Water Clarity: Muddy
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 the weekend (hopefully).
We hope everyone is staying dry today with all the flooding we’ve got going on!!
The fishing over the past week has been great on the smaller mountain streams. The big rivers had been getting pretty warm by 7 or 8am and definitely well over 70 by the afternoon. We spent more time on the small streams, along with some river bass and some lakes and ponds.
We’ve been getting lots of calls today asking about conditions and where to fish this weekend. It’s hard to predict but here’s what we’d expect: Rule out the bigger rivers for quite some time, likely the Winooski and Lamoille will be too high and too dirty to fish for at least a week, likely, once they do get to a fishable level/color they’ll be too warm. Lots of the secondary (larger tribs) will be too high and too dirty to fish for 3-4 days. As they drop, the streamer bite could be great! Be sure to be careful as the rivers may be totally restructured, if you can’t see the bottom don’t wade there, and bring a wading staff with you. Shallow gravel bars, riffles etc may be gone. It’s always impressive to see how much a river can change after a flood. For the weekend, likely the only reasonable option will be the higher elevation brook trout streams. Lots of these will drop and be fishable by tomorrow, and if not tomorrow Saturday. Access on some of these streams may be tricky as lots of roads have washed out, but the water levels should be good-clarity on some may still be bad, if there’s culverts that have washed out upstream, the stream may stay dirty, or if there’s work being done the water could go from gin clear to chocolate milk in 10 minutes.
Lots of the lakes and ponds in the area may be a good option as well. Some of the reservoirs are going to be high and super dirty, if you’re planning on hitting a lake or a pond, the ones with the smallest inlets, and least amount of water flowing into them will be the best bet over the next few days!
Good luck to everyone getting out there over the next few days and remember to be safe!
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River: Winooski:
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River: Dog
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River: Lamoille
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