River Conditions: 4/9/16

Water Clarity: Clear to stained

Water Temperatures:  Upper 30’s

Hatches: Brown Stoneflies

Suggested Patterns:  San Juan Worms, Copper Johns, Two Tone Stone,  Egg Patterns, Black and Brown Stoneflies, Simple Stones, Wooly Buggers, Zonkers, Mouthwash, Philipe’s Flu Shot, Sparkle Minnows, Keller’s Nightmare, and Sculpin Patterns

Opening day is finally here! Conditions are not ideal but there are still fish out to be caught! With the cooler air temps the water temps have dipped back down. Have not heard of any reports from the Steelhead in the NEK yet but there are fish in some of the Champlain tribs and are biting. We fished one the other day and found some fish willing to take San Juan Worms, Otter’s Soft Milking Eggs, Chart. Glo Bugs and some Caddis Pupa. Fish were spread out and we had to move around for them but we still hooked into a good number of fish including one MONSTER that spit the hook. Had lots of people in the shop today who have been out fishing, not a ton of success but that’s not a surprise on opening day! Your best bet right now is going to be to find some smaller water that is at a reasonable flow and fish it with both nymphs and streamers. Have to rods rigged up, one with a sink-tip leader and a wooly bugger or montana mouthwash and another rod rigged up with an indicator and a couple of nymphs. It looks like we are going to see a bit of a warm up over the next few days and some rain which will raise water levels and might make things a bit more challenging. Good luck to those getting out and wade safe, that water is cold.

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