Lower Madison River Fishing Report
Lower Madison River Fishing Report
4/22/2025
Be sure you've purchased your 2025 fishing license before heading out on the water! You can get a new license here.
Keep an eye out for spawning fish this time of year. If you see a fish sitting in shallow water on top of gravel that looks cleaner than the rest of the river bottom be sure to leave it alone, DO NOT try and catch that fish, that fish wants to make more fish for us!
Let's cut to the chase. Spring fishing is here. The Lower Madison is a great option, almost perfect option for fishing. This week's forecast is showing highs in the 50s and some spotted rain showers. Water temps are pretty stable hanging around 47 degrees. Keep an eye on these water temps, when they hit 50, things are really going to start ramping up.
For now, you can expect to see good blue winged olive and midge activity. Just because bugs aren't hatching, doesn't mean they aren't moving around on the river bottom. As we get further along into spring, stoneflies, caddis, and other mayflies begin creeping towards the banks of the river. As they move, lots of them get eaten by our fishy friends. Don't be afraid to throw nymph or larval stages of the insects we like to fish for in the summertime, they're in the river and the fish are eating them!
FWP has been doing a lot of shocking and tagging of the trout on the Lower Madison this winter so keep an eye out for blue or yellow tags. To learn more about the trout tagging program click this link.
Worms, leeches, annd rubber legs are the attractor patterns that we like and one of those will likely always be on a nymph rig unless we are fishing small emergers or dry flies during a good winter time hatch. Pairing a variety of small midge larvae, caddis larvae, and midge or mayfly emergers will help you find fish all day long. You can't really go wrong with a fly right now as long as you fish it at multiple depths and put it through the same run a few times.
Dries: Buzzballs #18-20, Para-Sipper BWO #18-22, Parachute Adams (natural, purple, patriot) #18-20, Midge Cluster #18-20, Brook's Sprout Baetis #18-22, Double Vision BWO #18-20, Para-Wulff Adams #16-18
Nymphs: Jig Crossfit Midge (red, black) #18-20, Nyman's Shop Vac #16-18, Guide's Choice Hare's Ear(Olive, Natural)#14-18, Perdigons (Black, Pearl, Green, Purple) #18-20, Spanish Bullet Perdigon #16-18
Streamers: Sex Dungeons, Barely Legals, Copper Zonkers, Sheila's Sculpin, Silk Kitty, Mini Kill Whitey, Li'l Kims have been productive. Play with color and profile every day. Skinny vs. big heads, dark vs. light, etc.
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Thanks for checking out our Madison River Fishing Report brought to you from Big Sky, MT.
