Water Clarity: Clear-Green
Water Temperatures: 45-53
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.
Hopefully you were able to get out on the water this week! Things have definitely improved over the past few days. The warmer air temps have helped bring water temps up a good amount and the fish seem to be starting to take notice.We’ve continued to stay on larger tributaries over the past wee but have ventured up to the Lamoille as well where a few holdover and wild fish were caught. Flows across the board for Saturday should be excellent, it looks like we may see some rain Sunday which may mess things up a little depending on how much rain we actually get. It could also add just enough color to some streams to make for some great streamer fishing! A little color to the water usually fires up some of the largest trout in the river to eat!! Be sure to have a sink tip on hand.
Water temps have ranged from 46-54 depending on the size of the body of water and time of day. The Winooski and Lamoille have been slowly creeping up, but still just below 50 where we checked. It wouldn’t be surprising if by this afternoon they hit 50 with the sun and warmer weather. We have been seeing some hatches, Hendricksons, BWOs, Stones and some sporadic Caddis. No rising fish around here yet, but we have gotten a handful of brook trout taking dries in the afternoons.
We’ve also been out on a few of the lakes and ponds in the area, the smallmouth pre-spawn bite seems to be pretty good right now, this can often be a fairly short window before the fish bed up. If you can hit it just right you can have a 40-50 fish outing with lots of really nice fish. The lake run rainbows are starting to head back to the lakes they migrated up from, they won’t all leave at once though so it’s definitely still worth going out. As these trout leave smallmouth bass will show up and take their place. And, if you get lucky you may run into some Landlocked Salmon in some of these bodies of water over the next few weeks.
Good luck to everyone getting out this weekend! Tomorrow should be a great day to fish just about anything, Sunday may be a bit more limited depending on rain but regardless there will be fish to catch!
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River: Winooski:
Water Temp: 47
Water Clarity: Green
Last Update: 5/3
USGS FI: 677
River: Dog
Water Temp: 50
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 5/3
USGS FI: 119
River: Lamoille
Water Temp 48
Water Clarity: Stained
Last Update: 5/3
USGS FI: 906