Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: Upper 40s low 50s
Hatches: Brown Stones, Olive and Tan Caddis, October Caddis BWOs,
Suggested Patterns: Pheasant Tails (#16-18) Hare’s Ear (#16-18) Bird of Prey-Brown (#16) Copper Johns (#16-18) Prince Nymphs (#14-18) Pat’s Rubber Legs (#6-10) BWO (#18-20) Parachute Adams (#12-18) Mouthwash, Sex Dungeons, Zonkers and Wooly Buggers
Now it really feels like fall out there! Water temps are continuing to drop. The flows are pretty good right now, Fishing has been a little sporadic for most of the anglers getting out right now. Seems as though a lot of the spots that tend to be productive this time of the year lack numbers of fish. May have something to do with the brutally hot, dry summer that we experienced this year. Been seeing a few fish rising here and there in the afternoons to small BWOs but not a ton of consistency. The fish we’ve been catching lately have seemed to have dropped back into the slower moving. The softer side of the current seams have seemed to be the most productive areas for getting fish to take a fly which makes sense given the cooler water temps.
Plan to be doing more nymphing and streamer fishing than anything else right now. There’s still definitely the chance at fish on top, though it will be much more likely that they’ll be feeding sub surface. Sink tips to ensure your streamers are down deep would be a good option, as well as split shot on your nymph rigs. A beadheaded fly with a bobber above it will not get deep enough in most places. I think one of the most common errors people make is not having additional weight on their leader. Even with an airlock or thingamabobber it’s important to add weight. Without that, even a heavier tungsten beadhead fly may not be getting down enough to really be in the zone. A BB or a #1 sized split shot will be a very wise add on onto your leader. This will get your fly down deeper, quicker and keep it there. When using a bobber to nymph, throwing out a flip mend as soon as you cast to reposition your bobber above your fly and weight will allow the fly to sink a lot quicker as it will take any tension off your leader allowing things to drop. The quicker your fly gets into the zone the longer it’ll be there over the course of a drift which should, in theory put more fish into your net.
The fishing for Landlocked Salmon has been alright lately, we still haven’t gotten that big push of water that we really need. If you’re going to go fish for them, I’d hit the Champlain tribs, although there’s less water to physically fish they were affected by the rain significantly more than the clyde which in theory, should have gotten more fish to enter the river. This stands true from what we’ve seen and a couple customers.
Good luck to everyone getting out there! Not a whole lot of time left so go fish while you still can!
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 51
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 10-18-2018
USGS FI: 164 @ Montpelier
River: Dog
Water Temp: 49
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 10-18-2018
USGS FI: 31 @ Falls
River: Lamoille
Water Temp: 50
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 10-18-2018
USGS FI: 256 @ Johnson