Now that Salmon Flies have made their hatch progression from the lower reaches to the upper river towards Lyon’s Bridge we are happy to report a great Salmon Fly season this year. Really good numbers of bugs and a longer hatch duration are what you’ll find on the Madison. Look upriver from Palisades up to Lyon’s Bridge and Three Dollar Bridge to The Slide area for the remainder of the hatch. Closer to Varney Bridge and Ennis we’re seeing more of the standard summer hatches such as Caddis, Yellow Sallies and PMD’s. You can find some fish rising to Caddis and PMD’s in the morning along with spent spinners but once the sun gets a little high in the sky you’ll probably want to switch to nymphing unless of course it’s cloudy, which means leave the dries on or switch to streamers which as you know is some of our favorite ways to find big browns right after the Salmon Flies have petered out on the lower river.

Visibility is very clear at 3 feet and flowing 2060 cfs at Varney Bridge near Cameron.

DRY FLIES : Rogue Stone Salmon Fly #6-4

Rogue Stone Golden #6-8

Glommer #6-4

Chubby Chernobyl Pteranarcis #6-4

Elk Hair Caddis- tan, olive brown #16-14

X-Caddis tan, olive or brown #16-14

Lafontaine Sparkle Pupa tan or olive #16-14

NYMPHING: Pats Rubber legs in orange, black, brown olive or mocha #4-8

Lightning Bug gold or silver #14-12

Beadhead Prince #16-12

Lawson’s Electric Caddis olive or tan #16-14

Angel Case PMD emerger #16-14

Trigger PMD Nymph #16-14

A broad shouldered streamer eating Madison brown trout!

STREAMERS: Now that the Salmon Flies are done hatching on the lower reaches from Varney to Ennis the streamer game has begun!

Coffey’s Sparkle Minnow Sculpin, black and white #4-6

Zonker natural pearl #6-4

Sheila Sculpin #4

Mini-Loop Sculpin natural, olive #4

Trevor’s Sculpin, black, natural, olive #4

To read more information on fishing the Madison River and guided fly fishing trips on the Madison River follow these links.