Salmon Flies on the Madison?

Have they Arrived?

The Madison River is in great shape right now. The little. pulse of dirty water has more or less gone and we are green and beautiful. At Kirby the river is 1270 CFS and at Varney the flow is 1390 CFS. This is right in the sweet spot for fishing for both waders and floaters. The big question have the bugs arrived. Short answer is yes. There are some bugs down near Ennis in the Varney to Town stretch. The hatch started a few days ago and then the cold days shut it down. The cold nights are really helping. You can find the big bugs around 8 mile for the time being.

DRY FLY

We are getting some reports of folks getting one or two on the big bug as of today. This will increase as the week rolls along. More bugs will hatch and the fish will see them more and we will see some darn good fishing. The bugs will start to move up river shortly if the weather warms up. We should expect this by mid week. We will start to see them in the flats and above. We like fishing a salmon fly along with either a dropper nymph or a caddis dry trailer. Why not try and be two food groups. Speaking of caddis it is just getting going and the caddis will make a much bigger impression as the warm weather arrives. Caddis is king on the Madison River so expect them to play a much bigger role going forward.

Bobber Lobbers

Those that want to nymph fish right now can put up some big numbers. Stone fly nymphs, caddis nymphs, PMD jigs and even worms are still putting fish in the boat daily. If you want to follow a bobber do it and catch your fill. Remember to de barb those flies so you can release the fish easy along with your partner. Nothing ruins a day faster than a fishing partner with a barbed hook in the face.