Madison River Montana Fishing Report for June 22, 2018

Here is the truth as we sit right now. Yes some salmon flies have arrived down near town to the lake area and upstream for a few miles. The river is still BIG with huge flows. This is the start of the hatch and a few fish are up on them but the majority of the fish are still chowing down below. It is a factor of the bugs just showing up and the huge river. The fish even the ones on the bank still have tons to much head space above them to look up. Will this change? Absolutely. The river is in a slow down spiral as long as we do not get much more rain and the fish will start to look up on a more regular basis. We like the river below 2000cfs for several reasons. First, this gives the bank loving fish the proper head space to look up and also makes the entire river fishable. At the level it is now 2760 CFS at Kirby the upper bridges are still dangerous to row. This keeps all the people with salmon fly madness packed like rats in a cage on the lower stretches. Expect the river to come down and the fish to look up but it might still be a few days. Till then throw a dark bodied rubber leg stonefly with a prince, worm or lime juice behind near the banks. This is going to be fun.