Fishing Report for the Madison River 5-1-26

The Madison River is in great shape and our spring to remember continues. Currently the flow is 701 CFS and 41 degrees at Kirby Ranch and 840 CFS and 45 degrees at Varney Bridge. Yes it is a little low and will challenge rowers river wide but the fish are where they should be and the water is cold. The folks at the Dam are probably holding as much water as they can with the dry winter. We have seen a few storms that dumped on the high country and added some much needed snow to our basin. Holding water right now is probably the correct call. Remember the rainbows are still spawning and redds can be found river wide in shallow riffles. If you see them please stay away and do not fish on them or below them. Give the fish a little break. You do not want to be interrupted when trying to get busy and neither do the fish.

Dry Fly

Yes there is some good dry fly fishing right now. The caddis are hatching near town and making fish look up in a big way. The standard mothers day stuff of jakes caddis, corn fed caddis and the loop winged caddis will find and take the rising fish. More fish are being taken on caddis in the evening when the sun gets off the water. The fish just feel more confident rising then. There are also Blue Winged Olives river wide along with March Browns on the bottom half of the river. Rising fish are tough to find in the main channel during the sun. Hunt the side channels or cloudy days or evenings and you will find some rising fish. They are not super spooky this time of year and 3X to a dry fly is all you should need. If you are looking for some darn good pre runoff dry fly fishing now is your time to get on the water.

Nymphs and Streamers

If you are willing to follow a bobber it is really good. Lots of fish eating and a guy can really rack up the numbers. Lately the orange egg has been the ticket. This is because of all the rainbows spawning right now. Lots of eggs in the soup. Stone fly nymphs, worms and prince has been good as well. If you are down low where there are multiple hatches of caddis, BWO and March Browns you will need to get a little more technical. We like the soft hackle PT for the March brown nymph, the psyco may for the BWO nymph and either a CDC prince or a tung dart for the emerging caddis. if you are fishing an emerging caddis remember they are shooting to the surface. Webby soft hackles with some movement gets the fish attention. Swinging them at the end of your drift can also be a good thing.

Streamer fishing is both good and bad. On sunny days it might feel like not fish live in the river. On cloudy days they are all over the streamer. This last week we have been having the best luck on olive sculpin like streamers fished with a twitch down low. Yes we have been seeing some large brows but the fish per cast ration is skewed in the fish favor. We also like the shiny streamers this time of year. Think sparkle minnow and krelex. They can not resist the sparkle.

Stop by the store for the latest in bugs to match any hatch. We can also point you in the right direction if you want to chase dry fly fish.