Water Clarity: Dirty-Some smaller sized streams are tea colored to clear
Water Temperatures: 50s
Hatches: Black Stoneflies, Caddis Flies, Hendricksons
Suggested Patterns: Streamers! Conehead Bunny Muddlers, Zonkers, Wooly Buggers, Montana Mouthwash, Complex Twist Buggers, Grumpy Muppets, Gamechangers, Black Kaufman Stones, Girdle Bugs, Montana Prince Nymphs-Black, Copper Johns-Red, Sanjuan Worms-Pink, Otter’s Soft Milking Eggs
We’ve gotten enough rain for a little while! The fishing has been decent in certain spots, the best fishing has been in the lower sections of the mountain streams where there’s some potential for larger fish. I got out this am on a stream just like that, that I know has some browns in it. There were some fish will to chase a tan colored sculpin. The water was pretty high, but still clear so I opted to go with a more subtlety colored fly with no flash. Managed to hook 3 nice browns, only landed one, between 16-18″ Every fish followed the fly right to the bank and didn’t eat it until the fly was literally on the bank. A great reason why wearing muted colors and staying out of the water as much as possible will significantly help in not spooking those fish.
Overall, the waters around are super high and pretty dirty. The larger rivers are going to need a while to settle back down. We’ve been spending most of our time in the smaller water and on still water targeting smallmouth and northern pike which has seemed to be pretty productive over the past couple of days. We do have some more rain in the forecast, hopefully it’ll just be a light drizzle and no more heavy downpours. The rain we got the other night did a number on a lot of streams and ditches. When fishing over the next few days, streamers would be the go to fly, if the water’s super clear you may be better off nymphing. Be sure to have enough weight to get down deep in the higher flows. Look for fish hanging tight to the bank and in the slower water; all the fish I moved this am came from the back ends of slower pools. In a perfect situation, I’d have a nymphing rod and a streamer rod rigged up and be prepared to fish both methods everywhere. Good luck to everyone getting out and let’s all do the opposite of a rain dance!
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River: Winooski
Water Temp:
Water Clarity: Muddy
Last Update: 05-21-2019
USGS FI: 2850 @ Montpelier
River: Dog
Water Temp:
Water Clarity: Slightly Off
Last Update: 05-21-2019
USGS FI: 303 @ Falls
River: Lamoille
Water Temp:
Water Clarity: Dirty
Last Update: 05-21-2019
USGS FI: 1850 @ Johnson