The salmon flies are out in full force here on the Madison River. The hot weather has the bugs out all the way from Palisades to Ennis. The larger concentrations of bugs seem to be above Burnt Tree fishing access as they have almost moved past Ennis. The dry fly fishing got off to a pretty slow start with with bright sunny days and few of those salmon bugs actually hitting the water but it seems to be improving in a hurry. Big winds the past few days have made casting and rowing difficult but the bugs have been blowing into the river and the fish are starting to eat them better and better. Nymph fishing has been great most days. We have massive numbers of caddis, yellow sallies, golden stones and even a few PMDs. Even when the top water bite has been less than great, there are some really big fish being caught on the salmon fly dries by those who are dedicated enough to stick with it. Get it before its gone...This is the only time of year that you get to see Madison River trout crush the biggest dry flies in our box!
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How to Hit the Salmon Fly Hatch on The Madison RiverThis is sort of a Madison River fishing report and update on how to go about targeting the 2016 Madison River salmon fly hatch as well as salmon fly hatches on most rivers from year to year. There are a lot of factors that determine when the salmon flies will crawl to the banks and emerge on any given year. Whether you are fishing the Madison River or any other rivers that get salmon flies, the elements that trigger the hatch are basically the same. Weather, snowpack, stream flow and rain can all influence the timing and duration of a salmon fly hatch. However the number one thing to watch is water temperature. For the bugs to make their big move from water to land, the water temperature needs to hold at 55 degrees or above for a 24 hour period. Basically we are looking for night time water temperatures to stay above 55 degrees for a day or two. This will happen in different parts of the river at different times. Consequently, there will be a few early salmon flies on the bank before the real hatch and if the weather allows the river to warm slowly, the hatch will progress up river gradually. All of those other elements like weather, snowpack, stream flow and rain are things that we can watch to predict when the water is likely to climb to 55 degrees. On a big snowpack year, there will be cool water coming out of the mountains later into the season so the hatch will tend to happen later and last longer. High flows on dam fed rivers like the Madison river will keep the water cooler and delay the hatch. Lots of rain will have a similar effect and delay or prolong the hatch. However, the largest determinant of Madison River water temperature is the weather. Hot sunny days and warm nights are going to melt that mountain snow fast and warm the river in a hurry. When this happens, the river will warm quickly and the hatch will follow. Likewise, if it stays hot and the temperatures keep rising, the hatch will move up river quickly and may not last long. We always like a slow moving hatch that progresses up river gradually and gives the fish and anglers plenty of time to enjoy the salmon fly hatch. 2016 Madison River Salmon Fly Hatch Conditions...Our runoff on the Madison river is now more or less over. The river has cleared and dropped to the point where fishing is really good and getting better by the day. Cool days and nights are keeping the water temperatures down but the hatch is on its way. The flows are dropping steadily now that most of the high mountain snow has melted and within the next few weeks it should just take another push of really hot days to get some bugs moving. For now, flows are still on the high side and the water temperatures are still falling down to 50 degrees at night. Unless we see some really hot days in the next week, the hatch is probably not going to happen in the immediate future. I am guessing that it will be another 10 days but it depends on a lot of things so keep watching those temperature graphs!
Madison River Fishing ReportThe Madison River near Ennis is in full spring fishing mode. There have been great fishing reports and some tough days on the Madison. The entire river is open to fishing this year for the first time in awhile. Consequently, the boats are spread from Lyons Bridge all the way down to Ennis Lake rather than being piled together in the Varney section. When the water conditions have been favorable, the Madison River fishing reports have been great. However, in the past week, some warmer days followed by some rainy weather have created a little volatility in the fishing conditions. There are still some good days to be had but there have been some tough ones as well. Rising water is just not great news for anglers. Some of the lower level snow is melting off and combining with spring rains to bring the river up a bit. Right now the flow at Varney Bridge is at 1,760 CFS which is a pretty significant increase. As flows stabilize and begin to fall we should see some of that easy spring catching again. Nymphs and streamers have been the big producers so far but dry fly action is not far away. Warming water temperatures also mean increased bug activity and there are definitely some blue winged olives around on the upper Madison River. The lower Madison river should start to see some Mother's Day caddis activity soon. If this hatch is anything like last year it will be a lot of fun. The Mother's Day hatch on the Madison usually produces huge numbers of bugs and when the temperatures and water conditions are right, the fish can really feed hard on them. However, the quality of spring fishing on the Madison is determined by weather and water conditions. The caddis hatch can produce incredible dry fly action for weeks or we could end up having better conditions for throwing streamers than dries. May can produce some really fun days of fishing on both streamers and dry flies so I am excited to see what we get into as the water conditions get good again. Even if conditions on the Madison are tough, the spring fishing at the Land of the Giants on the Missouri has been awesome and it has very stable water conditions throughout the year. The LOG should have incredible fishing for the next few months. SouthWest Montana 2016 Snowpack Looks Good!We are easing into fishing season in western Montana and plenty of people have been out catching them on the local trout streams. There has even been quite a lot of unseasonably warm weather to make the conditions good for spring fishing. We are running out of time to build the mountain snowpack. There is a little more snow producing time left but I am starting to feel like we can make some good predictions about how the 2016 snowpack is going impact the summer river conditions. As of now, most of southwest Montana is still sitting just about at normal average snowpack. That is great news! Average snowpack on most of the area rivers usually produces good and predictable fishing conditions across the region. It keeps pressure spread out across a lot of rivers and keeps everyone on good fishing. On an average year we normally have a pretty minor week or two of runoff here on the Madison River and it usually hits around the last week of May or fist week of June. However, the timing and duration are mostly based on weather conditions so it can be a little unpredictable. Overall, it looks like we are headed for all-around good floating and fishing conditions for 2016!
Montana SnowPack 2016 - Fishing Report
A recent article by the Madisonian news paper in Ennis, Montana, reported near normal and and above normal snowpack for the Madison River drainage and southwest Montana overall. I thought it worth while to take this prompt to break down the current state of our 2016 southwest Montana snowpack and look at how it is likely to impact the 2016 summer Montana and Madison river fly fishing season.
The map below shows that we are currently holding at about 91% of average snowpack Madison River drainage and that the greater part of southwest Montana has accumulated near average snowpack. That is not to say that we have reached 91% of the snow fall that we typically see on an average year. Rather, we are at 91% of what the average snowpack on February 11th looks like. However, we still have several more months that can produce large amounts of snow in the mountains and while it may not snow much in June, it can be one of our biggest months in terms of precipitation, which can have a big impact on spring runoff. What does this mean for fishing in Montana? It is still too early to tell. The next few months could produce record snowfall, which would likely create a heavy and extended spring runoff. Likewise, if the weather dries up and heats up (like last year) we could still be in for some great spring water conditions for fishing, which would likely be followed by warmer and lower flows in the mid-late summer. For now, we are right around average and thats probably a good thing. On an average year we will have good spring fishing conditions until late May and early June when we experience runoff and then good conditions throughout the rest of the season (as long as it does not get too hot in August). More snow always seems to be better for the rivers and fish. It is much better to have heavy flows and cooler water. This might create a little longer runoff but the rest of the summer will usually fish much better as a result. I will take all the snow that we can get! |
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April 2019
AuthorCaptain Garrett Blackburn - Outfitter and guide on the rivers of southwest Montana. Categories
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