Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: 32-38
Hatches:
Suggested Patterns: Girdle Bugs, Montana Prince, Egg Patterns, Worm Patterns, Jig Streamers
We hope everyone’s been having a great winter! We also hope everyone is taking advantage of the year round C & R regulations. We haven’t been out a ton lately but have gone out on a few of the warmer days over the past couple of weeks. Most of the warmer days that we’ve gotten out we’ve been able to run into a fish or two. Most of the fish we’ve landed have been on eggs, stonefly nymphs, and jig streamer patterns. Nothing too big from a fly size on the streamers, but make sure they’re heavy! Most of the streamer fish we’ve ran into have been dead drifting the streamers under a bobber or high sticking. A small egg pattern as a dropper has been our go to set up lately. The trick with the cooler temps, and all the snow we’ve gotten is finding open water. Most of the rivers in the area have at least 100yds or so of open water below the larger dams. That’s going to be where you want to focus most of your time. Slower, deeper water that’s not frozen is going to have the highest concentration of fish. As far as tippet goes, we’ve been running mostly 4.5-5.5x depending on fly size. When indicator fishing we’ve been running a 7.5ft 2x leader to a tippet ring, and then running a good chunk of tippet off the end of that. Our split shot have mostly been staying just above the tippet ring and we’ll play around with our tippet length depending on water depths. We’ve found finding the right depth in the winter seems to play a bigger role in success than the fly. Be sure to adjust your depth a lot, everytime you change locations, or drifts, play with your depth. The easiest way to establish where the bottom is, is to run your bobber deeper (higher up on your leader) than you think you need to. Once you find the bottom-by seeing your bobber hang up in the current, drop your bobber in 5″ increments and make drifts after each adjustment. Once your flies are no longer dragging you know you’re in the sweet spot. When the waters cold, the fish will travel very little to eat a fly, that’s why it’s so important to get the flies in front of them!
If you are getting out, be sure to avoid walking on shelf ice-you never know how thick it is, or how deep it is beneath! Given the amount of snow we have right now, snowshoes aren’t a terrible either for getting from your car to the river. Good luck to the brave anglers hitting the open water over the next few weeks! Spring is right around the corner!!!
The Fly Rod Shop is Northern Vermont’s finest fly fishing guide service and fly fishing gear retailer. Visit our shop on Route 100 in Stowe, VT or shop our online store to find gear from Simms Fishing Products, Redington, Loon Products, Montana Fly Company, Lamson Waterworks, Winston, Sage, Rio, Scientific Angler, Thomas and Thomas and more