Submitted by Galloup's Slide Inn on
Madison River Fishing Report for October 7th, 2016
Dam: 714 cfs
Kirby: 839 cfs
Varney: 891 cfs
Madison River fishing report. The Upper Madison has been fishing very well this October, and it should only continue to get better through the end of the month. We have seen good hatches of #20 BWOs, pseudocloeons, and midges this week with the cooler temperatures and overcast skies, and the dry fly fishing in the wade section has been good to excellent depending on the day. The nymph fishing has also been extremely productive up high and we have been doing best on a variety of midge and baetis patterns as well as red and wine colored san juan worms. It’s been all about the midge drift for most of the morning, followed by a pretty steady blue wing invasion anywhere from noon to 2:00 p.m.. Some of our better patterns over the last couple of weeks have been Kelly’s BWO nymph, Nyman’s Thin Mint Baetis, Green Machines in PT and Gray, Micro Mayflies, #18 $3 Dips in black and brown, BWO Barr’s Emergers in #18-20, BWO Triple-B Flashbacks, Gray RS-2’s, San Juan worms, and #18 Zebra Midges in black/silver and black/copper. Streamer fishing has also picked up in a big way, and most our our resident browns have entered into full pre-spawn mode. We are still doing well on smaller sculpin and baitfish patterns, but they have really started to chase larger, articulated patterns such as Peanut Envys, Double Screamers, Sex Dungeons, Silk Kitties, and Boogie Men to name a few. Black, olive, and natural seem to be the colors of choice on the overcast days but we are still finding plenty of fish to chase down brighter stuff when the sun is on the water. Obviously morning and evenings are still the most consistent, but some afternoons have been incredible as well. As far as retrieves are concerned, it has been all about the slow jig early in the morning when water temperatures are at their lowest, but you will start to see them chase a faster retrieve once it starts to warm up in the late morning to early afternoon hours. We have also seen good pushes on fish coming in from Hebgen, Quake, and Ennis Lakes over the last week and their have been some serious fish looking for a big meal. If you want to avoid the crowds in these sections (Yellowstone National Park, Between the Lakes, Valley Garden), do yourself a favor and get in there early as it has started to get pretty busy around 10:00 or so. We are also starting to see more and more spawning redds popping up in these areas, so please be careful and watch out for freshly cleared gravel when wading out there.
The float section of the Madison has also been fishing extremely well, and there have been far fewer boats out than what we saw just a few weeks ago. Nymphing and streamer fishing is still the way to go, but there have been good numbers of BWO’s hatching anywhere from noon to 2:00 p.m. so be sure to have your dry rod rigged and ready in case you start to see heads popping up. Dead drifting zonkers and other small sculpin imitations with a small beadhead dropper has been extremely effective for fishing on the run this week, but we are still doing best fishing the small stuff mentioned above when anchored up and fishing individual runs. If the zonker program doesn’t seem to be working, try running a small Pat’s Rubber Leg or San Juan Worm as your lead fly with a small midge or baetis pattern behind it. As always, be sure to keep checking back for another Madison River fishing report from the Slide Inn.
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