Water Clarity: Clear-Green
Water Temperatures: 43-48
Hatches: Stones, Hendricksons, Caddis, BWOs
Suggested Patterns: Montana Prince Nymphs #10-14-Black, Kauffman Stones (#8-14) Girdle Bugs #8-#10, Pheasant Tails #10-14), Hare’s Ears #12-14, Bird Of Prey (Olive #12-14) Chicago Overcoat #6-14, Black or Sculpin Colored, Jig Slum Lords (#6-14) Complex Twist Buggers, Wooly Buggers, Zonkers, Sex Dungeons, Headbanger Sculpin, Kreelex. Pink Worms, Egg Patterns.
The fishing over the past week has continued to improve. We’ve continued to focus mostly on the larger tributaries off the main rivers. A mix of streamers and nymphs have continued to land fish for us.The water now is all relatively low and clear so we’ve been doing a bit more nymphing, the streamers we’ve used in the past few days that have been successful have been smaller, sparser and have had no flash or “noise” to them. As mentioned previously, when possible bring two rods with you. One rigged to fish streamers, and one set up to nymph. It’ll save lots of time and allow you to quickly fish both methods in each pool. We typically like to nymph a pool first, after we’re done nymphing we’ll go back through with a streamer. Be sure to adjust your depth while nymphing and also try to adjust your depth with your streamers. One mend on a sink tip line or leader will increase the depth of your fly quite a bit! We’re getting to the time of the year where its worth throwing a few dries in your box as well. We’ve been starting to see some hendricksons, a few sporadic caddis, BWOs and stones flying around. With the warm weather coming up, we should see more and more bug activity. If you see an epic hatch and no fish feeding on top, don’t get discouraged, it generally doesn’t mean there’s zero fish, but usually just indicates they’re not looking up yet. Identify what kind of insect is hatching, then tie on a proper nymph imitation and you should be good!
The migratory runs of rainbows on champlain are starting to quiet down, as they head back to the lake, smallmouth bass typically take there place so there will still be fish to catch! The runs up north are still decent, although water levels are a little on the low side.
With the water levels where they’re at on the bigger rivers, this weekend may be a good time to give the Lamoille or Winooski a try. It’s still early but the water flows are pretty good right now. Water temps over the weekend should increase in the afternoons and may get some fish fired up. Given how many fish survived last summer (a ton) and how good the fishing was last fall on the big rivers, they should fish well this spring prior to stocking. In theory, we should see a higher number of fish this spring than we have in quite a few years. Alternatively, rivers like the Dog, Gihon, North Branch etc… should be in decent shape. Sleep in, let the water warm up a bit and fish mid day into the afternoon/evening. If we’re going to see good bug activity it should occur after noon.
Good luck on the water this weekend!
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River: Winooski:
Water Temp: 45
Water Clarity: Green
Last Update: 4/26
USGS FI: 641
River: Dog
Water Temp: 45am
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 4/26
USGS FI: 140
River: Lamoille
Water Temp 46
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 4/26
USGS FI: 460