The Madison River in the Park is one of our favorites, and hallowed ground to many.  We’re still concerned a bit about the Madison in the Park, though the cooler weather will help…

Our concerns are the very low flows and the water temps - both the Firehole and the lower Gibbon were extremely warm over the long weekend - the lower Firehole was nearly 80! and the lower Gibbon approach 74.  Of course things have been better the past few days, but this system has been under stress for months.  

We hear that there has been a decent Trico spinner fall after 9 in the mornings, and agree that given the lack of pressure afternoons could be decent with hoppers.  The falls runs have not moved into the river though, and the fish who summered there took a beating.  Look for the fall runs to start moving in by mid month, pending weather.

Flows today near West Yellowstone are 335 cfs at 0515, with the average for today 426 cfs, and the 20% marker 358 cfs.  She’s obviously still running quite low.

We had a great day on the upper Firehole on Wednesday in a very active baetis hatch - there are lots of other waters that are in better shape than the Madison. 

The  Upper Madison river in Montana below the lakes continues to fish   well - check our Madision River Reports (divided into Upper Madison and Lower Madison) at Best Fly Fishing Montana.com.(this link will take you right to the report blog).  The Upper and Lower Madison reports were updated yesterday.

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Flies to have in the box:

In keeping with the above, we are not recommending flies at this point.

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