Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: 55-62
Hatches: Stones, Caddis, March Browns, Hendricksons, Cahils, Yellow Sallies
Suggested Patterns: Girdle Bugs, Juan’s Kryptonite Cadddis, Pheasant Tails (#12-14), Bird of Prey (#12-14) Montana Prince-Black or Gold (#10-12) Zug Bugs, Prince Nymphs, Wooly Buggers, Zonkers, Jig Streamers. CDC Loopwing Hendricksons, Rusty Spinners, Parachute Adams, Elk Hair Caddis
The fishing has continued to be pretty good over the past few days. Things were a little quiet the past two days with the cold front coming through but fish were still caught. We’ve been seeing some pretty good hatches on the bigger rivers, starting to see a few heads poking up on the Winooski in the evening but it’s still be relatively quiet. Seen Hendricksons, March Browns, a Mix of Caddis and even what looked like a few Cahils flying around Tuesday evening. Been seeing more rising fish on the Lamoille, the waters a little lower up there and a bit warmer below morrisville which is likely part of the reason for that.
If you’re getting out over the next few evenings be sure to have some dries with you, Parachute Adams, Rusty Spinners, Loop Wing Hendricksons and a few different caddis would all be worth having in the box. The most insect activity we saw the other day was from about 5:30-7:30pm, the hendricksons likely hatched a bit before we arrived but they were still flying around. Remember if you don’t see fish rising, it doesn’t mean there aren’t any, just means you’ve gotta go subsurface for them. Don’t be afraid to swing a wet fly/soft hackle in the riffly water either! Swinging smaller soft hackles this time of the year in the fast water is often a good way to isolate and target the wild fish as they always seems to be the first ones to move in the fast water.
If you’re hitting the water in the am, plan on doing more nymphing, you may see a few caddis coming off mid morning but for now the majority of the bugs won’t be active until later on in the day. We’ve still been getting into fish swinging buggers, zonkers and other smaller streamers. These have been especially effective in the big deep pools. A 3 or 5ft t-14 sink tip, or an airflo poly leader will definitely help get the fly down. We’ve been running a soft hackle off the back of the streamer and have gotten fish on that fly as well. The small mountain streams have been fishing quite well too. If you’re plan is to hit those be sure to sleep in and hit them mid morning, the temps at night are cool enough that the fish are a little sluggish early in the am, in most streams they should be receptive to dry flies at this point. In typical brook trout fashion they’ll eat just about anything, we’ve been throwing little foam hoppers with great success. Obviously there’s no hoppers out but they float well and the small stream fish don’t care!
The still water fishing has been productive as well, the smallmouth are still quite active as are the pike and pickeral! Overall it should be a great weekend to be on the rivers! Good luck to everyone getting out!
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 60
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 5/19/23
USGS FI: 395
River: Dog
Water Temp: 58
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 5/19/23
USGS FI: 75
River: Lamoille
Water Temp 59
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 5/19/23
USGS FI: 250