Water Clarity: Muddy-Clear
Water Temperatures: 55-65
Hatches: Caddis-Tan and Olive, Light Cahils, Sulphurs, Yellow Sallies
Suggested Patterns: Streamers, Big Dark Nymphs, dries on smaller brooks by tomorrow.
Last week was a little more of a grind than most of the fishing we’ve had recently. Mostly due to water temps and levels, we did have a few awesome trips and some incredible fish were landed last week. We ended up spending more time fishing for river bass than anything. Temps on both the Lamoille and Winooski warmed up pretty quick and didn’t cool off until Friday. The rain and cooler temps couldn’t have come at a better time-the rain we received yesterday should shape things up for a great last week of June. Water temps will drop considerably over the next day or so, and most of the higher elevation streams will be fishable by the end of today. It seems like the really heavy rain was sporadic, we got whacked here in Stowe and water levels came up a ton-the gauge above bingham falls topped out around 1400cfs!!! Usually that is running between 5 and 15cfs this time of the year, talk about a push of water… Looking at the gauges around, the Winooski and Lamoille will be toast for a while, the Winooski we’d guess will be fishable by Thursday am? The Lamoille may take a little longer as it seemed to come up considerably more. Some of the mid sized tribs are already fishable, or will be by the end of the day, For example, the Dog peaked at 220cfs yesterday and is already at 120cfs which is very fishable. Ideally there’d still be a little color in the water to fish streamers but at that flow it’s more likely going to be clear. Moral of the story is don’t panic, there’s plenty of water to fish this week and it should be excellent!
If you’re planning on hitting the smaller mountain streams, if the water is still on the high side, the fish may be a bit more reluctant to eat dries, either add a dropper nymph or fish a small streamer and you should be able to get into fish! For those trying to hit some of the medium sized tribs over the next few days, plan on throwing streamers, even if the water’s clear, it may not be a bad idea to throw something big and ugly in a few pools. Soemtimes when we get good pushes of water, even if the water is still clear the fish will key in on some larger flies. If that doesn’t work, you should be able to get into some fish nymphing. As mentioned, the main Lamoille and Winooski are probably not worth hitting for a few days!
On another note, we heard a few reports of Hex’s hatching last week on some of the lakes in the area, those should continue to come off for the next few weeks so don’t overlook taking a canoe or kayak out for an evening of Hexin’!
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River: Winooski:
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River: Dog
Water Temp: 58
Water Clarity: Slightly Stained
Last Update: 6/24
USGS FI: 120
River: Lamoille
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