Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: 45-58
Hatches: Small Caddis, BWO, ISOs
Suggested Patterns: P Tails, Zug Bugs, Birds Nest, Soft Hackles, Small Copper Frenchies, Parachute Adams #10-18, BWOs, Ants
We hope everyone’s been able to get out on the water lately. We’ve been spending a decent amount of time on the water, with some decent days, and some pretty quiet days. Most of our efforts over the past few weeks have been on the bigger rivers. A little bit on some of the mid sized tribs but definitely more on the Winooski and Lamoille than anything else. The fish we’ve been running into have still been in the swifter moving water, or right where that meets a deeper drop off/pool. The main sections of the big pools have given up a handful of fish but with the super low water they’re kind of tricky to fish. It’s hard to nymph or dry fly fish a big deep pool that has close to no current. Small, jig streamers have brought in most of the fish in the slower deep water. Aside from those areas, most of the fish we’ve been getting have been on dries or nymphs. Small Adams, Griffith Gnats and ants have gotten us fish lately, along with BWOs. The next few days, (today included) may provide some good BWO hatches with the overcast skies. BWOs always seem to be more active on these dark and dreary fall days. Productive nymphs have been Zebra Midge, Bird’s nests, and anything else on the smaller side. We’ve also been getting some fish dead drifting soft hackles and running unweighted P tails behind an H and L Variant or other mid sized heavily dressed dry fly.
We’ve been getting lots of calls regarding the salmon runs in the area. All the usual tribs have fish, but there’s not a lot. If you really wanted to go you could hook a fish or two, the biggest trick now is that with the lower flows the fish are in isolated spots, cover water til you find them, then be very thorough once you’re confident you’re in a spot that’s got fish.
The still water fishing is still a good option if you’ve got a canoe, kayak or boat. The smallies and largemouth are putting the fall feed bag on. The trick with the bass right now is finding them. The smallies will be a bit further off shore, in anywhere from 15-35ft of water. If you find one, you should get into a pile of them as they seem to be starting to school up for the fall. Largemouth will be on the edges of weeds in anything from 5-20ft of water. They’ll be a bit more spread out, but will be very eager to eat a fly. Pike and pickeral are also starting to put the fall feed bag on!
Good luck to everyone getting out and hope for rain!
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River: Winooski:
Water Temp: 55
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 10/13
USGS FI: 77
River: Dog
Water Temp: 54
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 10/13
USGS FI: 13.7
River: Lamoille
Water Temp: 56
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 10/13
USGS FI: 86