September 1, 2008 11:35 AM

REPORT FROM PPL MONTANA
We have just been notified by PPL that there is a crane in position at the dam and they are installing a steel plate or bulkhead to stabilize or decrease the flow. This will probably take most of the day or longer. Once this bulkhead is in place a more thorough inspection of the dam will be possible. PPL does not consider this an emergency situation and is working hard to provide information to the people affected by these developments. They will use their website PPL Montana to provide timely information. PPL has an Emergency Action Plan in place, should this be needed.

September 1, 2008 9:35 AM

THE UPPER MADISON IS NOW

CLOSED AGAIN

We have just been notified by FWP and BLM that they are reassessing the situation and are now closing all access sites until further notice.

September 1, 2008 8:45 AM

THE UPPER MADISON IS OPEN FOR DAY USE ONLY
We have just been notified by FWP that they are opening the Upper Madison for day use only – both for driftboats and waders. People should be mindful of possible sudden increases in flows. The FWP will post warnings at the access sites. No overnight camping or night fishing will be allowed until further notice. The river is muddy, with visibility of 12 inches or less. Flow is 3,220 at Kirby Ranch. We will update this site whenever we receive new information.

September 1, 2008 8:00 AM

THE UPPER MADISON IS CLOSED

Problem at Hebgen Dam – Suddenly Triples Flow of Upper Madison on Sunday, Aug. 31

Around midday yesterday a problem occurred at the dam, suddenly increasing the flow from 940 cfs to around 3,300 cfs:

All the campgrounds along the river and the lower areas around Jeffers were reportedly evacuated yesterday afternoon and evening. PPL Montana was reportedly pouring concrete at the dam last night. Flows have been stable through the night.

FWP has notified us that the Upper Madison is closed until further notice.

We will post additional information as it becomes available to us.

McAtee Access Site September 1, 2008:

Downstream From McAtee Bridge Sept. 1, 2008

Dan Marty Nancy Brad

It’s Ant Time on the Lower Upper

Caught between Varney Bridge and 8 Mile on a #16

Delektable Flying Ant–Cinnamon , August 25, 2008

The flow of the Madison is 948 CFS and stable: Upper Madison Flow at Cameron.An excellent discussion of Water Management of Hebgen by PP&L is on the Madison River Fishing Company Fishing Report, August 23: Hebgen Water Management by PP&L: MRFC Hopper patterns, ant patterns, and Spruce Moth patterns are all effective, although Spruce Moth activity is winding down. There have been some slow afternoons recently. Caddis are still coming off, even on the lower river. There was a heavy caddis hatch around Varney two nights ago. Caddis hatching on the Upper Madison in late August–just another amazing thing about this amazing season.

You can pick your favorite hopper, ant, spruce moth, beetle, and caddis patterns and fish dries all day–most days. It doesn’t get any better than that. The nymphing continues to be very good. The streamer fishing is improving and is starting to work in the middle of the day. With the coming cooler weather, the streamer fishing will really start to turn on.

Recommended Flies

To see the Delektables™ go to: Delektable Flies Gallery

Dries :
Delecktable Flying Ant, Cinnamon or Black #16, #18 (sometimes ants are working right out of the gate in the morning); Turk’s Tarantula Gold #12, #14; Half Down Hopper #12, #14 ; Delektable Twisted X tan #14, #12; Delektable Twisted Baby Tan/Brown #12, #14; Fat Albert-red, yellow, chartreuse #14, #12, #10, #8; Triple Decker Hopper–Pink #12, #10; Delektable Twisted X Black with Red Butt #10; Super Spider #12, #14; Delektable Sparkle Bugs, Delektable CDC Elk Hairs, and Delektable Halos #16, #14–tan and olive; La Fontaine Emergent Sparkle Pupa brown #16

Delektable Flying Ant Cinnamon

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Nymphs:
Delektable Lil’ Spanker: Silver, Red, or Pheasant Tail #16, #18; Lighting Bug #16, #18; Tungsten Beadhead Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle #16,#18; Tungsten BH Amber or Olive Studly Nymph #16, #18; BH Superflash #18, #20; WD40 Olive #18, #20; BH Tailwater Tiny Olive #18, #20; many different kinds of beaded nymphs

Delektable Lil’ Spanker

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Streamers:
Delektable Screamer Yellow and Brown, Olive Black, Black, Single and Double, #6, or your favorite pattern.

Dan Marty Nancy Brad

Dan’s client, Jan, with Big Brown, caught on a #14 Gold Tarantula, between Pal and Mac, August 20, 2008. The flow of the Madison is 951 CFS and has been stable for the past week: Upper Madison Flow at Cameron. Spruce moth patterns, hopper patterns, and ant patterns are all effective, although there have been some slow afternoons recently. Caddis are still coming off. Spruce moth patterns continue to work well even below the tree areas – sometimes all the way to Varney. Those moths don’t seem to sink quickly and the fish are eating them well downstream from where they are blown into the river.

