Water Clarity: Muddy to Clear
Water Temperatures: Upper 50s-Mid 60s
Hatches: Golden Stoneflies, Caddis Flies, PMDs, Light Cahils, Sulfurs, Hexs
Suggested Patterns: Olive and Yellow Soft Hackles, Pheasant Tails (#12-18) Hare’s Ear #14-18) Bird of Prey-Olive #14-16) Golden Stoneflies (#8-10) Elk Hair Caddis Olive and Tan (#14-16) Tan X Caddis (#14-18) Parachute Adams (#12-18) CDC Sulfur (#16-18) CDC PMDS (#14-18) Wooly Buggers-Olive (#8-10) Zonkers-Olive and Natural (#4-8) Sculpin Olive or Tan, El Sculpito-Tan (#1)
The fishing has continued to be pretty good for us over the past few days. We haven’t made it back onto the bigger rivers since the rain we got earlier this week. Both the Winooski and Lamoille rivers came up more than we anticipated and got wicked dirty. The Winooski in Waterbury is iffy right now, I bet you could go catch a fish on a big ugly streamer or nymph. It could be great to fish tomorrow morning, we are in for some storms and rain tomorrow and Sunday but as long as the precipitation totals aren’t too high we should be set. And, in the event we get an inch of rain then so be it, we had some great streamer water conditions on both Wednesday and Thursday this week, we weren’t able to get out and take advantage of it but there were some folks who did. As we’ve said a hundred times before, heavy rain and dirty water gets those big wild browns fired up and willing to hit big streamers.
For anyone getting out this weekend be sure to be have a variety of flies with you. We’ve been able to get fish on dries, nymphs and streamers over the past few days. If the water’s clear we’ve been having better luck on dries in the am and pm while nymphing mid day. In the dirtier water more luck on streamers (no surprises there) Lots of fish on #14-#18 nymphs as well as a fair amount on a yellow or other lighter colored soft hackle. We’ve been running a lot of nymph rigs with some sort of soft hackle behind them which has been working out great. As far as active bugs, we’ve been seeing a good amount of Light Cahils, Sulfurs and Caddis flies along with Sporadic PMDS. The Cahils, Caddis and PMDs have been sporadically throughout the day with more activity in the evenings from Sulfurs as well as Cahils. Any light bodies #14-16 Mayfly imitation in the evening should be able to get some strikes from willing fish.
It’s going to be a great weekend to be out on the water. If you’re not feeling the rivers go hit a lake up in the Kingdom for an evening hex hatch. Don’t let the scattered rain showers deter you tomorrow. The fish are already wet so who cares. Good luck!
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 65
Water Clarity: Dirty
Last Update: 06-28-2019
USGS FI: 556 @ Montpelier
River: Dog
Water Temp: 62
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 06-28-2019
USGS FI: 178 @ Falls
River: Lamoille
Water Temp: 63
Water Clarity: Stained
Last Update: 06-28-2019
USGS FI: 504 @ Johnson