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 well all weekend. Here is why. First, we are scheduled to get a bunch of cooler weather starting today. This will halt the run off we have been seeing. Second, we are going to get clouds this will make the BWO's that are hatching in mass right now sit on the water longer and let the fish rise. Remember fish do not wear Costa's so when it is bright they tend to stay deeper. We will see some rain which will be snow up on the mountain. All good things for the Madison River , the fish and the fisherman. Right now nymphing is still the name of the game. Stone fly nymphs with some sort of a BWO trailer is the ticket to staying bent most of the day. Eggs and worms are still producing and are worth a try. The dry fly bite has been sparse in the bright sun. Give it a day and I am sure you will see some rising fish at least in the side channels this weekend. Some of the famous Moms day caddis have been spotted but the big hatch is still a week off. Want to throw meat? This next weekend might just be the time to break out the 7 wt and throw some bunny. Our best has been slinky sculpin patterns. With the clouds I might take sparkle minnow for a walk.