Upper Madison River Fishing Report

Kirby read 736 cfs this morning at 42.6 degrees, and that's a comfortable late-fall number for the fifty-mile riffle. We got a bump in flows a while back and the river has settled in nicely since. Clarity is excellent top to bottom, which is what you'd expect with the dam filtering everything and no tributary mud this time of year. The weather has been unusually mild for November, and that's kept the fishing better than it has any right to be this late. Shop reports and my own days out this week line up: nymphing is the bread and butter, and it's been genuinely good, with the cloudy days clearly outfishing the bluebird ones. At 42.6 degrees the fish have slid out of the fast riffle water and into the slower, deeper stuff. Inside seams, tailouts, the soft water behind the big boulders, the deep slots along the banks. They're not chasing much, but they're eating, and they're podded up, so when you find one fish you've usually found ten. The midges have been hatching in solid numbers through the middle of the day, and on the gray afternoons we're still seeing a few BWOs, enough to get pods of rainbows working the flat tailouts between Lyons and Ruby Creek. It's not a blanket hatch. It's a hunt-for-risers situation, and when you find them it's rewarding, technical fishing with long leaders and small flies. The brown trout spawn is in full swing, same note as up in the park: you'll see redds on the shallow gravel bars, especially in the side channels. Stay off them. There are plenty of rainbows and whitefish sitting downstream of that gravel eating eggs, and that's fair game. Streamer fishing has been a slower grind than October but the fish that eat have been good ones. Slow presentations, smaller bugs than you threw a month ago. Remember the wade-only water, Quake outlet down to Lyons Bridge and Ennis Bridge down to the lake, no fishing from boats on either stretch, so floats start at Lyons. Honestly, this time of year I'd rather wade anyway, the fish are concentrated and you want to pick water apart slowly rather than cover miles. Between the lakes is worth a mention too, there are still run-up fish from Quake in that short stretch and it fishes well on overcast days. The Madison on the Montana side is open year-round, so there's no clock running on this water, but the pleasant weather won't hold forever and the fishing window each day is already shrinking. Ten to four is the game now. There's no reason to be on the water at first light in November, let the sun get on it and let the bugs get going. Crowds are gone. You can have Three Dollar Bridge nearly to yourself on a Thursday, which after the circus of July feels like a different river. Check the access points page if you haven't fished the wade water much, there's a lot of it and most of it gets ignored this time of year.

Tactics for today

Fish a two-fly rig under an indicator, Rubber Legs on point with the Zebra Midge or $3 Dip trailing 16 inches behind, and set your depth so you're ticking bottom in the slow deep runs. Dead drift it through the gut, then let it swing out at the tailout before you recast, the swing picks up fish that refused the drift. If you see noses in a flat tailout after lunch, clip the bobber off and go to the Sparkle Dun on a 12-foot leader with 5x, downstream presentation so the fly shows first. For the streamer, slow everything down. Quartering downstream, slow strips with long pauses, let it sink into the buckets. The grabs come on the pause right now, not the strip.