Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: 60s-70s
Hatches: Stoneflies, Caddis, Olive/Tan Caddis, Light Cahills, Hoppers, Tricos
Suggested Patterns: Pheasant Tails (#12-16) Prince Nymphs (#14-18) Hare’s Ears (#14-18) Yellow Sparkle Soft Hackles (#16) Joca’s Caddis Pupa (#14-16) Hotwire Caddis (Tan #16) Parachute Adams (#12-16) Light Cahills (#12-14) Blonde Wulfs (#12-16) Elk Hair Caddis #14-18) X Caddis (#14-18) RS2-Trico #20-22
Hard to believe August is already here, we’ve been slacking on updating the river reports a lot this summer, been just busy enough and not a ton has changed.. Over the past few weeks our primary focus has been around smallmouth bass which has been pretty productive. Mostly on the Winooski and Lamoille. Hoppers and poppers early and late and swinging and stripping streamers mid day along with drifting some larger stonefly patterns under indicators. We’ve also spent some time brook trout fishing with plenty of action, the waters definitely on the low side right now but that should change tomorrow.
It looks like we’re in for quite the soaking tomorrow and Wednesday which is much needed. It’s likely that everything in our area will be blown out for those two days but by Thursday lots of the smaller streams should be at fishable levels, the trout should be happy and eager to take a fly with the higher, cooler flows. If the flows are still on the higher side you may have to go subsurface to draw interest from the fish, there’s often a fine line between dry fly fishable flows and being a touch too high. If the fish aren’t cooperating on top, a smaller wooly bugger, muddler minnow or any brighter #14-16 nymph should work just fine!
The fishing on the bigger rivers for trout most likely will not be an option any time soon, we may see a day or two of reasonable water temps but by the time the rivers are in fishable shape we may lose the cooler temps. Some of the mid sized streams should be in decent shape for several days and may even give us some good opportunities at some larger fish throwing streamers.
On the stillwater front we’ve been getting into some nice smallmouth and largemouth on the fly. Deer hair mice, poppers and big hoppers have worked well early and late, mid-day we’ve been using clouser minnows, buggers, zonkers and deceivers. A sinking line or sink tip line has been super helpful in getting the flies down a bit deeper. If targeting Largemouth in shallower water a floating line is sufficient, but for smallies getting the fly down 8-12 feet or deeper is going to get more interest from the larger fish.
From a hatch standpoint, we should start seeing tricos soon, haven’t seen any yet but they’re probably already out. Seen some yellow sallies, cahils and a few sulfurs but in general the hatches haven’t been super strong, which for this time of the year isn’t a shock. The hoppers are out in full swing and they’ve been drawing interest as well as beetles.
Good luck to everyone getting out on the streams this week! Be safe if you’re wading in high water, even on streams you’ve been to a hundred times before, the bottom can shift over night in flows and where it was 2ft deep a few days ago it might be 3 or 5ft deep after a big blast of water.
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 73am
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 8/3/20
USGS FI: 67.1
River: Dog
Water Temp: 70
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 8/3/20
USGS FI: 11.4
River: Lamoille
Water Temp: 72am
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 8/3/20
USGS FI: 136