Water Clarity: Clear to Muddy
Water Temperatures: 50s-74
Hatches: Golden Stoneflies, Tan Caddis, Light Cahils, Sulfurs, PMDs, Hex, Hoppers, White Flies(Epheron), Tricos, ISOs, BWOs, Flying Ants!!!!!
Suggested Patterns: RS2 Tricos (#20-24) More Or Less Hoppers, Micro Chubbies, KK Henberry Hopper, Quick Sight Beetle, Ants, Flying Ants, Light Cahils, CDC Sulphurs, PMDs, Pheasant Tails (#14-18) Soft Hackle Hare’s #14-16) Zug Bugs (#16-18) Caddis Emergers (#16-18) Bird Of Prey (#16) Soft Hackles-Light Yellow/Orange Zonkers, Wooly Buggers, Sex Dungeons, Muddlers, Hornbergs
Finally some more rain! The rain we’ve gotten the past few days should really set us up nicely for the weekend. It looks like were going to get a good shot of rain on Monday. This is the kind of weather we need! We’ve been fishing a ton lately with some great luck! The water temps have dropped a bit and the fishing has been good! We’ve seen a few incredible ant hatches over the past week with fish gorging themselves. Hopper fishing has been good lately too, been sticking some really nice browns on hoppers with some of our more experienced clients. The brook trout fishing has been awesome as well and we’ve been getting into lots of river smallies.
The Winooski was super muddy this morning and may not be fishable all weekend, water temps on it yesterday were anywhere from 64-68. The Lamoille will be the more fishable river this weekend as most of the rain stayed south. Staying above Morrisville will put you in the cooler water. The water on the Lamoille may be a little tea colored but that won’t last long. Nymphing and blind casting dries in the am have both been productive on the Lamoille. We’ve really only been fishing the Lamoille in the AM and then doing smaller streams or river bass in the afternoon so there haven’t been a ton of evening hatches. Although, as I mentioned above the flying ants were pretty insane the other day, fish of all kinds in just about every piece of water in the area we’re absolutely chowing them.
The rain we got yesterday will help “reset” lots of the smaller tribs-in a good way. It almost seems like after they come up in water flow the streams behave like they just got stocked. Even though, 95% of these streams and fish are wild. For everyone getting out this weekend have a few plans. Fish the Lamoille or the bigger tribs of the Winooski early tomorrow AM-be sure to still be temping things as we’re not completely over the warm weather and temps can vary quite a bit from one area to another. If that’s not your style go hit the smaller brook trout streams. They seem to really be thriving this year and have been extremely healthy looking. Be on the lookout for more ant hatches over the next few weeks. We should see some great ISO hatches as well, although the evening temps may or may not be fishable for trout. We’ll have to wait and see on that. If you find yourself in higher than normal or dirty water tomorrow and the dries aren’t doing it, don’t think twice about switching to a streamer or nymph rig. Often with slightly higher than normal flows the fish will be less inclined to take dries, so don’t be afraid to switch it up!
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 66am
Water Clarity: Coffee
Last Update: 8/20/21
USGS FI: 576
River: Dog
Water Temp: 61
Water Clarity: Stained
Last Update: 8/20/21
USGS FI: 323
River: Lamoille
Water Temp:64
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 8/20/21
USGS FI: 214