Water Clarity: Muddy and High
Water Temperatures: 35-40
Hatches:
Suggested Patterns: Girdle Bugs, Eggs, Kaufman Stone Flies, Copper Johns, Squirmy Worms, San Juans, Wooly Buggers in White or Olive, Hot Head Bugger in Black, Zonkers
We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and has had a chance to take advantage of the new regulations! We’ve been getting out a bit and have been getting into fish!! The small streams have seemed to pick back up, the majority of the brook trout seem to be done spawning and eager to eat flies-be sure to be very careful when walking the small mtn streams. We’ve been just staying on the banks to ensure we’re not stomping on redds. The redds on the smaller mtn streams can be quite hard to see! We did get into some last week on dries but that was on one of the warmer days. Most of the fish we’ve been catching have been on small streamers dead drifted or slowly twitched with the current.
We’ve also been fishing a few of the tribs off the Winooski, getting into fish mostly nymphing but a few on streamers. Pink Squirmy worms seem to be the ticket. (Shocking) Also picked up some fish on black stones and mop flies. A double nymph rig has been the best, we’re finding a good amount of the fish in the slower deeper pools. Some of the spots demand a bobber rig due to the location and depth of the pool, other areas are best suited to euro nymph. Be prepared to do a little of both, that may mean bringing two rods or re-rigging a few times if you only have one. Or just come into the shop and buy another rod… Be sure to be on the lookout for fish spawning on the larger streams as well, one of the guides stumbled across a few the other day. For the sake of those fish watch them for a few minutes and then leave them undisturbed. If you see big fish in shallow water right now avoid fishing for them! Also be sure to be careful when wading, avoid crossing the river in gravelly tailouts. The forecast over the next week is looking decent for fishing, not too cold yet… Everything is cranking pretty good right now with the rain we got yesterday, looks like we’ll see another wave of rain saturday. The smaller brooks will be good to fish by tomorrow but then everything will likely blow out again. Good luck to everyone getting out!!
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