River Conditions: 5/16/18

Water Clarity: Clear to Stained

Water Temperatures:  Mid 40s to mid 50s

Hatches: Black and Brown Stoneflies, Olive Caddis, Hendricksons, Quill Gordons, BWOs

Suggested Patterns: Pheasant Tails, Black Kaufman Stoneflies, Girdle Bugs, Smethursts 20bomb, Hare’s Ears, Olive Hare’s Ears, Montana Prince Nymphs, Prince Nymphs, Red and Chart Copper Johns, Olive Bird of Prey, Parachute Adams #12-14, Olive Elk Hair Caddis #12-16, Wooly Buggers, Zonkers, Mouthwash, Sex Dungeons.

The fishing has been pretty darn good lately. Prior to yesterday evenings rainstorm the levels and clarity on the Winooski were money! It definitely got a bit too dirty to fish from the rain last night but should settle down in a day or two. We had been getting both Wild and Stocked fish on both nymphs and streamers. The nymphing we have been doing has been most productive with a raven as we’ve still been dealing with higher than normal flows so the ravens have allowed us to get ours flies down deeper, quicker. On the streamer end of things we’ve been running 5ft and 7ft sink tips with a shorter leader and bigger flies. We’ve still been targeting the slower moving water more so and have found plenty of fish still holding there, as temps continue to warm over the next week they should start to move into some slightly swifter moving water. We have seen some decent hatches of Caddis, Hendricksons, some BWOs and Quill Gordons but have yet to see a fish rise around the Stowe area. No surprise there, there will be some fish feeding on top but it will be very sporadic for another few weeks.

As far as fishing right now goes, I’d stay off the Winooski for another day or two, hit the mid sized tribs or go after some still water fish. The bass fishing on the waterbury rez was pretty good yesterday and should be great for a few more days until the bass get on their beds. They were in pretty shallow water tight to timber and anywhere there was a some rocks or gravel. The Steelhead fishing is starting to wind down a little bit, there’s still some around but the warmer water temps have definitely sent a lot of fish back to the lake. Plenty of smallmouth bass are filling the voids left by the steelhead though. The forecast for the weekend isn’t looking great right now but between now and then we have awesome weather and next week things look awesome too! Good luck out there!!

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