River Conditions: 10/27/16

Water Clarity: Clear

Water Temperatures:  40-50

Hatches: BWOs, October Caddis

Suggested Patterns: Pheasant Tails (#14-18) Prince Nymphs (16-18) Bird of Prey (#16) Copper Johns-Red (#12-14) Dirty Bird-Rust (#12-14) Montana Prince (#14)  Soft Hackle PT (#12-14) Wooly Buggers, Muddler Minnows, Sparkle Minnows, Keller’s Nightmare, Philips Flu Shot

Things have cooled down drastically over the past couple of days. Made for some slower fishing but we’ve still been hooking fish. The dry fly fishing has come to a screeching halt with the drop in water temps and air temps but the nymphing and streamer fishing has been decent. Over the past few days the fish have definitely transitioned from the faster moving water into the slower, deeper pools which is common in cooler water temps. They’re also not going to be as willing to chase down flies so be a bit more thorough with your nymphing as you may need to get your fly pretty close to a fish for them to eat it. Lots of small flies right now, wouldn’t be a bad idea to run an egg when nymphing as well, with browns and brookies spawning this time of the year there are going to be eggs in some of the streams around so match the hatch! Be sure when fishing this time of the year to avoid walking across redds as that will damage the eggs and disrupt them preventing them from hatching. Generally you will see them on shallower gravel bars. If you spot fish in these spots as well, don’t cast to them. They’re trying to reproduce so you can catch more fish in the future so let them do their thing uninterrupted. The Salmon fishing has been decent as well, a little more sporadic but we finally have good flows and the season should finish off strong. With trout season ending on the 31st there’s not a ton of time left to get out there. Having said that, there is a fair amount of water that is open year round to fish in VT and some of it can be pretty good if we have a mild week in November or December. There’s also options to get into Steelhead on Champlain Tribs if we get some rain later on in the year. Good luck if you get out between now and the end of the season! Fish the afternoons!

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