Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: 35-40
Hatches: Winter Stones, Midge
Suggested Patterns: Girdle Bugs (Jig #8-12) Squrimy Worms, Egg Patterns, Kaufman Stoneflies, Montana Prince Nymphs-Black (#12-16) Zebra Midges (#18-20) Zonkers, Wooly Buggers, Sculpins, Sex Dungeons, Muddlers.
We hope everyone’s been able to get out on the water! We’ve been pretty busy here at the store getting tons of new inventory out, we’ve got some sweet new fly patterns, a pile of fly rods, reels, lines, waders, you name it, we got it… Swing by and stock up!!
We have been able to get out on the water a bit over the past few weeks. Clay; one of the guides has been spending lots of time on the water with quite a bit of success, a few blanks but he’s been doing well. All his fish have been caught nymphing, Squrimies, Zebra midges and stonefly patterns have all taken fish. Depending on the size of the pool, he’s either been euro nymphing or bobber fishing. In the big deep pools a bobber rig makes more sense. It’ll allow you to cover more water and drift your flies in those hard to get to spots that you just couldn’t reach with a euro set up. In smaller or shallower pools where wading out is an option the euro nymphing has been the better way to go. Being equipped to fish both ways is going to give any angler the best shot at getting fish. It’s a pain re-rigging but if you’ve only got one nymphing rod it’s not a bad idea. It’s an even better idea to just come in and buy another….. I got out on a stream the other day for a few hours and covered quite a bit of water and ended up with one nice 16-17″ wild brown. He was hanging out at the head of a pool in a deep, swirly little bucket next to the white water. Not where I was expecting to get into a fish given the water temps but that’s why it’s always good to be thorough and fish all of the water. That fish ate a nymph that I tied up that kind of resembles a stonefly, but is just a heavy, buggy looking fly on a #10.
Although it’s cold out today it looks like things will be shaping up for next week to be a great week on the rivers. It looks like Saturday is going to be pretty warm and rainy which will bring lots of the rivers up quite a bit. This will be good for lots of the rivers that get runs of steelhead and other fish coming up out of the lakes. We have gotten some good reports of some of the lake champlain tribs, but this push of warm water should significantly increase the numbers of fish around. No reports yet up north, I’d imagine this weekend’s push of water (hopefully) will draw some fish in if they’re not already in the rivers.
For anyone getting out of the next week focus on the mid sized tribs. This weekend could be tricky depending on what we actually see for precipitation but the mid sized streams should clear up somewhat quick. The small mountain streams have been giving up quite a few fish as well, nothing that big (not a big surprise) but they’re providing anglers with some action. Most of the fish have been in the slow, deep pools which will be the case until the water temps warm up.
Good luck to everyone getting out! We’ll try to update the river report more over the next month as we spend more time out on the water!!
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!