Madison River Fishing Report
Spring fishing is underway on the Madison River. The ice pack cleared some time ago and we are once again able to float and fish the Madison. We are already doing guided trips and the spring weather has been cool but relatively nice. The river is fishing really well, which is to be expected during this time of year. Standard tactics like slow nymphing and streamer fishing are effective and it would not surprise me a bit to see some Blue Winged Olive activity on the surface in the afternoons. Having the entire river from Reynolds Pass to Ennis lake open to fishing is really nice this time of year. It spreads anglers out and gives us some really awesome water to fish that we never had access to in the spring. There are a few spawning fish out there but the rainbow spawn seems a little later this year.
Our snowpack for the year is still building the high country but it looks like we are in really good shape. All the major drainages in our area are at or above average snowpack levels. That means good summer water conditions on all the rivers, fewer closures from warm water in July and August and anglers spread out over a lot of streams rather than piled into the Madison River. On a low water year like the last several years, the Madison often becomes one of the only fisheries that has really good fishing in Southwest Montana. That is the result of cooler water coming from Hebgan dam and the fast oxygenated nature of the river. I always like a good water year because we have a lot more rivers that are fishing well to choose from and our home water on the Madison river is not nearly as crowded.
Madison River Spring Runoff?
Are we going to have a really bad runoff this year? That could go either way and really just depends on the weather. It could start slow with some warmer days and a few cooler ones in between resulting in mildly dirty and fishable conditions through the better part of the runoff. However, if temperatures warm into the 80s for an extended period of time (usually in late May or early June), the River will get really high and dirty and the runoff will be shorter but much more extreme.
RSS Feed