Madison River Fishing Report
The 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.
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