Madison River Outfitters Fishing Report 5/15/2025

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MRO Guide BJ Stone's Client Kaleb is all smiles after roping this handsome Float Section Rainbow!
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Montana
Hebgen & Quake Lakes: Its been very hit or miss out on the lakes but if you can time it right and get a day with little to no wind, the chironomid nymph and leech fishing has been pretty solid. There are a few adult chironomids hatching and buzzing around but the dry fly fishing still has a bit to go until its consistent. Streamers have been moving some fish on the less than ideal condition days. Smaller midge nymphs like buzzers and ice cream cones have been the ticket though as of late.

#18 Black, Olive, OR Red Zebra Midge, #14 O/S Opal Buzzer, #14 Olive Nugget, #14 Turkey Callibaetis, #16 Brush Hog, #14 Black/Red Ice Cream Cone, #8 Black Vegas Booby Leech, #8 Black OR Olive Simi-Seal Leech, #8 Hot Bead Thin Mint 

Madison Flows:
Hebgen Lake Inflow: 1521.1 CFS
Hebgen Lake Outflow: 579.1 CFS
Kirby Flows: 988 CFS

Cameron Flows: 1600 CFS 
Water Temp @ Kirby: High 46 F
                                    Low 42 F
Flows as of 12pm May 15th 2025

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Shop Manager John Schilling with a nice float section streamer eater!

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Upper Madison: 
The Upper is fishing great despite runoff spinning up - the float section is running at around 1600 cfs and is probably going to be at least 50/50 dirty/clear water thanks to the West Fork entering runoff. It starts to blend and become uniformly muddy between Palisades & Ruby. 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 baetis on the nastier days that have occasional sun. Caddis should start buzzing around here in a couple weeks, and we've been getting fish to rise on small (#16ish) and dark Chubby Chernobyl's & similar attractors. 

 #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, #16 Royal Chubby Chernobyl, #16 Peacock Chubby Chernobyl, #4 Olive Supernatural Peanut, #6 Olive MT Mouthwash, #6 Olive/White Barely Legal, #8 Hot Bead Leech - Olive, Black, Brown


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MRO Shop Staff Cole Bedics with a dime of a Wade Section Brown. (the kid just got back in town and is already getting after it!)
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YNP
The Park is CLOSED to fishing until the Saturday of 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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Guide BJ's Client Lucas cheesin' over another fine 'bow
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