Summer has arrived on the Madison River and the living is easy. The river is in great shape for fishing with plenty of water about 1200cfs at varney and it is cold and clear. You can float anywhere, and the wade fisherman have plenty of edge water accessible. This is prime summer fishing. Add to that lots and lots of bugs and you can see why the living is easy.
The salmon flies are gone upriver and you can still find a few above the west fork but the big bug madness is gone for another year. In their place is goldens, yellow sallies, PMD, tons of caddis big and small and drakes. Lots of things to make the Madison River Fish look up.
River wide there is a cycle. PMD’s start hatching about 10 am and will continue till midafternoon. The caddis starts to emerge starting about 2 pm. Fish lime green emergers then and the dries shortly after. The goldens and yellow sallies are around and start to fly about mid-day depending on the temps. Again, lots of choices for both the fish and the fisherman.
If you’re a bobber lobber all of the bugs are in play. Want to swing a caddis emerger, yup that will work. Want to dead drift some tiny and shiny that should do it. Want to plop some rubber leg stone flies. Yes, they will still draw some attention. If you want to dead drift a streamer and nymph the old bunny and a bead. Yes, that might bring some good fish to net. So…. the moral of the story is get out and fish. Not a better time to get out and wet a line. The fish are happy the weather is great you just need to fish. Fishing is also a good stress reliever and we could all use a little of that this year. Who is up for a 2020 do over in general?
