The Madison River in the Park is looking better every week - the crowds you see lining the Madison on the drive in from West are testimony to that fact.

Flows today near West Yellowstone are 349 cfs at 0515, with the average for today 4287 cfs, and the 20% marker 353 cfs.  She’s low but quite fishable.

The river is indeed busier, both fishwise and anglerwise.  Fish haven’t been super aggressive by any means, but the persistent angler will be rewarded. 

The approaches available to the intrepid angler are the same this week as last - the argument we heard last week in a local pub sums up the options best - here’s our summary of the main parts of the discussion (updated a bit from last week) -  

The most vocal of the group, a guide/shop employee from West Yellowstone, argued that he can cover a lot of water in a more relaxed manner swinging wet flies, particularly soft hackles, down and across - I tend to agree - we’ve done very well with soft hackles here and on the Firehole of late.  Think soft hackle mayfly nymphs (BH PT, PT, Hares Ear), caddis nymph, including soft hackle copper nymphs.

The traditional nymphers argued that they can produce more fish (not necessarily the goal for most of us) -  productive bugs are still Yuk bugs, San Juans, small copper mayflies, as well as the old guard Princes and PTs - though whitefish tend to be more evident with this technique.

The streamer guys got their two cents in, and done correctly this can be a very efficient way to cover water, and your whitefish catch rate obviously goes way down too.  We’re amazed at how many 8 and even 9 weights we saw on the Madison a couple of days ago.

Anglers are reminded that with the crowds in this first few weeks of October we all need to play well together - there’s pleny of great water around.

Terrestrials are finished with the past week’s cold nights. 

The  Upper and Lower 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:

Dries:  Caddis - EHC, X Caddis,  - tan, olive, black;  baetis - BWO, Blue Dun, Olive Sparkle Dun, Comparadun, Para-Adams; your midge package; there haven’t been many-  but we’d have a Red Quill pattern in the box too

Nymphs: Yuk Bug; San Juan Worm, red, brown, tan; PT; BHPT; BH Hares Ear, Copper John, olive; BH Prince; Lightning bugs, gold, silver, green/olive; soft hackles as per above.

Streamers:  Wooly buggers and Wooly worms, brown, yellow, olive, black; Sparkle buggers, same colors; Girdle bug; Zonkers, assorted; JJs

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