Water Clarity: Dirty-Smaller Rivers have cleared up
Water Temperatures: Cooler mid 50s-low 60s
Hatches: Brown Stones, Olive and Tan Caddis, BWOs, ISO’s, Hoppers,
Suggested Patterns: Pheasant Tails (#16-18) Hare’s Ear (#16-18) Bird of Prey-Brown (#16) Copper Johns (#16-18) Prince Nymphs (#14-18) Pat’s Rubber Legs (#6-10) Dave’s Hoppers, Light Cahils, BWO (#18-20) Parachute Adams (#12-18) Mouthwash, Sex Dungeons, Zonkers and Wooly Buggers
The rain we’ve been getting has definitely helped things out a fair amount. We could still use a little bit more but we’ll take whatever we can get. The Winooski is still pretty dirty from the rain the other day. It’ll probably be in great shape by the weekend. Still might be a little dirty from Bolton down but I bet it’ll be in good shape up higher. With the stained water over the next few days, don’t be afraid to fish some larger stonefly patters in black, brown or a darker olive. Kaufman stones along with pat’s rubber legs would be good choices. Fish one of those followed by a smaller less intrusive fly like a #16 Pheasant Tail or Copper John. Larger streamer patters like a #4 Wooly bugger, Sex Dungeon Mouthwash and Zonker in darker colors would also be a good choice. Bringing two rods down to the river would be a good idea if you’ve got them. On the smaller sized streams you should be able to still get some fish on a dry fly later on in the day, at a certain point, often the water will cool off to the point where the smaller stream trout will not take a dry, this happens in the larger rivers as well but that’s typically later on. If you’re fishing a smaller sized stream and you can’t coax a fish up to take a dry in four or five pools it’d be wise to switch things up and fish a nymph or a smaller streamer. As the water continues to drop and clear on the larger rivers the dry fly fishing should pick back up, small BWOs or a little Parachute Adams can be killer this time of the year.
If you’re getting out there this weekend have a couple of plans in case ones not happening. First choice would be to get on the larger rivers, nymph and strip streamers. If that’s not happening or the water hasn’t quite cleared up enough the lower sections of the larger tribs of the big rivers where some fish may have pushed up into during the higher flows. These fish may be more apt to take nymphs unless the water on the trib is still dirty. In that case, a streamer should still get the job done.
Another thing to keep on the back burner are Landlocked Salmon. This last influx of water should’ve gotten some fish to move up into all of the Champlain tribs that get Salmon runs. The run in the Kingdom hasn’t been great as the water is still really low. From a few of our friends it sounds like there’s only fish in a couple spots right now and they’ve been a little fussy. Ideal flows for up there would be 200-300 cfs. Prior to this rain the water had been ever lower and it did increase but only to 130ish which is still pretty low.
Good luck to everyone getting out this weekend.
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 56
Water Clarity: Muddy in Waterbury
Last Update: 10-4-2018
USGS FI: 478 @ Montpelier
River: Dog
Water Temp: 56
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 10-4-2018
USGS FI: 58@ Falls
River: Lamoille
Water Temp: 58
Water Clarity: Stained
Last Update: 10-4-2018
USGS FI: 527 @ Johnson