Fishing Report Upper Madison River 4-4-2015

By John Way
/ 4th April 2015

Fishing Conditions

A little bit of cold has returned but the Madison River keeps producing day in and day out this spring. There are lots of rainbows in the river right now up from the lake spawning. If you see redds please say away from them as the fish are doing their thing and don't need to be harassed. With that said the fishing is really good. It is mostly a nymph game right now with a few risers in the afternoon. Keep to the deeper green water and you might need to extend your leader as the fish need the fly in their face. If you are not touching bottom every few casts make your leader longer and add some weight. The fish are stacked up in the winter holding water so once you find them stay put and you can get a bunch out of the same hole. The rubber leg stonefly stuff produced all day yesterday and the midge larva did well in the morning. The afternoon a good hatch of BWO arrived and the fish turned to the may fly nymph imitations exclusively. Once they made the switch they really wanted the may fly nymph stuff. Spotted a few risers in the afternoon with the may fly hatch but these were few and far between. Mostly in the slower tail outs to pools and in slicks. If your looking for dry fly fishing post up in one of the larger slicks and keep a good watch for heads.

Fly Patterns

Dries

Shuck Off BWO 14-16: Purple Haze 14-16: Parachute Adams 14-16: Para P-Tail 14:

Nymphs

Pats Rubber Legg in black or coffee/black 6,8,10: Copper John 10,12: Zebra Midge 14,16,18: San Juan Worm 10,12: Soft hackle PT 14: Laniers Lucient 14,16: Hide a bead Baetis 14,16: Psyco May 14,16: Delektable Hurless Stone 6,8,10: Mega Prince 6,8,10: Flash back P-Tail