying that they are lowering flows yesterday and today. Where they will keep the...
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Fishing Report for the Madison River in Montana 8-28-2016
With the ups and downs of summer and heat The Madison River continues to fish well each and every day. The Dam people are giving us a little more water in the river and that is making it nicer for the fish and the bottoms of drift boats. I feel the perfect level at Varney Bridge is about 1200 CFS. Right now we are a little over 900. Even with the lower then liked water level the river is still cool. It has been really noticable the last few days in the mornings. You no longer need to ge...
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Fishing Report for the Madison River in Montana 8-14-2016
Even with the hot weather and pressure the Madison River continues to produce day in and day out. That is why this is one of the most amazing rivers on the planet. The Dam People cut the flows from last week and have settled on a flow that should see us through for a while. It is sitting just over 1000 Cfs at Varney and that is right in the money spot for my liking. Traffic on the river has been heavy but not unusually so. Most of what we are seeing is the fact that many of the other...
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Fishing Report for the Madison River in Montana 8-7-2016
The river has been on an up and downs spiral of water levels this past week and through it all the Madison River has consistently fished will. When the water was on its way up the streamer bite was out of hand and on its way down the dry fly bite is good. As a general rule when the Whizard of Oz water Gods at the Dam raise the water level it knocks loose all the sculpins from the bottom and we have a few days of good bunny fur fishing. This is exactly what happened on the week long rise ...
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Fishing Report for the Madison River in Montana 7-30-2016
Here we are the end of July and the first of August on the Madison and all is right. Most of the other rivers in our area are suffering from warm flows and hoot owl restrictions and the Madison keeps chugging right along. Want to fish dry's yup that will work, streamer junkie chuck away, want to lob a bobber that will keep you bent as well. The dam being "fixed" and allowing water to come from the bottom of the lake has made a difference and is keeping the Madison in play while others a...
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Fishing Report for the Madison River in Montana 7-24-2016
Even with the heat we have been seeing the Madison River has hung in there and continues to impress. Nocturnal stone flies are river wide and are producing some really good dry fly fishing in the morning hours. Follow that with a solid may fly hatch and early risers can get some good dry fly fishing almost all morning. The most solid rig to stay bent has been a chubby with some sort of purple may fly trailer. Lots of happy people and fish. Early has been much better than sleeping in ...
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Fishing Report for the Madison River in Montana 7-19-2016
Fishing continues to hold in there even with the big change from snow a week or so ago to heat now. Nocturnal stones have made an appearance along with tons of caddis, a solid may fly hatch mid morning and still some yellow sallies bumping around. All in all it is fishing well. The bobber lobbers are still king on numbers especially if you count all the whitefish. There feels like there are more whitefish in the river then ever. Drop any bead head over side of boat haul in whitefish. E...
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Fishing Report for the Madison River in Montana 7-12-2016
This recent bout of cooler weather, rain in the valley and even snow on the mountain has only helped the Madison River and Fishing. A drop of a few degrees in water temp really energizes the fish and puts them back on the feed. As for bugs goldens still around, yellow sallie, tons of caddis in all shapes and sizes as well as may flies around mid morning to mid day. If you are looking for dry fly fishing it is still game on here on the Madison River. Nymph guys are still dredging up a s...
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Fishing Report for the Madison River in Montana 7-6-2016
The Madison River has gotten over its Salmon Fly and 4th of july bender and has settled into some great summer fishing. There are still salmon flies above Lyons Bridge and if you fish a big bug up high you will still get the fish with pattern hang over to rise and eat but for the most part it is history. The salmon flies were great this year and if you fished here in the last few weeks you understand just how good it was. Now that we are past the crazyness summer fishing has continued on...
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Fishing Report for the Madison River in Montana 6-27-2016
The Madison River has dropped and cleared significantly over the last week and the salmon fly hatch is in full swing. Today our guides fished salmon fly dries from Windy Point all the way down below Varney Bridge. There is no better time to fish the Madison than right now if your looking for dry fly fishing. Salmon fly, caddis, golden stones, yellow sallies and PMD are all on the menu and the fish are eating them all. The point of the salmon fly hatch is right now above Pallisades around...
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