Fishing Report Upper Madison 5-7-2015

By John Way
/ 7th May 2015

Fishing Conditions

With the warm weather we have been having the visibility of the water has diminished. Right now we have about 24 inches of visibility which is good but down from the gin clear water we all got accustomed to this spring. The fish are still on the feed and if your a dry fly guy now is the time to get out there. We have been doing well with March Browns and skwala during the heat of the day and then Mothers Day Caddis in the later afternoon and evenings. The dry fly bite has been much better with low cloud cover to keep the fish looking up and make the March Browns hatch. On the sunny days we have had to go deep with worms, turds and small streamers to keep the rod bent till the late afternoon shadows start to form then it is game on caddis. With a few more days of cool weather in front of us we expect the dry game to keep going. If we get some more heat the end of next week expect it to dirty up more. As for run off not sure how it is going to pan out. If we get the slow melt like we have been seeing we expect fishable conditions all spring and great water for the salmon fly hatch. If we get a shot of temps above 75 and lows at night in the 50's we could see a push of water. Lots of folks calling and wondering about the salmon fly hatch and when we expect it to be happening. Best bet is plan to be in Ennis from June 15 till July 4 and fish each day. We can guarantee if you do this you will see some epic fishing.

Fly Patterns

Dries

Purple Haze 12,14: Parachute March Brown 12,14: Peacock Caddis 14,16: Parachute Dancing Caddis Peacock 12,14: Chubby Skwala 12: XCaddis Olive 14,16: PMX Royal 14,16: PMX Olive 12,14,16

Nymphs

Pats Rubber Legg in black or coffee/black 6,8,10: Copper John 10,12: Delektable CDC Baby 12,14,16: Soft hackle Purple Lightning bug 14,16: Hares Ear 14,16: Soft Hackle CDC Prince 12,14,16: Lightning Bug Silver 14,16: FKA Prince 12,14: San Juan Worm Pink 10,12,14: Delektable Lime Juice 12,14,16

Streamers

Sparkle Minnow Sculpin size 4, sparkle Minnow Ghost Size 6, Sculpzilla Olive 4,8: Bow River bugger size 6: Mini Loop Sculpin 6: Haymaker sculpin olive, Grand Master Flash Brown: Sculpzilla Black 4,8: Zonker Pearl 8,10: