Don’t be afraid of the high and off colored water in the Madison River right now. There is still great fishing to be had. Currently the Madison River is running slightly over 2000 CFS and while not high by historical standards it is moving right along. The color varies by the day from pea soup bugger green to weak coffee. Either way it is fishing. We have been doing best with either big nymphs or streamers. In fact many of the larger fish are on the feed. If you catch a fish look at its belly. Most are distended from gourging themselves on nymphs most likely migrating stone fly nymphs getting ready for the hatch. There is no question the fish look like they swallowed an egg.
Our best nymph rigs have been large and dark rubber leg stone fly nymphs followed with either a worm, big prince, or soft hackle caddis emerger. Our best streamers are olive and sculpin like in color. All of these are fished on thick tippet with plenty of weight. You need it down in their face and split shot is the only way to get it there. Yes you will loose a few bugs.
There are a few caddis around and we even caught some on dries the other day. Few and far between and mostly in the evening on a large caddis. We had better luck with a caddis emerger hanging on the back.
