Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: 455-60
Hatches: Caddis,BWOs
Suggested Patterns: Parachute Adams #10-18) H and L Variant (#14-18) Adams Trude (#14-16) Elk Hair Caddis (#16-18 TAN) Flying Ants, Bird of Prey (brown-#14-16) Pheasant Tails (#14-18) Zug Bugs (#14-16) Copper Johns (Copper $14-18) Stonefly Nymphs,
The warmer temps this past week seemed to get the fish a lot more active than the week prior. We still had a few slow days but overall we ran into a lot more fish. The dry fly fishing from lunch time through 5pm on the bigger rivers was pretty awesome! The fish were keyed in on small BWOs so that’s what we fished! We still found some fish in the faster flowing water but ran into a lot further down the runs/pools in the softer water. When fishing #18 and #20 BWOs we’ve been running a bigger #12-14 trude or H and L Variant with 20″ of 6x off the back to our BWO. Those smaller BWO patterns can be a huge pain to see, so by having the bigger fly it gives us, and our clients a visual as to roughly where our fly is. If you see a fish rise 2ft behind the bigger dry set the hook! We also did get a few fish to eat the bigger dry as well. Aside from dry flies, we’ve continued to have luck with smaller nymphs and soft hackles. Smaller Zug bugs, Bird of Prey and copper johns have all been catching fish as well. Bringing two rods makes it much easier when going back and fourth from dries to nymphing.
At the beginning of this past week we were seeing water temps in the mid 40s, by Wednesday afternoon the water had warmed up to almost 60 which made a huge difference in the fish activity. Over the next month, the windows of warmer weather are going to be when you want to make sure you’re on the water. Obviously, the best time to fish is whenever you can, but stack the odds in your favor by going out on the warmer afternoons!
We haven’t been out doing much fishing for LLS much lately but the anglers that have been out have been having success. Water levels have been pretty low keeping the fish fairly spooky, low light streamer fishing has yielded a fair amount of Salmon, nymphing with smaller flies have also been getting fish when they’re not chasing streamers. In typical salmon fashion, you could make 100 drifts over one fish and get no interest, or get a fish to eat any nymph that drifts past them on your first cast.
Remember that although the “trout season” ends on the 31st, catch and release angling with artificial lures/flies can occur on most bodies of water throughout the state. A few to note that do close would be the Battenkill, Dog, and Clyde river. Be sure to check the regulation book but we can continue to fish as long as we want!
Good luck to everyone getting out this week! Wednesday and Thursday look like they could be fantastic!
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River: Winooski:
Water Temp: 56pm
Water Clarity: Clear-full of leaves
Last Update: 10/26
USGS FI: 174
River: Dog
Water Temp: 55
Water Clarity: Clear-leafy
Last Update: 10/26
USGS FI: 23
River: Lamoille
Water Temp 57
Water Clarity: Clear-leafy
Last Update: 10/26
USGS FI: 173