Water Clarity: Clear to Muddy
Water Temperatures: Upper 40s-50’s
Hatches: Stoneflies, Eggs, Caddis, Hendricksons
Suggested Patterns: Pheasant Tails (#12-16) Bird of Prey-Olive (#12-16) Kaufman Stones Flies in Black and Gold #8-14) Newburys Knuckle Dragger (#8-10) Morrish Hotwire Caddis #14-16) Red Copper Johns (#12-14) Hare’s Ears (#12-16) Wooly Buggers-Black (#4-10) Zonkers (#4-8) Bunny Muddlers White (#8) Sex Dungeons Black/Rust
It finally feels like winter is over!! The forecast for this coming week is looking great! We should see water temps hit mid to upper 50s and a big increase in bug activity. The past week the fishing has picked up for us a decent amount. Seeing a mix of wild and stocked fish in a lot of the tribs feeding the Winooski and Lamoille. The Lamoille has been much more “fishable” as of recently than the Winooski. It’s been more Tea colored instead of just straight mud. Both rivers are running pretty high still but by Tuesday the levels on the lamoille should be at a much more friendly level and probably Wednesday or Thursday for the Winooski. I’d expect to see some great fishing by the end of this week-maybe even some semi consistent dry fly fishing. The Hendricksons have been hatching here and there and fish have been feeding on them, we haven’t personally seen too much regularity with the feeding on top but that’s not a huge surprise.
For anyone looking to get out in the early part of the week focus on the larger tribs of the Winooski and Lamoille, you should be able to find a pile of stockies (in most tribs) along with some bigger wild and holdover fish. I’d be prepared to nymph and streamer fish, bring two rods if possible to speed up the process. We always like to fish both methods in every spot, usually nymph first then come back with a streamer. One pool you will catch a fish nymphing and the next pool you’ll catch one with a streamer.
Aside from trout fishing, keep in mind now is a great time of the year to get after some stillwater bass and pike! The pike are done spawning for the most part but shouldn’t be too far from where they spawn. Shallow water and hungry pike are a fantastic combo for a fly angler. Good luck to everyone getting out this week! We’ll be posting a little more frequently from here on out!
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 53
Water Clarity: Dirty
Last Update: 5/16/20
USGS FI: 1130
River: Dog
Water Temp: 54
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 5/16/20
USGS FI: 178
River: Lamoille
Water Temp: 51
Water Clarity: Tea Colored
Last Update: 5/17/20
USGS FI: 1140