Madison River Fishing Report 9/25/2018
Montana
Upper Madison: Nymphing has been the most consistent way of catching fish in the float and wade sections as of late. Small baetis, midge and attractor nymphs have been the best producers but a larger rubber legs has been working well also. While we are still getting a few fish to eat hoppers, the terrestrial bite has mostly died off at this point. On cloudy days, we have had good hatches of baetis that have provided good dry fly fishing.
Flies: #16-18 Red Neck, #16 Olive Biot Czech, #18 Shop Vac, #18 Guide Dip, #16-18 Green Machine, #18 Black Krystal Dip, #16-18 Black/Green Lightning Bug, #18-20 Zebra Midge, #18 Purple Parachute, #20 Parachute Adams, #20 CDC Biot BWO, #10-12 Morrish Hopper
Hebgen: Although it is getting harder and harder to find dry fly fishing on Hebgen, it can still be done. If the wind stays down into the late morning/early afternoon, you can find fish working to trico and callibaetis spinners.
Flies: #16 Turkey Callibaetis, #20-22 Trico Calf Wing Spinner, #16 Pheasant Tail, #16 Callibaetis Sparkle Dun
Gallatin: Whether dry fly fishing or nymphing, smaller has been better recently. Baetis have provided the dry fly fishing while small midge and baetis patterns will have you covered nymphing. Throwing and actively fishing a streamer has been producing some good fish also.
* Our special thanks to the crew over at Gallatin River Guides for providing us with the most up-to-date info on the Gallatin.
YNP
NE Corner: Slough, Soda Butte and Lamar have been fishing quite well the past few days. Drake Mackerels have provided some great dry fly fishing, especially on inclement weather days. Be on the lookout for baetis on overcast days as well. If you get there and find that not much is happening, a Royal Chubby with a tungsten head dropper will usually produce good results.
Flies: #12 Slough Creek Comparadun, #12 Drake Mackerel Cripple, #14-20 Olive CDC Comparadun, #10-12 Parachute Hopper, #14-16 Arrick’s Ant, #14-18 Royal Trude, #14-18 Parawulff, #14-18 Rusty Spinner, #14 Red Neck, #14 Orange Bullet, #16 Olive Czech Biot, #8 Sparkle Minnow
Madison in YNP: We are finally getting some of the cooler, gray weather we have been waiting for. At this point you can be confident that there are a good number of lake run fish in the system. It’s worth your time to swing/strip streamers, swing soft hackles or nymph anywhere between the lake and the junction.
Flies: #8-10 Partrige & Peacock, #8-10 Partridge & Orange, #6 Sparkle Minnow, #8 Simi Seal Leech, #8-12 Black Sili Legs, #14-16 Red Neck
Firehole: White Miller Caddis have been around on warmer, sunnier days while baetis have been around on the more overcast days. It’s always worth swinging some soft hackles or smaller leech patterns here as well.
Flies: #16 Tan Elk Hair Caddis, #20 CDC Biot BWO, #12-14 Partridge & PT, #12-14 Partridge & Orange
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Tom Forsberg
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