Water Clarity: Clear-Chocolate Milk
Water Temperatures: Upper 30s, might find some spots in low 40s
Hatches: Black Stoneflies, Eggs
Suggested Patterns: Streamers! Belly Scratcher Minnows, Bunny Muddlers (Olive and White) Wooly Buggers (Black or White) Complex Twist Buggers (Black, White, Olive) Montana Mouthwash (White, Black, Olive) Trina’s Bugger (Beeotch) Black Stoneflies (#4-10) Copper Johns (#12) Montana Prince-Black (#10-12) San Juan Worms-Pink, Egg Patterns
Well, the trout season is here although for a lot of anglers in our neck of the woods they haven’t gotten out. Things in the past 5 days have remained pretty tricky. More so from finding fishable water. Almost everything in our area was pretty much shot opening day and conditions didn’t really improve all that much over the week. Rain and snow melt definitely impacted the rivers significantly. The successful anglers over the past week have been driving a bit further west. If you get into the Champlain Valley, and to the West side of the Green MTN spine the conditions are much better. That may be out the door for the weekend given all of Vermont’s in for a flood watch from Friday-Sunday. On Saturday after work I drove from Stowe south on 100 to Brandon then up and over Brandon Mtn. Every brook, stream and river between Stowe and Brandon Mtn was toast. Not a single one fishable in my opinion. As soon as I got over Brandon Mtn it was a totally different scene. The smaller to mid sized stuff actually looked good. There’s just so much less snow on that side that the warmer weather didn’t cause a huge push of runoff into the rivers.
Both John and Steph got out this week and both had some success with a few real nice looking browns. Both streamers and nymphs brought them success. They were in higher, but still relatively clears flows and found the fish holding towards the mid sections of slightly slower runs which is often the case this time of the year. The slower water and even the slightest current breaks are going to hold fish until the water temps warm up a bit.
Given the forecast for this weekend- which is calling for up to 2″ of rain you may be hard pressed to find fishable trout water. If we do end up with that much rain your best bet might be to find a lake to dump a canoe or kayak into to go chase some bass or pike. Spring can be a great time to get after Largemouth and Northerns before the shallow bays get all choked out with weeds. For the die hard trout guys, finding a quiet beaver pond that’s iced out may be the more realistic option. Good luck to everyone getting out!
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River: Winooski
Water Temp:
Water Clarity: Mud
Last Update: 04-18-2019
USGS FI: 3340 @ Montpelier
River: Dog
Water Temp:
Water Clarity: Dirty
Last Update: 04-18-2019
USGS FI: 588 @ Falls
River: Lamoille
Water Temp:
Water Clarity: Mud
Last Update: 04-18-2019
USGS FI: 2300 @ Johnson