Fly Fishing the Madison River

by: Craig Mathews and Gary LaFontaine

Greycliff Publishing (May 2001)
Paperback: 190 pages. ISBN: 1890373133

Fly shop owner, guide, and noted author Craig Mathews averages seventy days a year on his home water, the Madison River, and over the decades has mastered the ways of this famous, but complicated, fishery.  The Madison can hatch a different insect every fifty yards and ranges from a glassy spring-fed river to a tumbling, rapid-filled torrent that defies conventional fly-fishing approaches.  And it also flows through three lakes making its way from its headwaters in Yellowstone National Park downstream to Three Forks, Montana, where it joins the Gallatin and Jefferson to form the Missouri.

Let Mathews and well-known angler and writer, Gary LaFontaine, unlock the river's mysteries before you fish the Madison River for the first time, or study their descriptions of the water, fly recommendations, and fishing techniques before you come back to fish again.

Mathews and LaFontaine bring more than half a century of knowledge, research, and experience to this how-to, when-to, and where-to-guide to one of the West's most coveted fly-fishing destinations. Section by section, season by season, Fly Fishing the Madison Provides the information you need to make the difference in your next fly-fishing trip to the Madison River.

Included are a hatch chart, a list of popular flies, and recipes for sixteen of the most effective fly patterns that catch fish on the Madison River.