River Conditions: 10/31/16

Water Clarity: Clear

Water Temperatures:  40-45

Hatches: BWOs, October Caddis

Suggested Patterns: Pheasant Tails (#12-16) Copper Johns (#14-16-Red) Simple Stones (#8) Olive Hares Ear (#14-18) San Juan Worms, Egg Patterns, Muddler Minnows, Wooly Bugger, Zonkers, Sparkle Minnows, Keller’s Nightmare, Philips Flu Shot

Talked to a lot of guys that got out over the past couple of days and some anglers did really well! Mostly streamer fishing and nymphing which makes sense as the temps have been dropping but 1 guy hit a good BWO hatch and found rising fish. With today being the last day of the trout season a lot of anglers are going to be hanging the rod up for the winter which isn’t necessary. We’ve got plenty of water open year round to fish and although it may be a little grim to fly fishing in January and February in Vermont there can still be some killer fishing in November and December if we have mild temps. Take this coming week for example, Wednesday is going to be 60 and cloudy! Any increase in temperature from here on out could get the fish fired up and may even trigger a hatch. Water temps are currently in the Low-Mid 40s so a two or three degree jump during a warmer day could get the fish feeding heavily. The two rivers that are open year round close to us would be the Winooski from the Route 2 Bridge on the east side of Waterbury downstream to Champlain and the Lamoille from Cady’s Falls down to Champlain. (Note that the lower parts of these below the first dam close in March for Walleye Spawning) These rivers stay open year round to catch and release only with artificial lures and flies only. In both rivers the fish are going to be generally found in the deeper, slower moving holes as the water cools off. You may find fish feeding on BWOs sporadically through November in some of the deeper flats which can be a lot of fun to fish. For the most part streamers and nymphs are going to be the most productive. Focus on the deeper water and fish your flies close to the bottom. When nymphing it’s always good to have some sort of egg pattern that time of the year as there will be some eggs here and there from spawning browns and brookies. Other good choices include Stonefly Patterns, Copper Johns, Pheasant Tails and San Juan worms. Good streamer patterns include Zonkers, Wooly Buggers-Olive and White, Muddler Minnows and Sculpin Patterns. Like mentioned before the trick is to fish them deep and slow. You can even dead drift streamers under an indicator and fish it just like you would with a nymph. If targeting resident trout in November doesn’t sound appealing give the lake run fish a try. Often they’re going to be a bit larger than the resident trout you’ll find in the rivers and they may put a little more bend in your rod. Most of the larger tribs running into Champlain will have something in them wether its steelhead, lake trout, salmon or even lake run browns. These fish can be caught by swinging streamers and nymphing. As the temps drop, nymphs may be a more effective fly to get a fish to eat but on the contrary you can cover more water swinging streams and its definitely more exciting having a fish take a streamer than watching a bobber go under. What you’re fishing for and how you’re fishing doesn’t matter though. What’s important is you’re getting out! Good luck to both the anglers and hunters getting out this fall! We’ll update the reports occasionally through the fall but much less than we do during the normal trout season. Starting tomorrow: November 1st we’re also going to be cutting our hours back to Tuesday-Saturday: 10-5, Sunday 10-4 and closed on Mondays. Tight Lines!

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