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2018 Madison River Fly Fishing Season

1/7/2019

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Madison River Fly Fishing Season : 2018 Looking Back

The Madison River produced great fishing for fly anglers this past season.  If you ask most of The Madison River Guides in Ennis, Montana what they thought of the fishing, you would probably hear that it was the best dry fly/hopper seasons in years.  The fish seemed to be looking up exceptionally well this season.  On top of that, we saw more grasshoppers along The Madison River than I have seen in 10 years.  This was especially welcome after years of apparently declining grass hopper densities along the banks of the Madison River.

In 2018, we finally saw the completion of the Hebgen Dam repair project that was underway since the dam's failure on August 30th, 2008.  On that day, one of the four hydraulic gates on the dam failed sending nearly four times the normal outflow down the Madison River.  The flow was restrained after roughly a month of high water but the dam was still damaged.  During much of the subsequent repair period, the Madison River outflow from Hebgen dam came from the top of the lake over the spillway rather than middle of the lake.  The result was higher than average water temperatures on the Madison River and the necessity for spiking flows out of the dam to cool the river during hot summer months.  

While the river produced higher numbers of trout than ever, most Madison River fly fishing guides noted a decline in the quality of our dry fly fishing.  The warmer water and less consistent summer flows seemed to have changed the aquatic insect hatches and make the fish more interested in feeding subsurface.  Indeed, in 2018 when the Madison River finally received the cooler mid release water from below Hebgen Dam, the fish seemed to respond by rising to a dry fly.  Flows were more stable, the water cooler, the grass hoppers more prolific and  the combination produced one of the best dry fly seasons I have seen on the Madison.  The best part is that now that the dam is repaired, we can probably expect more great summer dry fly fishing this season!
Madison River fishing guide
Madison River fly fishing
fly fishing Madison River
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Madison River Fishing Report

8/2/2017

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Summer Madison River fishing


We are still seeing some great fishing on the upper Madison river.  The stonefly hatch has come and gone and most of the crowds seem to have gone with it.   The weather on the Madison river has been really hot so early starts have been the norm lately.  The fishing holds up well until around 2 in the afternoon when the air temps start to get into the high 80s.  We are looking at a streak of cooler weather and that should really improve the late afternoon bite.  Hopper fishing is just starting.  Our summertime nocturnal stonefly hatch has been going on for awhile now so the dry fly fishing has been really good some days. 

We are looking forward to some great mid summer fishing with above average water conditions.  Hopefully we will have a great hopper season!
madison river fly fishing
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Madison River Fishing Report

6/4/2017

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Madison River Fishing Report: Spring Runoff

Check out the Madison River section of this site for up to date Madison River Fishing Reports. I am aiming to keep this updated whenever there are significant changes in the fishing or river conditions and there should be updates almost daily.  There are also some really good resources there like streamflow graphs and links to NOAA  weather, the Snotel snowpack map and Hebgan lake level information.  

We are finally seeing those really warm days that kick off our spring runoff on the Madison River. The upper Madison is flowing really fast (creeping up on 4000 cubic feet per second) and the Lower Madison river is already over 4000 CFS.  The clarity on the upper river is pretty blown but there is still some good fishing to be had above the West Fork of the Madison if you know the soft spots on the banks that the fish get pushed into at these flows.  They can't see the fly as well but every fish in the river is pushed into smaller pockets of soft water near the banks. They just can't swim against the fast water in the middle of the river. If you know those spots, you can have some good action.  The water clarity on the Lower Madison River is holding out pretty well and float fishing should continue to be good down there for awhile.  The fish are still in the softer water but there is much more of that on the Lower Madison than the Upper Madison.  I am predicting that the runoff will peak by the end of this week as we are facing a lot of warm days and Thursday is looking to be 87 degrees in Ennis.  Worms are always my favorite pattens under these conditions and a lot of times it seems like you cant find one that is too big.  The big fish are pushed into soft water right now and with decreased clarity they are much easier to fool.  The warm weather also makes for some nice days on the water.  Conditions are far from perfect but the fish are still catchable if you fish the right water.  
Madison river fishing report runoff
madison river fishing report

The Power Worm.  This little guys is one of the best San Juan worm variations out there.
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Madison River Fly Fishing Report: Spring

4/15/2017

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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.  
Madison River Fly Fishing Report
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.
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Madison River Fishing Report

1/14/2017

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Madison River Fishing Report - Fall and winter

How’s the fishing been on the Madison river and other rivers of southwest Montana this winter?  Frozen.  This year’s winter has seemed exceptionally cold relative to the past several southwest Montana winters.  We had a beautiful fall with some great fall fishing on the upper Madison river and the Missouri river.  Once the crowds left the Madison in October, the fishing turned on in a big way and the river was eerily vacant considering the abnormally warm weather and good bite. Likewise, the Missouri river and Yellowstone Park section of the Madison river were producing good numbers of big trout daily.
madison river fly fishing
montana fly fishing madison river

Madison River Ice Gorge

Our weather was really nice all the way through November but in December the temperatures plummeted and the Madison quickly filled with ice. Temperatures were exceptionally low even for Montana winter, reaching as far as 30 degrees below zero in mid december. During a cold winter the Madison river experiences a unique ice build up that we call “The Gorge.”  The uniquely swift and shallow nature of the Madison river, under freezing conditions, creates large chunks of glacial looking ice that become jammed in shallow areas.  This ice jam blocks the river and forces the flow of water and ice upwards, beyond the banks of the Madison into the floodplain where it forms more ice.  This sort of ice jam is not unique to the Madison river but the shallow, swift nature of the Madison makes for an impressively large amount of ice that I have never seen on another stream.
montana fishing
madison river gorge
On a warm year, the Madison river may see almost no ice gorge. However, exceptionally long periods of cold can cause the ice jam on the Madison to build from Ennis lake (where it usually starts) and extend miles up river far beyond the town of Ennis.  The formations are unique and beautiful but have made fishing the Madison river less than appealing to winter anglers. The ice became so thick this December that it was nearly touching the bottom of the Ennis bridge. The flow through the town section was nearly completely blocked forcing the river and gorge to consume the Ennis fishing access.  Flows pushed hundreds of yards to the east towards Odell spring creek where it poured over the highway creating a large section of frozen roadway.  
madison river ice gorge
The gorge is not likely to affect the fishing for 2017. The ice tends to move around the gravel in lower sections of the Madison, which can create new buckets and features but the fish always seem to find a way to survive...although sometimes I wonder how.  After a solid gorge like the one this year, I am looking forward to finding some new features and holes in the lower sections of the upper Madison river in 2017. 
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    Captain Garrett Blackburn - Outfitter and guide on the rivers of southwest Montana.

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Madison River Fly fishing
Captain Garrett Blackburn
Montana Outfitter #12505
Ennis, Montana

hookedoutfitting@gmail.com

918.625.3967
Madison river fly fishing

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