River Conditions: 7/9/17

Water Clarity: Muddy-Clear

Water Temperatures:  56-67

Hatches: Golden Stoneflies, Olive and Tan Caddis, BWOs, Sulfurs, Brown and Green Drakes, Light Cahils, Hex, Hoppers

Suggested Patterns: X-Caddis Tan (#16-18) Elk Hair Caddis (#14-18) Light Cahill (#14-18) More or Less Hopper (#8-12) Dave’s Hopper (#8-12) Blond Wulf (#12-16) Royal Wulf (#12-16) Morrish Hotwire Caddis (Olive #14-16) Bird of Prey (Brown or Olive #14-16) Pheasant Tail (#12-18) Copper Johns (#14-16) Hare’s Ears (#14-18) Tan/Gold Stoneflies (#8-10)  Wooly Buggers (Brown #4-10) Zonkers-Black or Olive Montana Mouthwash, Mini Sex Dungeons, 

Just what we needed, more rain….. The bigger rivers got pretty dirty yesterday and Friday with the rain we got. I’d give it a few days before thinking about hitting the mid sections of them. The upper reaches are going to be moving pretty good but they’ll still be fishable. All of the other mid sized tribs are going to be in pretty good shape, maybe a little high and off colored but fishable. Wouldn’t hurt to throw a big streamer if you’re in stained water. Over the next few days the fishing should remain pretty good. We’ve got a chance of showers Monday and Tuesday but it’s tough to say what that even means at this point. Still been seeing Tan and Olive Caddis flies hatching along with Light Cahils and BWOs. We’ve been getting fish on a little bit of everything. I had a client out Friday morning on a Winooski Trib and we were able to get fish nymphing, streamer fishing and fishing dries.2 Browns and the rest were Rainbows, we landed about a dozen fish and lost a couple of really nice ones. Water temps were in the upper 50’s when we started and warmed up to about 65 by the time we wrapped up around noon. The stillwater fishing has been pretty good as well. The Hex hatch is still happening on some nearby lakes and the bass bite has been good. Largemouth in particular can be a lot of fun to target with topwater flies when they’re in the weeds. Be sure to get out over the next few days if you get a chance. With the higher flows the rivers are staying a bit cooler and the fishing should be great!

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