Madison River Fishing Report
The Tackle Shop Fly Shop and Fishing Guides in Ennis, Montana
Fishing Report Upper Madison river 5-18-2016
The Madison River is in a state of flux right now. Is it summer, spring or somewhere in between. Are we doing the run off thing or are we going to more reasonable flows. The answer to all of these questions depends on the day. It is that temporary right now. We get a big warm up or rain and the river turns from Bugger green to paper bag brown. A few days of cooler weather and it is back to the happy color. Currently we are somewhere in between. The Madison River is holding around 190...
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Fishing Report Upper Madison River 5-13-2016
The cooler weather and even the snow event have helped the Madison River. It locked the snow in the higher elevations and cleaned up the river. Right now the entire Upper Madison River is completely fishable. The water has about 1-1.5 feet of clarity at the Ennis Town Access. Reports from just yesterday are good. Remember there is still a bunch of water in the Madison River and it is running around 2000CFS at Varney. While not historically high it makes the floating require a little m...
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Fishing Report Upper Madison River 5-7-2016
It is that time of year again when the brown water of spring hits us all. We have had the clock ticking for several weeks and not the alarm has sounded. We are seeing run off conditions in the Madison River right now and the water is off colored most of the way. The river is currently running at 2110 cfs at Varney this is almost double what it was just a week ago. If you are still looking to get bent and catch some fish there are some options. I would concentrate on fishing from slide ...
Read MoreFishing Report Upper Madison River 05-04-16
The past couple of days have been unusually warm (75 degrees) for this time of year. The warm temps have pushed some snow melt into the West Fork and therefore into the Madison. Fishing is fairly decent given the conditions but with weather forecasted in the 70s all week the river will remain cloudy for the next few days. Float fishing has been solid from Lyons to Ruby and wade fisherman are picking up fish in the braids and side channels. Anything above the West Fork is pretty clear and ...
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Fishing Report Upper Madison River 4-26-2016
With the warmer weather the Madison River bumped up and went off color. It is getting better each and every day with the cooler weather and continues to fish extremely well. The spring weather of last week made the run off start a bit early. It made the river a little dirty and off colored. The majority of the color is coming from the West fork of the Madison which meets the Madison River just south of Lyons Bridge. If you stand on the bridge you can see that one half of the river is gre...
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Fishing Report Upper Madison River 4-22-2016
This past week we had some great spring like weather on the Madison River that extends to today. This nice warm flip flop wearing weather while nice for the fly shop guy actually started some runn off and bumped up the river. What does this mean for the weekend fishing. First the river bumped up and is slightly off color. As of writing this it is still plenty fishable. It bumped about 350 cfs. At this point we are not worried about the fishing. We feel the Madison River should fish w...
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Fishing Report Upper Madison River 4-15-2016
Even with this snap of winter like weather the Madison River continues to fish well and impress each and every day, With the warm weather last week the river did rise and come slightly off color but the fish are still on the feed in a big way. The fish have turned off the egg and worm fest of the last few weeks and started to key on standard feed. The blue winged olives have begun in a big way and the fish have taken notice. Fish the tech like mayfly nymphs deep before the hatch and look...
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Fishing Report Upper Madison River 4-3-2016
The Madison River continues to impress and fish well day in and day out. The fish are still in the late winter early spring mode and are consuming brightly colored eggs and worms like it is going out of style. If you have been part of the egg madness the last few weeks you know what I mean. Tie on a egg pattern wait til the afternoon and just hit water. It has been some amazing fishing. The fish are in full on spawning mode right now and redds are river wide. If you see them please do no...
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Fishing Report Upper Madison River 3-26-2016
The Madison River continues to impress and fish really well. The water is cold, the fish are hungry and the river traffic is light. It is the perfect storm of good fishing. What are you waiting for? Even with the winter like weather the fish are on the feed. Best fishing is between noon and say 5 pm. There is a good midge hatch each and every day and a few blue wings starting to mix in but the real goods to keep the rod bent is nymphing. Best has been with worms, eggs, rubber leggs an...
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Fishing Report Upper Madison River 3-20-2016
With the week ahead of good weather now is the time to break out the rod and waders and get to the Madison River. The fish have really got on the feed the last few days and it might just be some of the best fishing of spring. The guys doing the bobber lobber thing are still king on numbers. Worms, eggs, and stone fly nymphs are catching fish river wide. The streamer guys are moving a few fish and catching some really big ones. If your looking for the fish of the year throw streamers all ...
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