Water Clarity: Clear to Muddy
Water Temperatures: 40s-50
Hatches: Stoneflies, Eggs, Caddis
Suggested Patterns: Black Montana Prince Nymphs (#10-14) Pheasant Tails (#12-16) Bird of Prey #12) Hare’s Ears (#12-14) Black Kaufman Stoneflies (#6-12) Girdle Bugs (#6-10) San Juan Worms-Pink, Otters Milking Eggs, Squirminators, Black or White Wooly Buggers, Zonkers in Black, Complex Twist Buggers in Olive or Black, Bunny Muddlers #4 or #8 in Brown, Olive or White, Sex Dungeons etc…
It’s hard to believe it’s already May!! Sorry for the slacking with the river reports during the month of April. We’ve been super busy dealing with other stuff and we weren’t able to get out on the water as much as possible. This past week though, we were able to spend some time on the water and got a few nice fish. Conditions earlier this week were pretty good, warmer weather bumped water temps up into the low 50s on some spots and the fish were willing to play a little more. On Tuesday I was able to get on a couple of Winooski tribs and got into a few, one nice 17″ Brown on a #16 pheasant tail along with a 13″ brown and a Rainbow of similar size which were both only on for a few seconds. All of the fish were glued to the bottom in the slower, mid-sections of deeper pools.
The conditions should be pretty good this weekend. If I were going out to hit the water I’d be focusing on the larger tribs of the main rivers. Not the brook trout streams but the ones slightly larger capable of holding bigger fish and not just brookies. These are often going to be the locations where we often run into the largest fish of the year. Cover water but at the same time make sure you’re being thorough. If you’re nymphing it’s important to make sure you’re flies are getting down, if you’re using an indicator make sure you adjust the depth for every pool you fish. It’s easy to get lazy and set it for the depth of the first spot you fish and never adjust it again. Not great unless every pool is exactly the same depth, which very rarely is the case. With the rain there may be some great streamer opportunities as well! Higher flows and maybe a slight hint of color to the water could get some of the big boys out and in a feeding kind of mood. The clearer the water the smaller we’d recommend the fly size (for streamers) and the lighter in color. If the water’s not that dirty go white or olive. If it’s more on the muddy side go brown or black.
Don’t forget that there’s still some great opportunities for lake run fish coming up out of lake Champlain as well as some other lakes in the NEK. Steelhead and Salmon are the most sought after species but some huge smallies should start to show up over the next couple of weeks as well which are an awesome fish to target on a fly!
Good luck to everyone getting out this weekend! Don’t get discouraged if you’re not getting into fish either! This are only going to improve from here on out.
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River: Winooski
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River: Dog
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River: Lamoille
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