Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: 50s-70
Hatches: Golden Stoneflies, Tan Caddis, Light Cahils, Brown Drakes, Sulfurs, PMDs
Suggested Patterns: Anderson’s Bird of Prey (Olive-#14-16) Pheasant Tails #14-18) Strolis Quil Body Jig (#12-16) Green Copper Johns (#12-14) Kaufman Stone Flies (#10-12) Girdle Bugs (8-12) Zug Bugs #12-18) Parachute Adams (#12-16) Elk Hair Caddis-Olive and Tan (#14-18) Goddard Caddis #14-18, Light Cahils (#12-14)
The rain we got earlier this week helped but it definitely wasn’t enough! It looks like we’ll be seeing some more over the next week. We’ll take whatever we can get. As far as the fishing goes, the brook trout fishing was great. most of the tribs we fish all came up a bit with the rain and basically hit a reset button for the brook trout. The first few days after rain and an influx of water can be great on the brook trout streams. The fish are super eager and aggressive and will eat just about any fly you put in front of them. Occasionally, if the water is still high they won’t want to eat dries, if that happens put a little hornberg, muddler or small beadheaded wooly bugger.
The Winooski had been running a bit cooler earlier in the week, we found temps ranging from 58-65 in the am. Higher up on both the Winooski and Lamoille the water temps were quite cool early in the am but they did warm up relatively fast. With cold nighttime temps, water temps had been dropping quickly mainly due to how little water there was to actually cool off. On the flip side, it’s been warming up quicker because of the lower water volume. It looks like we may actually get some rain over the next week, some thunderstorms rolling through (allegedly) in the afternoons will hopefully bring in some heavy rain and bring water levels up. Some of the biggest fish we land each year are mid summer right after a heavy rain in some of the mid sized tribs. A good flush of cool, dirty water will send lots of food down the river and get the big browns fired up and willing to eat a big streamer.
We’ve gotten several reports of Hex’s starting to hatch on some of the local bass lakes. Be sure to be on the lookout for these over the next 2-3 weeks. The Hex hatch is an awesome time to target stillwater trout along with smallmouth bass! Be sure to have some big yellow mayfly imitations, we’ve got a few dries in stock as well as some hex emergers tied by John; one of our local tyers. The stillwater fishing in general has been good. With the warmer temps the bigger smallmouth on the Waterbury Rez have dropped off into deeper water making them a little tricky to get on a fly rod unless you have a line with at least a 15ft sink tip, a 25 or 30 ft tip is probably better. If you fish early and late, you’ll be able to get them on top water or in shallower water in general. On champlain, they’ll be in shallower water as the water temps are considerably cooler than the smaller bodies of water like the rez. We’ve spend more time on the hunt for largemouth as the warm water doesn’t seem to bother them and they’ll eat topwater in the heavy vegetation. A short heavy leader is a must for the largemouth, we like to run 2ft of maxima 25lb to 2ft of 20 to a a foot and a half of 15lb. Chameleon for the back two sections and ultragreen for the tippet. A popper with a good weedguard is a must as well.
For those getting out this weekend if trout are what you’re after and you intend on hitting one of the larger rivers get there early and be sure to temp the water. Fish further up than you normally would. On the Lamoille from Wolcott up to Hardwick and even above that. You should be able to find cooler water in that direction. Same thing on the Winooski, fishing above Montpellier would be your best bet. No promises as we haven’t temped the water that far up but if you’re going to find cooler water that would be the area to target. On another note, if you see a pile of fish stacked up in the mouth of a brook leave them alone, with lower, warmer temps this is already occuring. Often anglers will temp the water right at the mouth of the brook and it’ll be under 65. Just because it’s cooler there, doesn’t make it a good idea to catch and release fish. If you go up or down from the mouth of the feeder stream, even 10ft the water will likely be 10 degrees warmer. Those fish are stacked in the mouths of the streams because it’s too hot elsewhere. Leave them alone and go brook trout fishing.
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 68am
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 6/25/21
USGS FI: 97.3
River: Dog
Water Temp: 66
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 6/25/21
USGS FI: 16.4
River: Lamoille
Water Temp:68
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 6/25/21
USGS FI: 76