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

The flow of the Madison is 2,740 CFS and rising: Upper Madison Flow at Cameron. Hebgen Conservation Pool is 99% full. PPL plans to increase the flows out of Hebgen to match the inflows over the next several days. With the very hot weather predicted for this weekend and with all the input from the West Fork and the creeks, the flow below Indian Creek may well approach or exceed 5,000 CFS before the major part of the melt is over.

These high flows and the mud from the West Fork and Indian Creek have made fishing very difficult below the West Fork. These conditions have markedly increased the fishing pressure above the West Fork, where the fishing remains good to excellent.

Once this runoff subsides– probably in early July– the fly fishing on the Upper Madison is going to be spectacular–especially the dry fly fishing.

There is some dry fly action above the West Fork with little yellow sallies and big caddis. Once the bug hatch starts on the float section, which is just days away, the dinner bell will ring and we’ll be able to catch fish again, even in the dirt. Once we get the mixture of PMDs, caddis, and stoneflies, the float section of the Upper Madison is going to bust loose. But we’re all waiting for that to happen now. Once it happens, it’s going to be good all summer.

The streamer fishing is spotty.

Recommended Flies

To see the Delektables™ go to: Delektable Flies Gallery

Nymphs:
Delektable™ Hurless Olive, Gray #6, #8; Delektable™ Mega Prince #6, #8; Pat’s Rubberleg Brown #6,#8; Delektable Big Red #6, Delektable Worm, Red or Brown #8; Red Wire Worm #6, #8; Hogan’s Red Headed Step Child; Delektable Lil’ Spanker Red and Silver #16, #18; Tungsten Beadhead Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle #16,#18

Delektable Lil’ Spanker

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Delektable Braided Flashback Big Red

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Dries :

Nothing now in the float section, but when it starts, or now above the West Fork: PMDs, Little Yellow Sallies, Caddis–with the caddis varying all the way from size 8 to 16, in dark brown, olive, and tan.

Streamers (might be worth a try) :

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

Delektable Screamer Olive Black

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Dan Marty Nancy Brad

June 18, 2008

The flow of the Madison is 2,390 CFS and rising: Upper Madison Flow at Cameron. The warm weather of the last few days has started the melt again, with the West Fork and Indian Creek spitting in mud. The muddy strip from the West Fork is still well defined at the Sun West bridge and then colors the entire river by the Wolf Creek bridge. Temperatures are predicted to reach the high 80s by Saturday.

All this has resulted in real crowding at Lyons. Dan planned to launch at Lyons today and found himself 14th in line, so he went from Raynolds to Pine Butte instead. The water was crystal clear and the action was great on big nymphs. Marty floated today from Lyons to Ruby, with Grandpa and Gene. They had excellent results with the Delektable Lil’ Spanker, in red and in silver, even over near the left bank below Lyons, in the discolored water.

Once this runoff subsides– in late June or early July– the fly fishing on the Upper Madison is going to be spectacular–especially the dry fly fishing.

There is no dry fly action, but this heat may change that quickly.

The streamer fishing has become spotty, with the recent drop in flow, the sunny days, and the cold water coming into the river mid-day from the melt.

Recommended Flies

To see the Delektables™ go to: Delektable Flies Gallery

Nymphs:

Delektable™ Hurless Olive, Gray #6, #8; Delektable™ Mega Prince #6, #8; Pat’s Rubberleg Brown #6,#8; Delektable Big Red #6, Delektable Worm, Red or Brown #8; Red Wire Worm #6, #8; Hogan’s Red Headed Step Child; Delektable Lil’ Spanker Red and Silver #16, #18; Tungsten Beadhead Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle #16,#18

Delektable Lil’ Spanker

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Delektable Braided Flashback Big Red

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Dries :

When it starts, think March Brown patterns, PMDs, and Caddis–with the caddis varying all the way from size 8 to 16, in dark brown, olive, and tan.

Streamers (worth a try) :

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

Delektable Screamer Olive Black

Riverborn Fly Company www.riverbornflies.com

Dan Marty Nancy Brad