You can pick your favorite spruce moth, hopper, ant, beetle, and caddis patterns and fish dries all day. It doesn’t get any better than that. The nymphing continues to be very good. The streamer fishing is good, if you’re on the river early or late.

SPRUCE MOTH

Recommended Flies

To see the Delektables™ go to: Delektable Flies Gallery

Dries :
Turk’s Tarantula Gold #12, #14; Half Down Hopper #12, #14 ; Delektable Twisted X tan #14, #12; Delektable Twisted Baby Tan/Brown #12, #14; Fat Albert-red, yellow, chartreuse #14, #12, #10, #8; Triple Decker Hopper–Pink #12, #10; Delecktable Flying Ant, Cinnamon or Black #16, #18 (sometimes ants are working right out of the gate in the morning); Delektable Twisted X Black with Red Butt #10; Super Spider #12, #14; Delektable Sparkle Bugs, Delektable CDC Elk Hairs, and Delektable Halos #16, #14–tan and olive; La Fontaine Emergent Sparkle Pupa brown #16

Delektable Flying Ant Cinnamon

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Turk’s Tarantula

Nymphs:
Pat’s Rubberlegs Brown #6,#8; ; Delektable Mega Prince #6, #8; Delektable Lil’ Spanker Silver, Red, or Pheasant Tail #16, #18; Lighting Bug #16, #18; Tungsten Beadhead Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle #16,#18; Tungsten BH Amber or Olive Studly Nymph #16, #18; BH Superflash #18, #20; WD40 Olive #18, #20; BH Tailwater Tiny Olive #18, #20; many different kinds of beaded nymphs

Delektable Lil’ Spanker

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Streamers:
Delektable Screamer Yellow and Brown, Olive Black, Olive and Yellow, Single and Double, #6, or your favorite pattern.

Dan Marty Nancy Brad

August 15, 2008

The flow of the Madison is 982 CFS and has been stable, after a small rise two days ago: Upper Madison Flow at Cameron. Spruce moth patterns, hopper patterns, and ant patterns are all effective, although there have been some slow days with the cooler weather recently. Caddis are still coming off and even some PMDs. Spruce moth patterns continue to work well even below the tree areas – sometimes all the way to Varney. Those moths don’t seem to sink quickly and the fish are eating them well downstream from where they are blown into the river. You can pick your favorite spruce moth, hopper, ant, PMD, and caddis patterns and fish dries all day. It doesn’t get any better than that. The nymphing continues to be very good. The streamer fishing is good, if you’re on the river early or late.

SPRUCE MOTH

Recommended Flies

To see the Delektables™ go to: Delektable Flies Gallery

Dries :
Turk’s Tarantula Gold #12, #14; Half Down Hopper #12, #14 ; Delektable Twisted X tan #14, #12; Delektable Twisted Baby Tan/Brown #12, #14; Fat Albert-red, yellow, chartreuse #12, #10, #8; Triple Decker Hopper–Pink #12; Delecktable Flying Ant, Cinnamon or Black #16, #18 (sometimes ants are working right out of the gate in the morning) Delektable Sparkle Bugs, Delektable CDC Elk Hairs, and Delektable Halos #16, #14–tan and olive; La Fontaine Emergent Sparkle Pupa brown #16; Rusty Spinner #16, #14

Delektable Flying Ant Cinnamon

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Nymphs:
Pat’s Rubberlegs Brown #6,#8; ; Delektable Mega Prince #6, #8; Delektable Lil’ Spanker Silver, Red, or Pheasant Tail; Lighting Bug #16, #18; Tungsten Beadhead Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle #16,#18; Tungsten BH Amber Studly Nymph #16; many different kinds of beaded PMD nymphs

Delektable Lil’ Spanker

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Streamers:
Delektable Screamer Yellow and Brown, Olive Black, Olive and Yellow, Single and Double, #6, or your favorite pattern.

Dan Marty Nancy Brad

THE SPRUCE MOTHS ARE HERE

The flow of the Madison is 940 CFS, has been stable for three days, and has come down from the 1,400 CFS it was two weeks ago: Upper Madison Flow at Cameron. The entire Upper Madison is in great shape.

Terrestial Time is here Big Time. Spruce moth patterns, hopper patterns, and ant patterns are red hot. Caddis are still coming off strong and even PMDs are still happening. Some salmonflies were seen laying eggs at the Wolf Creek bridge four days ago. Guides who have been on the river for more than forty years say they have never before seen salmonflies on the Float Section of the Upper Madison in August.

Spruce moth patterns are working well even below the tree areas— at least all the way to Storey. Those moths don’t seem to sink quickly and the fish are eating them well downstream from where they are blown into the river.

You can pick your favorite spruce moth, hopper, ant, PMD, and caddis patterns and fish dries all day. It doesn’t get any better than that. The nymphing continues to be very good. The streamer fishing is good, if you’re on the river early or late.

