Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: 42-50
Hatches: Brown and Gold Stones. Tan/Grey and October Caddis, BWOs,
Suggested Patterns: BWOs #16-20, Griffith Gnat #18-22, Pheasant Tails-#16, Prince Nymphs #14-18, Copper Johns #14-18, Zebra Midges #18-20, Bird Of Prey #16, Black Stones #12-14, Wooly Buggers, Zonkers, Moto Minnows, San Juan Worms, Egg Patterns
Hard to believe today is the last day of the “trout season” here in Vermont, generally, it’s a relatively somber day in the fishing world but with the new regulations not much will change for the rest of the season!! Aside from a few rivers throughout the state, just about everything is open to year-round catch and release fishing. What this means is that outside of the catch and keep trout season-2nd Sat in April-October 31st if you’re catch and release fishing with artificial lures or flies (most of the people reading this are) then you’re good to keep fishing! Be sure to check out VT Fish and Wildlife’s website or the reg book for specifics. While fishing through the rest of the fall there’s definitely a few things to keep in mind. First off is be on the look out for spawning fish and familiarize yourself with what Redds (spawning beds) look like in rivers. They’re not always super obvious and for most anglers in VT we rarely ever have seen them before since we’re often done fishing before fish start to spawn. These fish have it hard enough from a reproduction standpoint so if you see spawning fish watch them and enjoy it for a bit but leave em alone. Secondly, come November and December it would be wise to put on some blaze orange, there will be lots of people hunting and if you’re hiking up a small stream in the woods somewhere it wouldn’t be a bad idea to wear something to stand out!
The fishing has remained fairly consistent over the past week. Not tons of fish but we’ve been able to get into enough to keep things interesting. We’ve still run into a few good BWO hatches in the afternoons on the warmer days and we’ve found fish rising. One pool will be loaded with bugs and no fish will be rising, the next pool will have far fewer bugs but plenty of fish rising. Definitely not the most consistent but they’re around. The majority of the fish we’ve gotten in the past week or so have been nymphing, we’ve been using smaller nymphs with 5.5x or 6x and had pretty good luck. With the relatively clear flows right now downsizing the tippet has been key along with small flies since the majority of the active bugs in the river are quite small right now. With water temps continuing to cool off the majority of the fish we’re getting now have dropped back into the mid sections of the pools, we’re still fishing the entire pool as you never know for sure where the fish will be but the majority of them have seemed to move a little further down the pools away from the fast water. Makes sense given the cooler water temps.
Over the next few weeks there will be lots of fishing opportunities, all the lake champlain tribs will be good options if you’re looking to target landlocked salmon, steelhead or even some lake trout. As far as the river fishing for resident trout go, the mid sized to bigger rivers will likely be the most productive. The small mountain streams are going to be quiet right now as the brook trout are in spawn mode. If you know of a small mtn stream that has wild rainbows in it it’ll be a different story. The rainbows right now in the small streams are super active-we fished one the other day and got 13 rainbows in a short period of time and no brookies. Normally in the summertime it’s a 50/50 mix of rainbows and brookies. As we’ve mentioned for most of the last month try to fish the afternoons, the trout will be far more active then, as the water temps may warm up anywhere between 3 and 8 degrees over the course of the morning into early afternoon.
Good luck to everyone getting out over the next week!
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 47AM
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 10/31/22
USGS FI: 374
River: Mad
Water Temp: 46
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 10/31/22
USGS FI: 183
River: Lamoille
Water Temp 48 am
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 10/31/22
USGS FI: 208