Madison Fishing Report 8/9/2016
With current water temps in the low 80's the bite across Madison has been, generally speaking, "deep" in most cases. That said, with the water still over the 80 degree mark it is important to remember to lay off the Muskies, at least until the temps drop below 80. Even though the big toothy guys are "off limits" there are still plenty of opportunities to put a lot of fish in the boat all over Madison.
Panfish, especially Bluegills, have been caught consistently in deep water utilizing both jigs tipped with Berkley Gulp 1" fish fry, as well as with dropshot rigs with half a nightcrawler. Most of the fish have been found between 15 and 23 feet of water over hard bottom. The occasional Perch and Crappie have also been taken using the same technique along deep weed edges. Early morning and evening seem to be producing the most action, with a few small feeding windows mid day.
The walleye action has also been heating up lately with most fish being caught trolling open water or snap jigging over structure. With warm water temps like we have now the baitfish are on the move following insect hatches and zooplankton blooms. With that the walleye are following these suspended schools of bait, usually several feet off the bottom. Crawler harnesses trolled behind 1oz inline weights with planer boards from 1.2-1.9mph have been working well.
Bass have been on fire all over Madison. It seems like it doesn't really matter what you throw, they just want to eat! Fish have been caught utilizing pretty much every technique: frogging, deep cranking, dropshotting, swimjigging, punching, and pitching plastics have been the top producers.
Now is also a great time to get out targeting rough fish as well. We are currently gearing up to chase carp on the fly rods and will have a report out soon! Tight lines!
