Madison River Outfitters Fishing Report 05/01/2025

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MRO Shop Staff Nate Green double fisting on Quake!
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Montana

Hebgen & Quake Lakes: The ice has finally released its grip on Hebgen & Quake (mostly). There's still quite a bit of the stubborn stuff hanging around on the north end of the main lake on Hebgen, but both arms are opened up and much of the water beyond Horse Butte is also free as of now. Quake is completely ice free as near as I could see. We haven't seen many adult chironomids but expect them once the temps jump a little in a week or so. Leeches and streamers are the golden ticket for ice off fishing. Hanging chironomid nymphs and smaller midges under indicators can also produce fish.

Flows:
Inflow to Hebgen Lake: 1002.4 CFS
Hebgen Lake Outflow: 778.2 CFS
Kirby Flows: 942 CFS

Cameron Flows: 1200 CFS 
Temp @ Kirby: High 50.4 F
                        Low 37.2 F
** Flows as of 12pm May 1st 2025 **

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A throwback to a 2024 Hebgen Pumpkin (almost all of our staff is out of town doing fun stuff while I type this - therefore a shortage of pictures this week)

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Upper Madison: 
The Upper is fishing very well and is in its typical pre-runoff state - the float section is running at around 1200 cfs and is just a tad off color. It's graduated from the deep teal green of early April to its usual chalky early May color. Nymphing is still going to be the way to go, but streamers are also going to gain effectiveness as the water colors up more and more. There are definitely fish looking up on occasion, mainly on midges and small, small baetis (seriously, smaller than you AND I can see). Caddis should start buzzing around here in a few weeks, until then though, we nymph!

Flies: #16 Olive Hot Spot Perdigon, #16 Sunburst Perdigon, #18 S&M Dark Baetis, #18 Purple JJ Baetis, #16/#18 Black OR Red Krystal Dip, #14 Pilva's Perdigon - Olive, #20 Bucky's Midge Cluster, #20 Low Water Baetis, #20 Missing Link, #4 Olive Supernatural Peanut, #6 Olive MT Mouthwash, #6 Olive/White Barely Legal, #8 Hot Bead Leech - Olive, Black, Brown


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A wicked cool find for the Upper Madison - a scrappy 'bow sporting some bling! (Montana FWP uses these FLOY tags to get a general idea of fish migration patterns and population dispersion)
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YNP
The Park is CLOSED to fishing until Memorial Day Weekend!!! 

(the Madison from the WY/MT line to Hebgen Lake, & the Gardiner from Osprey Falls downstream to the confluence with the Yellowstone are both open year round as of fall 2024)
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Get out there!

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Nate Green putting this week's report on his back with another dime of a lake brown 
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