Recommended Flies

To see the Delektables™ go to: Delektable Flies Gallery

Dries :

Delektable Sparkle Bugs, Delektable CDC Elk Hairs, and Delektable Halos #16, #14–tan and olive; La Fontaine Emergent Sparkle Pupa brown #16; PMD cripples, emergers, and Rusty Spinner–all #16, #14; Kingreys’s Li’l Hottie #16,#14; Delektable Twisted X tan #14, #12; Parachute Madame X Peacock #12, #10, #8…and Hoppers: Half Down Hopper #12, #14 (a great spruce moth pattern); Turk’s Tarantula Gold #12, #14; Fat Albert-Chartreuse has worked the best this past week, but yellow, red, and tan are also working #12, #10, #8; Delecktable Flying Ant, Cinnamon or Black #16, #18 (sometimes ants are working right out of the gate in the morning)

Half Down Hopper

Delektable Sparkle Bug

Riverborn Fly Company

www.riverbornflies.com

Delektable Flying Ant Cinnamon Delektable Flying Ant Black

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Nymphs:
Pat’s Rubberlegs Brown #6,#8; Delektable Mr Rubberlegs Yellow Olive, #6,#8,#10 and Epoxy Back Yellow Olive #6, #8, #10 Delektable Hurless Olive, Gray #6, #8; Delektable Mega Prince #6, #8; Delektable Lil’ Spanker Pheasant Tail or Silver or Lighting Bug #16, #18; Tungsten Beadhead Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle #16,#18; Tungsten BH Amber Studly Nymph #16; many different kinds of beaded PMD nymphs

Delektable Lil’ Spanker

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Streamers:
Delektable Screamer Yellow and Brown, Olive Black, Olive and Yellow, Single and Double, #6, or your favorite pattern.

Dan Marty Nancy Brad

McAtee Bridge July 6, 2008

The flow of the Madison is 1,940 CFS and has been stable for the past 5 days: Upper Madison Flow at Cameron. The Hebgen Conservation Pool is 100% full and the reservoir outflow now exceeds the inflow, so the last big wave of the melt is now over.

The Upper Madison has cleared up, with the West Fork adding only a little green. Indian Creek turned from brown to green yesterday, so the entire river is fishing very well now. This has resulted in enormous pressure throughout the entire river. Salmonfly Madness is upon us.

It’s a good idea to line up your shuttle early in the day or even the day before. There is no longer any shuttle service at the West Fork. The three shuttle services in the Valley have not been able to keep up with the demand the last several days.

The major part of the salmonfly hatch is now between Palisades and Varney.

The surface salmonfly activity has been only sporadic so far. Nymphing is what has really been red hot–with large stonefly patterns, caddis emerger patterns all the way from size 14 to size 6, and PMD nymphs, size 16 and 18.

The heaviest part of the salmonfly hatch has resulted in very slow catching. The fish are gorging themselves on the nymphs washing into the current as they work their way to land and are getting full quickly. Marty was guiding just below Mac on Monday when the salmonflies were so thick they were hitting him in the face and landing everywhere in the boat. They then went for about 4-5 hours without catching a fish. So it is a good idea to try to be above or below the major part of the hatch, if you can be smart enough and lucky enough to do that.

There is a smorgasbord of hatches coming off now, in addition to the salmonflies–several species of caddis, most of them dark brown to chocolate, several species of PMDs, as well as pale evening duns, golden stones, yellow sallies–with marked variability as to where on the river they are happening. So have a lot of bugs in your arsenal and keep cycling to find out what they’re eating.

The streamer fishing is quite good, if you’re on the river early or late.

Recommended Flies

To see the Delektables™ go to: Delektable Flies Gallery

Nymphs:

Delektable CDC Baby–definitely a hot fly right now–#14 all the way to #8; Pat’s Rubberlegs Brown #6,#8–also hot; Delektable Mr Rubberlegs Yellow Olive, #6,#8,#10 and Epoxy Back Yellow Olive #6, #8, #10 Delektable Hurless Olive, Gray #6, #8; Delektable Mega Prince #6, #8; Delektable Lil’ Spanker Silver or Lighting Bug #16, #18; Tungsten Beadhead Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle #16,#18

Delektable CDC Baby

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Delektable Lil’ Spanker

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Dries :
Your favorite Salmonfly dries–keep trying; Orange attractors; PMDs, Little Yellow Sallies, Caddis–with the caddis varying all the way from size 8 to 16, in dark brown and tan. Delektable Halos, Delektable Sparkle Bugs, Delektable CDC Elk Hairs #16, #14, or bigger…and Yellow Stones, Bruce’s California Blonde; PMD cripples and emergers #16

Delektable Halo

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Delektable Sparkle Bug

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Delektable CDC Elk Hair

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Streamers:
Delektable Screamer Yellow and Brown, Olive Black, Olive and Yellow, Badger, Single and Double, #6, Conehead Bow River Bugger Olive #4, or your favorite pattern.

Delektable Screamer Olive Black

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Dan Marty Nancy Brad