Submitted by Galloup's Slide Inn on
Madison River Fishing Report for August 11th, 2016
Dam: 931 cfs
Kirby: 1,010 cfs
Varney: 1,080 cfs
Madison River fishing report. The fishing on the Upper Madison has picked up considerably since our last report, and the additional water we saw last week seemed to really get things going again. The wade section has been fishing very well with nymphs, and we’ve been doing best on smaller pat’s rubber legs in brown/tan and olive/brown as well as zebra midges and micro mayflies first thing in the morning. Once it starts to warm up a bit after 9:00, its been all about the serendipities with #18 $3 Dips in both the original and black leading the way. We’ve also had some good luck on small lightning bugs, shop vacs, hare’s ears, and pheasant tails as well. The dry fly fishing up high has been pretty day to day, but you can usually get some good fish to rise to small parachute adams, purple hazes, and #18 PMD Para Wulffs. We are still getting a few fish to eat small hoppers, but it’s been all about the beetle and ant bite in the wade section this week. Some of our better patterns have been the Delektable CDC Ant in cinnamon, Bloom’s Parachute Ant, Kelly’s Ant Acid, and black foam beetles, but a #14-16 royal pmx or royal wulff cripple is always a good bet this time of year. Spruce moths have slowed down considerably since the big rainstorms we had last week, and I’m sure the cooler nights aren’t helping much either; however, that is certainly a plus for our forests and the fish have been eating plenty of other stuff anyway. Evening caddis action has been on the way out for the last week, but we are still getting some good dry fly action on Epeorus Spinners the last hour before dark. A well presented rusty spinner in size 16 has been about all you need out there, and we have also been getting some good fish to eat a purple haze once the sun is off the water.
The fishing in the float section has also been good on all fronts this week. Streamers have been good to downright sick most mornings, but the bite has been a lot more day to day after 9:00 or so. We have yet to have them eat much in the way of reactionary flies, but the food base imitations such as mini loop sculpins, barely legals, double screamers, and peanut envys have all had their time in the spotlight over the last couple of weeks. With water temperatures bottoming out between 56-58 degrees in the morning, we’ve been finding quality fish that are more then willing to eat a fast retrieve right out of the gate; however, each day can be a little different so make sure to vary your retrieves until you find one that works for you. If numbers is what you seek, then you’ll want to run the bobber most of the day. Some of our better nymph patterns have been small pat’s rubber legs and gold lighting bugs first thing in the morning, followed by serendipities, shop vacs, silver lighting bugs, and the fly formerly known as prince. Dead drifting zonkers and small sculpin imitations trailing lightning bugs, PTs, and copper johns has also been highly effective over the last couple of weeks when they don’t seem to be eating the smaller stuff. There are still plenty of nocturnal stones roaming around the banks here as well, and the purple chubby has been our MVP from dawn until the sun hits the water. Some mornings have been better than others, but when the fish are on them it has provided some incredible dry fly action for the early riser and night owl alike. As far as the dry fly action for the rest of the day, we have been getting some good fish to eat a standard parachute adams and para wulffs during the mornings, followed by attractors and ants from late morning through the afternoon. There have been a few good hopper eaters taken, but it hasn’t seemed to really taken off quite yet. The Delektable CDC Ant in cinnamon has proved to be one of our better ant patterns, followed closely by the Bloom’s Para Ant in rust. Small attractors such as royal stimulators, PMXs, trudes, purple hazes, and smaller chubbies are always good options as well. As always, be sure to check back for another Madison River fishing report from the Slide Inn.
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