Winter is creeping in, and the bite is heating up. Nymphs and flashy streamers are stealing the show right now, with midges just starting to tease what’s coming next. Fewer fish looking up—but the ones feeding are eating with bad intentions. If you’ve been waiting to hit the Upper Madison River, now’s the time.
Check out the full report by Bozeman Fly Supply:
The Upper Madison has been fishing excellent lately and should continue to be good as we move further into winter! Fishing has been great recently with mostly nymphs and streamers. We have not seen the crazy midge hatches quite yet this year but as it gets colder it should continue to get better. There are still a few midges out but not a ton of fish up quite yet. For nymphing, various midges like the holo midge, frenchdipity, zebra midge, black or gray RS2, Ny perdigon, Inferno-Gon, or serendipity has been working best paired with a rubberlegs, jiggle stone, TJ hooker, masked marauder, wire worm, San Juan worm, or twisted worm. Streamers are also working pretty well out there with the smaller and flashier flies recieving the most attention. Streamers like the Kreelex, Montana intruder, sparkle minnow, short shank redemption, sir sticks a lot and lil’ Kim are always a good bet out there in the winter.
Suggested Fly Patterns
- Dry FlyParachute Adams (16-20), Purple Haze (18-20), Griffiths Gnat (16-20), Razor Midge (18-22), Buzz Ball (16-18), Chubby Chernobyl (8-16), Water walker (8-12), Corn Fed caddis (14-18), Stubby Chubby (12-16)
- StreamerWoolly Bugger Black/Olive (6-12), Mini Loop Sculpin Olive, Natural (6), Mini Dungeons Yellow/White/Black (6), Baby Dragon Sculpin/Black/Yellow/Whitey (4), Sparkle Minnow Smoke/Sculpin/Brown (2-8) Heisenberg Black/ Olive/ White (6), Kill Whitey Black/ Olive/ White (4), Montana Intruder (6), Sparkle Minnow Smoke/JJ/Sculpin (8) (8)
- NymphPats Rubberlegs Black/Coffee, Olive, Black, Orange (4-12), Rainbow Warrior (16-20), Copper John Red/Copper(16-20), Pink/Natural Quilldigon (14-18), Green Machines (16-20), $3 Dips (14-18), Steel Worm (6-8), Matt’s Shagadelic Mop, Eggs
