The Madison River from Lyon’s bridge down to Ennis has been fishing quite well. Pick you tactic. We’re catching trout on dries, streamers, nymphing and dry/dropper. Flows have dropped and the trout are looking up! Get your gear together and head for the Madison River! Get some buddies together and take advantage of our multi day package deals.

Conditions:

• Viability: Very Good
• Current Madison River flows:
  • Hebgen Dam is at 1050 cfs.
  • Varney Bridge 1370 cfs

Tactics and Patterns:

Nymphing

Nymphing a two fly rig with an indicator is producing fish. The standard rubber leg stone fly nymph along with a small beadhead dropper is tough to beat.

• Pat’s RubberLeg Stone #8-10 brown, black/brown, black and olive are working well.
• Dropper flies seem to run the gamut from the old school Beadhead Prince and Hare’s Ear to Lightning Bugs and Pheasant Tail’s. Size#12-18

Dry Flies

There are nocturnal stoneflies coming off regularly at night so a standard Chubby Chernobyl in UV tan #8-14 is a great pattern right out of the gate.

There are also red flying ants which we all know triggers an addictive response in trout. Once they get the taste for the Peptic acid (which trout don’t produce themselves) they can’t say “no”.

• A small Royal Chubby #14 is a great pattern that’s easy to see and floats good.
• CDC Cinnamon UV ant #14 is another popular pattern you’ll want to have a few of.

Streamers

Streamer bite has been pretty good. Better on cloudy day’s as you might anticipate. Trout will respond to a quick strip and pause technique but running it under an indicator works well as does good old tight lining.

• Zonker in natural pearl #8-10.
• The Sheila #4.
• Mini-Loop Sculpin #4 in olive, natural

Dry / Dropper

We like dry/dropper when the fish aren’t real eager on the dry.

• The UV Chubby #8-10 is the perfect pattern to float/ It will hold up a medium sized dropper and get eaten.
• For the dropper try a small Pat’s Rubber Leg Stone #10 in brown, black, black/brown or olive.
• Beadhead Prince #10-14
• Beadhead Pheasant Tail Size #14-18

Tips

Distance is your friend when fishing dries or dry/dropper. Cast as far out in front of the drift boat as possible so the fish sees the fly first, not the leader or fly line and he doesn’t see the boat coming.

For More Information

For more information on Montana fly fishing and guided fishing trips on The Madison River please contact FishTales Outfitting.