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Water Clarity:Clear-Muddy

Water Temperatures:  60-73

Hatches: Golden and Blakc Stoneflies, Olive and Tan Caddis, BWOs , Light Cahils, Hoppers, Tricos, Flying Ants, Iso’s (soon) 

Suggested Patterns: Gray Wulf #10-12, Blond Wulf #14-16, Parachute Adams (#10-18-ISO imitation 10-12, BWO 16-18) Flying Ants (#14-16-Cinamon and Black) Black Ants (#16-18) Light Cahills (#14-16) X-Caddis (Tan-#18) Pheasant Tails (#12-18) Copper Johns (#14-18) Taylor’s Gut (#14-16) Bird of Prey (#14-16) Dirty Bird (#12-14 Rust) Hotwire Caddis (#14-16) Spr CNC Flashback (BWO-#16-18)

Hopefully everyone’s been getting out over the past few days. The fishing has been pretty good in the mid sized to smaller tribs. The larger rivers are running slightly warmer but on some of the early mornings they may be in the low 60s and fishable. We’ve been seeing a few flying ants but nothing too prolific yet. Any day now… We’ve been getting fish on a variety of terrestrials as well as smaller nymphs. The streamer bite wasn’t too bad the other day with the higher water after the rain we got. We’ve got showers in the forecast for tomorrow but other than that it looks like things are going to stay pretty dry over the next week. Some warmer temps early next week followed by a little bit of a cool down. The rain tomorrow will help a lot of streams as some of them are still a little bony. The Winooski isn’t high right now but it’s pretty dirty from the rain we got the other day. We’ve been finding a lot of our fish caught in the more turbid pocket water over the past few weeks, those fish have been best targeted Euro Nymphing, or fishing a bigger bushy dry like a hopper or stimulator with a smaller nymph fished as a dropper 20 inches below the fly. If you don’t pick up fish with a hopper dropper it’s good to always go back with a more true nymphing technique as you can never really effectively nymph a hole with the hopper dropper method unless it’s relatively shallow slow moving water. That’s not to say it doesn’t catch fish because it definitely does, some days it seems like the dry attracts the fish but the fish end up taking the nymph instead.  A great example of why having a couple rods with you can keep you fishing longer and re rigging less. In our current conditions its good to have a rod rigged up to fish dries with or without a dropper and another rod rigged to fish nymphs. In another few weeks once we get cooler weather we’ll often add another slightly heavier rod to the quiver with a sink tip for streamers. Being able to rotate through different rods will allow you to spend more time with your fly in the water and in theory catch more fish. It can sometimes be a pain to carry three rods with you but there’s definitely days it will be worth it!

The Fly Rod Shop is Northern Vermont’s finest fly fishing guide service and fly fishing gear retailer. Visit our shop on Route 100 in Stowe, VT or shop our online store to find gear from Simms Fishing Products, Sitka, Redington, Loon Products, Montana Fly Company, Buff, Lamson Waterworks, Sage, Rio, Scientific Angler and more!

River Water Temp Water Clarity Last Update  USGS Fl
Winooski  68am Clear 8/17/17 193 @ Montpelier
Dog  61 am Clear  8/17/17 56.9 @ Falls
Lamoille  67am  Clear 8/17/17 220 @ Johnson