Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: 60-74
Hatches: Small Caddis, BWO, Tricos, Hoppers, Ants
Suggested Patterns: P Tails, Hare’s Ears, Small Soft Hackles, Smaller X Caddis, Foam Ants, Hoppers, RS2,
Hard to believe it’s August! The fishing over the past week has been decent for us. A few cooler nights gave us some opportunities to hit some of the slightly larger tribs where we found cooler water in the AM and some happy fish. A few tribs over the past couple of days temped out in the low 60s in the am. By 10am we were off those bodies of water and heading into the mtns for brookies. With the night temps we have in the forecast, fishing the mid sized stuff in the am may be a good possibility over the next 4 or 5 days. With the super low flows, the water will cool off quick, but also may warm up quick if the air temps rise. If targeting trout over the next few days, be sure to bring your thermometer with you. We’ve been loving the Fishpond Riverkeeper Thermometer. The small stream fishing has continued to be productive over the past week or so. With the lower water, the fish are far more spooky than usual but if you cover water you will catch fish. Just about any dry fly in your box will get the job done on the brook trout. If you’re looking to switch things up, the river bass fishing has continued to be productive. Both the Winooski and Lamoille have good sections of smallmouth bass that will gladly bite in the warmer water levels. A lot of those river bass will end up behaving similar to trout, during a good hatch they will sip flies off the surface, but will gladly still smack a popper, big foam hopper or streamer. With the lower water levels on the big rivers, now would be an excellent time to go explore some lower sections of both the Lamoille and Winooski rivers for bass! On the Lamoille, anything below fairfax falls is going to be your best bet for bass, on the Winooski, there’s pockets of bass from the Bolton Dam down, but we find higher numbers of fish once we get below the Huntington confluence. Be prepared to catch lots of fall fish too!
On another note, we will be having a sale weekend September 12th, 13th and 14th. Be sure to mark your calendars! We’ll have some killer deals, along with some sweet giveaways. For more info click here!
The lake fishing has also continued to be productive, top water early and late for the smallmouth, and subsurface throughout the rest of the day. Largemouth have continued to provide better topwater action later on into the day than the smallies. Focus on heavy weed cover for the largemouth with some sort of frog, popper or mouse fly!
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
River: Winooski:
Water Temp: 70+
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 8/1
USGS FI: 113
River: Dog
Water Temp: 64am warming as soon as sun hits the water
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 8/1
USGS FI: 19
River: Lamoille
Water Temp: 67
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 8/1
USGS FI: 124