Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: Mid 50s to Low 60s
Hatches: Golden Stoneflies, Caddis Flies, Light Cahils, Sulfurs, Hoppers, ISOs, BWOs, Flying Ants
Suggested Patterns: Hoppers: More or Less, KK Henberrys, Flying Ants, Parachute Adams (#10-18), Mccoy’s All Day Dun ISO-(#10-12) Stimulators Yellow or Orange (#12-16) Gray Wulf (#12-14) X Caddis-Tan (#14-18) Light Cahils (#12-14) Pheasant Tails (#12-18) Hare’s Ears (#12-16) Prince Nymphs (#10-16) Taylors Gut Instinct (#14-16) Joca’s Caddis Pupa (#14-16) Bird of Prey-Brown or Olive (#12-16) Morrish Hotwire Caddis (#14-16) Copper Johns (Copper-#14-16)
First off a huge thanks to everyone that came up on Saturday for the fly fishing show and the folks that signed up for the TU 2 Fly Tourney on Sunday, Both of those events will be happening again next year and we couldn’t be more pumped!!
Moving on, the fishing has remained pretty consistent. A slow day here and there but for the most part it’s been pretty solid. Dry flies, nymphs and soft hackles have continued to take fish. We’ve been spending more time on the Winooski lately, mainly due to the slightly higher volume of water moving through it than the lamoille. There’s still fish holding in the fast water as well as fish further down the runs and riffles in the slightly slower, deeper water. Been throwing dries to any fish we see rising and nymphing for the most part otherwise. We have caught some fish swinging soft hackles through pieces of water that we had already nymphed and caught fish using both methods. This time of the year, even if it’s just a Pheasant tail or a prince, swinging them with a soft hackle behind can be super effective and often will catch fish that you won’t catch dead drifting a nymph. Pretty easy to do too!
It looks like over the next few days we are going to see some slightly warmer weather, this shouldn’t have any negative impact on the rivers as a it’s only going to be a couple of days and the rivers are all low enough temp wise that if they warm up a couple degrees it’s not going to be much of an issue. We really need some rain, looks like maybe early next week but we could use some sooner. A lot of the brook trout streams are getting way way too low. A good push of rain would help get the LLS on the move out of the lakes too. There’s some fish in the rivers right now but with the CFS being so low there’s only going to be fish in a couple of spots which takes some of the fun out of it.
Over the next few days if you get out be prepared to fish multiple methods and locations. If one spot isn’t happening have a second and third spot in mind and go hit those. Be sure to have some lighter tippet as well, when nymphing going as light at 6x will sometimes increase your hook ups by a surprising amount, although most of our fish aren’t super pressured with the water being low and a lot of small bugs around it won’t hurt. Just be prepared to fight the fish a little more gently. Be on the water mid morning through the end of the day, there’s no sense in getting up super early with the cooler weather. Good luck and do a rain dance!!
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 58
Water Clarity: Clear-Stained below Little Confluence
Last Update: 09-18-2019
USGS FI: 99 @ Montpelier
River: Dog
Water Temp: 57
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 09-18-2019
USGS FI: 20 @ Falls
River: Lamoille
Water Temp: 56
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 09-18-2019
USGS FI: 86 @ Johnson