Water Clarity: Clear
Water Temperatures: High 50s-67
Hatches: Stoneflies, Caddis, Olive Caddis, Light Cahills, Sulfers
Suggested Patterns: Pheasant Tails (#12-16) Prince Nymphs (#14-18) Hare’s Ears (#14-18) Yellow Sparkle Soft Hackles (#16) Joca’s Caddis Pupa (#14-16) Hotwire Caddis (Tan #16) Parachute Adams (#12-16) Light Cahills (#12-14) Blonde Wulfs (#12-16) Elk Hair Caddis #14-18) X Caddis (#14-18) CDC Sulfurs (#16-18)
The fishing has remained pretty good this week! Finally a bit more consistency on the Winooski on dries. Water temps yesterday afternoon were 66 on the Winooski and 65 on the Lamoille. I wouldn’t be surprised if they get to near 70 by the end of today so if you’re hitting the water this afternoon be sure to bring your thermometer. We’ve done pretty well every afternoon this week, sporadic rising mid afternoon with more and more fish taking dries as the day wound down. Plenty of action nymphing throughout the day. I’ve been using a heavy Pheasant Tail Jig in a #12 as my anchor fly while nymphing (euro) with a yellow or cream soft hackle about 16″ above. The nymph has worked great while drifting then at the end of every drift by stopping the rod the flies started to swing up in the water column and fish were hammering the soft hackle. It’s exciting to see your line pull tight when swinging flies!! We’ve been finding lots of fish in the faster water-still mainly the wild fish then getting the stockies back behind them in the slower water.
The forecast is looking pretty awesome for the next week or so, a few warm days next week but nothing that should affect the rivers too much. Make sure to hit the rivers this weekend, with things cooling off a little bit tonight water temps should be in low to mid 60s tomorrow am, I wouldn’t expect them to warm up too much over the course of the day, having said that having a thermometer from here on out would be a good choice. Sunday should be fantastic as water temps will be cooler and really won’t warm up at all during the course of the day. As far as insects go, there’s been ton of different stuff coming off every day. Still seeing plenty of caddis flies, mostly smaller than a #14 along with Cahils, Sulfurs and a few other kinds of mayflies.
One thing to keep in mind is make sure your flies are getting down. The water levels aren’t high right now so it’s not too challenging to get your flies down towards the bottom but if you’re not getting them down you’re going to catch a very small percentage of the fish. It’s super easy to fish one spot, find the bottom and then just keep that same depth on your fly for the rest of the day. That’s a great way to not catch fish. When nymphing be sure to constantly adjust your depth. Even when euro nymphing it’s easy to get in the rhythm of fishing your fly at the same depth everywhere you go, I found myself doing it the other night, as soon as I realized that I started adjust my depth as I worked down a run and immediately started hooking fish. It’s often the small things that make all the difference in the world. If you’re not catching fish on a nymph, the last thing I would do is change the fly out, not to say it doesn’t matter but the fly selection generally isn’t why people don’t catch fish, it’s got a lot more to do with the presentation, location and depth of your fly.
Good luck to everyone getting out this weekend!!
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River: Winooski
Water Temp: 64am
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 6/5/20
USGS FI: 235
River: Dog
Water Temp: 63
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 6/5/20
USGS FI: 53
River: Lamoille
Water Temp: 64am
Water Clarity: Clear
Last Update: 6/5/20
USGS FI: 270