# Madison River Fishing Report — Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Generated 2026-09-22T01:02:34.431Z. Reports refresh twice daily (~7 AM and ~7 PM Mountain); gauge readings refresh every 30 minutes from USGS.

| Reach | Flow | Water temp | Clarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Yellowstone (Yellowstone Park to Hebgen Lake) | 303 CFS | 59.9°F | Excellent |
| Upper Madison (Hebgen Dam to Ennis Lake) | 809 CFS | 57°F | Excellent |
| Lower Madison (Ennis Dam to Three Forks) | 1,160 CFS | 57.7°F | Good |

## West Yellowstone (Yellowstone Park to Hebgen Lake)

USGS gauge 06037500 (West Yellowstone): 303 CFS, 59.9°F. Clarity: Excellent.

The gauge at West Yellowstone is reading 309 cfs, up a touch from the 290 we saw two weeks back but still skinny. Water temp hit 65.1°F at yesterday's 5:30 pm reading, and that number tells you most of what you need to know about how to fish this water right now. Sixty-five in the afternoon is too warm to be leaning on fresh run fish. Mornings are a different story. Overnight lows have been dropping into the 30s, and the water coming off those cold nights is when the browns and rainbows that have slid up out of Hebgen actually move and eat. The park lifted the last of its fishing restrictions on the Madison, Firehole, and Gibbon on September 4 after the summer closures, so the whole system inside the boundary is legal water again, sunrise to sunset. The run itself is just getting going. There are lake fish in the system, and some genuinely nice browns have come to hand in the Barns Pools and at Baker's Hole, but the bright, cloudless stretch we've had has kept new fish from pushing in and made the ones already in the river a bit stale. That will change with the first real cold front and some cloud cover. If you get a gray day this week, drop everything and go. Water clarity is gin clear at these flows, which cuts both ways. You can spot fish in Nine Mile Hole and the flats above Seven Mile Bridge, but they can see you just as well, so long leaders and a careful approach matter more than fly choice. Know your water and your regs before you go. The stretch from the state line down to the park boundary near the West Entrance, which covers the Barns Pools and Baker's Hole, is open year-round, so the fall run does not end when the calendar says so on that water. From Madison Junction down to the state line, the season runs May 1 through October 31 under the 2026 rules, which is a change from the old parkwide opener, so ignore anything an older report tells you about season dates. The Madison inside the park is fly fishing only. Not artificial lures only, fly fishing only, and lures are flat-out prohibited. Barbless hooks required, and you need a Yellowstone Park fishing permit because your Montana license means nothing past the entrance gate. Between run fish, there's solid fishing on residents. October Caddis are starting to show, there are still a few small mayflies around on the softer edges near Madison Junction, and the riffle water up high holds fish that will eat a swung soft hackle all day. If the afternoon warmth has the fish sulking, the [Upper below Hebgen](https://madisonriverfishing.com/upper-madison-fishing-report/) is running colder and fishing better through midday. More on how the run typically builds is on the [fall seasons page](https://madisonriverfishing.com/fishing-seasons/#fall).

### Tactics for today

Be at the Barns Pools or Cable Car Run at first light and fish hard until late morning, then go find lunch. I'd swing a Shakey Beeley or a soft hackle streamer on a slow, deliberate swing through the pools, step down two steps between casts, and cover the whole run before repeating with something heavier. Run fish sit in the guts and tailouts, not the fast stuff. If someone's already working a pool, wait your turn or move, the rotation etiquette down there is real. For resident fish up toward Nine Mile Hole, dead drift an October Caddis pupa under an indicator through the deeper slots, and don't be shy about twitching a big orange dry along the banks in the afternoon. Carry bear spray. This is grizzly country and September is when they're working hard.

### Recommended patterns

- Shakey Beeley #10
- October Caddis Pupa #8-10
- Coffey's Sparkle Minnow #4-6
- Zebra Midge #16-18
- Pheasant Tail #16-18

Full page: https://madisonriverfishing.com/west-yellowstone-fishing-report/

## Upper Madison (Hebgen Dam to Ennis Lake)

USGS gauge 06038800 (Kirby): 809 CFS, 57°F. Clarity: Excellent.

Flows below Hebgen have bumped up to 820 cfs from the 760 we had two weeks ago, and the water is cold and clean top to bottom. Yesterday's peak temp at Kirby was 63.1°F, and with the nights we've been having, mornings are starting in the low 50s. Fish are comfortable and feeding through the whole day, which you can't say about much of Montana in a normal September. Hoot owl came off the Madison back on August 31 and there's no reason to think it comes back this year. That said, honest reports from the valley over the last couple weeks have run the gamut. Some days have been lights out, others have been a grind, and that's normal for this time of year. The fish are here, they're healthy, and they're just being complicated. Cover water and don't camp on a run that isn't producing. The between-the-lakes stretch has been the most consistent water on the river. Stable flows, cold water, and hoppers still bouncing around in the afternoon sun. Remember that fishing from a boat is prohibited from the Quake Lake outlet down to Lyons Bridge, so that's wade water, same as Ennis Bridge down to Ennis Lake. Floats legally start at Lyons. Down through the Fifty Mile Riffle, the wade fishing at the [usual access points](https://madisonriverfishing.com/access-points/#upper-madison) has been better than the float fishing lately, mostly because low, clear water lets waders pick apart the good buckets while boats blow past them. Bug-wise, we're in the transition. [Terrestrials](https://madisonriverfishing.com/hatch-chart/#terrestrials) are on borrowed time but still working, especially ants, which have been out-fishing hoppers on the tougher days. There was a legitimately great Trico spinner fall reported between the lakes recently, so if you're on the water early and see fish sipping in the slicks, don't assume they're on midges. The bigger story going forward is [Blue Winged Olives](https://madisonriverfishing.com/hatch-chart/#blue-winged-olives). Any overcast, drizzly afternoon from here on out can produce a real hatch, and the first good BWO day of fall is one of the best days of the year on this river. Fish have already started keying on small olive nymphs subsurface even without a visible hatch. Streamer fishing is picking up too as the browns start thinking about October. Nothing crazy yet, but a Sparkle Minnow or Zonker worked through the deeper slots is moving fish, particularly on the low-light ends of the day. Clarity is excellent everywhere, no tributary issues, and Hebgen sitting a few feet from full pond means the Bureau shouldn't throw any surprise flow changes at us. If you want to understand what those gauge numbers actually mean for your day, the [flow data page](https://madisonriverfishing.com/how-to-read-flow-data/) walks through it. Bottom line, this is the reach I'd fish today. The park water is a dawn-only bet and the Lower is good but not this good.

