Madison River Outfitters Fishing Report 5/8/2025

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MRO Guide Noah Norwood taking advantage of a pre-season day off on fellow guide Hugh Himan's brand new Deville!
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Montana

Hebgen & Quake Lakes: The ice is now officially gone on both Hebgen & Quake. Its been very hit or miss but if you can time it right and get a day with little to no wind, the chironomid fishing has been pretty solid. 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.

Flows:
Inflow to Hebgen Lake: 1325.8 CFS
Hebgen Lake Outflow: 641.1 CFS
Kirby Flows: 909 CFS

Cameron Flows: 1280 CFS 
Temp @ Kirby: High 51 F
                        Low 40 F
**Flows as of 12pm May 8th 2025**

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Hugh Himan floated his big brother Fletcher into this Upper Madison stud this April. The fish is impressive, but these Carolina boy's choice in NFL team? not so much. (apologies to any panther fans out there)

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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 probably going to be at least 50/50 dirty/clear water thanks to the West Fork entering runoff. 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 (<#16) and dark Chubby Chernobyl's. 

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, #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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Continuing the Hugh Himan chronicles this week is yours truly with a chunky rainbow baetis eater. The new blue deville has been a trout terror on the float section this spring!
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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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Hugh & Shop Staff Nina Lett rounding out the new boat blitz this week.

Thanks for reading!
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