River Conditions: 6/1/17

Water Clarity: Clear-Stained

Water Temperatures:  54-62

Hatches: Black/Brown Stoneflies, Olive and Tan Caddis, Hendricksons, Quil Gordon, Sulphurs, Brown and Green Drakes

Suggested Patterns: Wooly Buggers (Olive and Brown-#4-#8) Zonkers, Muddler Minnows (#4-#8) Sex Dungeons, Pheasant Tails (#12-16) Copper Johns (#12-16) Prince Nymph (#12-16) Black Stones (#8-10) Two Tone Stone, Anderson’s Bird of Prey (#12-14) Morrish Hotwire Caddis (#14-16) Adams (#12-14) Olive or Tan Elk Hair Caddis (#12-16)

Some of the rivers are moving a bit from the rain we’ve seen over the past couple of days. We’ve got more to come in the next week as well. The Winooski looked fishable today and Bob, Frank and Zoe are floating it right now. Should start seeing some pics here shortly. The streamer bite should be good with the higher flows and stained water. Temps have been ranging from 54 to 62 and I would imagine that they’re going to stay around there over the next few weeks with the cooler weather in the forecast. We should be seeing Sulphurs start to come off in the evenings along with some Brown and Green Drakes. We’ll see Caddis sporadically throughout the day along with some mid-day Quil Gordons. The Hendricksons are winding down but I’ve still seen a few hatching. Probably won’t see to much dry fly activity with the increased flows but you never know. I’ve been doing well streamer fishing over the past few days before and after work and we’ve been getting fish nymphing and streamer fishing on trips. The fish have all been fat and happy, I caught one brown yesterday that looked like it may have had a mouse in it’s stomach from the bulge. Who knows, coulda been a 7″ brookie. We’re forecasted for rain for the next four or five days. If we get any significant amount in the next two or three the Winooski will become unfishable, the Lamoille is in better shape but it won’t take too much on either of these rivers to make them unfishable. If that does happen just fish the smaller tribs, some of the mid sized trips are great places to find bigger fish in high water and streamers are often the ticket. I fished a Winooski Trib yesterday and found a decent sized brown in every hole I fished all willing to take a fly. Every fish I had eat was on and olive zonked I just wasn’t able to keep  many of them on. 2 of them were over 20″ obviously neither of those were landed. The still water fishing has been pretty good as well. Bass are in the shallows on their beds so mad sure you throw your fly on the bank and work your flies slowly for the first 15ft back to you. Things should be pretty good over the next week, just be prepared to be in higher flows. The fish will be in closer to shore and in the slower flat water versus riffles and runs in most cases. Good luck to everyone getting out this week!

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