### Tactics for today

Fish a single hopper and cover water in the afternoon, banging the banks and the inside seams. Don't dead-stick it, a little twitch sells it in clear water. If the hopper eat is slow, drop a #16 ant off the back before you give up on the surface. Subsurface, I'd run a black rubber legs with a Juju Baetis trailer through the deeper runs, dead drift it under an indicator, then let it swing out at the tailout. That swing eat at the end of the drift has been producing. Long leaders and 4X or lighter on the flats, the water is too clear for rope. If clouds roll in, re-rig for BWOs immediately with a #18 olive sparkle dun and fish the soft seams and back eddies where the duns collect.

### Recommended patterns

- Morrish Hopper #8-12
- Black Pat's Rubber Legs #8
- Olive Hot Spot Jig #16
- Juju Baetis #16-18
- Sparkle Minnow #4

Full page: https://madisonriverfishing.com/upper-madison-fishing-report/

## Lower Madison (Ennis Dam to Three Forks)

USGS gauge 06041000 (McAllister): 1,160 CFS, 57.7°F. Clarity: Good.

The Lower is running 1170 cfs and yesterday's reading came in at 59.2°F, which is the number that matters. This river draws warm water off the top of Ennis Lake and cooks in July and August, but from mid-September through June the temperatures are prime, and we're there now. FWP pulled the hoot owl restrictions on August 31 and with these water temps there's zero chance they come back this fall, so you can fish the afternoon and evening without checking the clock. Full disclosure on how it's been fishing: mixed. Reports over the last couple weeks have ranged from tough to pretty good, and I'd call that honest. The fish spent the summer getting harassed in the mornings and resting in the afternoons, and they're still shaking that off. But every cold night resets this river a little more, and the trend is clearly up. The fish that were podded up in the fast, oxygenated water all summer are spreading back out into the runs and flats where they belong. Weed growth is the main variable. Late summer left plenty of vegetation in the river, and it hasn't broken up yet, so you'll foul flies if you fish deep rigs through the wrong water. The upside is the weed edges and channels are exactly where the fish are holding, and the crayfish and scuds living in that salad are what they're eating. Crayfish patterns have been the most reliable producer down here for weeks and that won't change until the water gets properly cold. There are still hoppers on the grassy banks through the warm part of the day, and the [BWOs](https://madisonriverfishing.com/hatch-chart/#blue-winged-olives) that are about to become the main event on cloudy afternoons will show here same as upstream. Streamer fishing has been hit or miss, but the fish that do eat a streamer down here in fall tend to be the right ones. Bear Trap Canyon is worth the walk right now. Access is on foot only, from the trailhead at the downstream end off Highway 84, and the trail runs about nine miles upstream toward the dam. Every half mile you walk past the first bend thins the crowd, and the pocket water and deep slots up in the canyon have been fishing better than the wade water near the [lower access points](https://madisonriverfishing.com/access-points/#lower-madison) around Warm Springs and Black's Ford. It's rattlesnake country until the first hard freeze, so watch your feet on the rocky sections. Clarity is good, not gin clear like the Upper, there's a little tint and some drifting weed, but plenty clean to sight fish the flats on a bright day. If you want numbers and consistent action today, I'd still give the edge to the [Upper](https://madisonriverfishing.com/upper-madison-fishing-report/), but if you want elbow room and a shot at a heavy brown that hasn't seen a fly since June, the Lower is the play, and it only gets better from here into October.

### Tactics for today

Rig a crayfish pattern under an indicator set shallow enough to tick the weed tops, not plow through them, and dead drift it along the channel edges between weed beds. When the drift ends, let it swing and hang, crayfish eats often come on the rise at the end. On the flats, a hopper with a Duracell dropped 18 inches off the back is the searching rig through the afternoon. In the Bear Trap, high-stick the pocket water with the rubber legs and keep your drifts short, those canyon fish don't need a long look. If you're floating from the dam, get through the first couple miles early, that water gets pounded, and slow down where the river braids below the canyon mouth.

### Recommended patterns

- Clouser Crayfish #6-8
- Duracell Jig #14
- Pat's Rubber Legs #8
- BWO Sparkle Dun #18
- Morrish Hopper #10

Full page: https://madisonriverfishing.com/lower-madison-fishing-report/

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Source: Madison River Fishing Reports (https://madisonriverfishing.com/). When citing, please link the reach page or https://madisonriverfishing.com/ and include the report date above — conditions change twice daily.
Live gauges: https://madisonriverfishing.com/river-conditions/ · Site index for agents: https://madisonriverfishing.com/llms.txt