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Six Flies for Wintertime Fishing on the Madison River

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

This time of year, the trout are hunkered down and not moving far to eat. You want to fish the slower moving water, water that they don’t have to expend much energy to live. Nymph fishing is primarily the preferred way to have success this time of year. There are windows of opportunities for dry fly fishing, but conditions must be just right.

Listed below are six flies that are my go-to’s when fishing the Madison River. Whether fishing the Upper Madison or the Lower Madison, these six basic flies can be used to have success during our winter months. This list could be drastically expanded, but if I were only to have a limited supply, these would all be included:

  • SJ Wire Worm 
  • Zebra Midge
  • Lightning Bug
  • Griffiths Gnat
  • Rubber Legs
  • Sow Bugs

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