I couldn't be more optimistic about the health of our trout right now. I spent a lot of time on the water in the past week and fished many new and old areas, including fishing with in a friendly half day tournament with a bunch of local guides and fishermen. The entry fee: Beer. I was so encouraged by everyones results and what it means for the rest of the year and beyond. One team of two anglers headed into the mountains and landed 51 trout mostly brookies from 3-6" but wild native fish none the less. My partner and I took advantage of the perfect river temps low to id 60's and fish both a mid sized and large river. We landed 50 trout mostly wild rainbows from 7" to 16" the majority were 13-15" and were incredibly healthy and fat. They really put on a show, with many fish making multiple leaps 2 or even 3' out of the water. In one roughly 250 yard stretch of a mid sized stream we landed 1 Brook Trout, 3 Browns, and 12 rainbows, plus fish missed and lost. I believe that every fish was wild!!! We fished another spot on that same river near where they stock fish, we caught two stocked fish and 4 wild ones! The stockies must have been caught or washed down and even killed in the floods a few weeks ago. That is good fishing no matter where you are. Another group fished the same areas as us and caught a good number of fish, around 20 or so, while a few other groups fished a river not known for its trout population and landed all three species and were in double digits.
I was so encouraged by these results. I had previously thought my local wild rainbows seemed a little lower in numbers but it may have been that I could not get through the stocked fish, or that the wild fish some of the wild fish were keying into different flies than most stocked? Not sure. One thing is for sure that we are looking very god going into the dog days of summer. While we will likely see some intense heat at some point our fish are very healthy right now and ready for the stress. After surviving last summer, this one should be a breeze. Additionally, the rains have kept ground water levels very high and springs are pumping cool water at spring like levels which helps our river flows and temps. I have seen a fair amount of bugs with some large golden stones, lime stones, small black caddis, sulphers, Light cahills, and a huge yellow #8-10 mayfly, I guess it must be a golden drake. I have not seen this bug much before, but trout were keying into them at high noon under bright sun. I was a bit surprised that they were hatching in warm weather during midday as opposed to evening. The trout had actually moved from their normal deeper run and the into shallow clear water adjacent to the riffle and were taking them off the surface. It would be nice if that hatch happened more often! The remainder of the week looks warm, but then we cool back down with below average temps forecast. Perfect. Im booked this weekend, but have some availability next week and the following sunday afternoon. Please look me up if you'd like to get out.
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Had a great vacation with the family last week for fourth of July, and have returned to find continued good fishing. Sorry to the people who called looking to get out and fish, there were quite a few of you, I hope you were able to get some time in on the water.
Fishing is good right now, you just have to be able to adjust your location and technique depending on river flows and clarity. We are still in the same wet cool pattern we've been in all summer. While some rivers have gotten over 70 degrees earlier this week, I don't think we will have to worry about temps until maybe sunday afternoon on the big rivers. Today didn't even get into the 60's! Really an ideal summer day to be on the water. The high flows and cool water temps are great for our local trout populations as they are still happy and not too stressed, though we did have some significant flooding last week. The wild trout know how to survive the floods, but it will be interesting to see how the stocked fish have moved around. I have not fished any stocked rivers since I've been back. The trout have been able to continue to feed, and by the looks of the football shaped brown trout I landed last night, (first trout pic above) they are putting on weight. That fish took a #14 grey nymph on a mid sized stream. Fish have been taken on dries and nymphs this week, and I'm sure throwing a streamer in the dingy water after a rain could get you into a nice fish as well. I actually just talked to a local client who fished with earlier this season and he was fishing a mid sides stream and could not get a take on nymphs. Eventually he threw on a foam ant and caught quite a few wild browns on dries. I'll be out a lot in the next three or four days and will update things next week though we do have some warm weather coming. I have seen some large golden stones flying around and caught a brookie on a yellow stimulator a few days ago. If you are not getting much on dries or nymphs maybe try downsizing your nymphs as small as a size 20. I actually got broke off last night by a big wild rainbow on 6x that took a #20 Pheasant tail nymph. I got a ton of fishing on my vacation in. We started by heading down to Manchester, VT and stopped to visit my friend who is in R&D for Orvis designing rods and other gear. Unfortunately, as we arrived at Orvis it began to pour and blew out the Battenkill so we didn't get to fish that evening. We made plans to try a float in the morning and my buddy picked me up bright and early and we met one of his co-workers to fish. The river was so high we had to shorten the float on the Battenkill because we couldn't get the boat under the bridge! The water was moving rapidly and was in the banks and bushes. We managed to move maybe 3 fish in an hour and a half throwing streamers and I was able to land a nice 14" wild brown on a 6" streamer. It was pretty rewarding given the conditions and the river. That same afternoon the whole family loaded up and went from Southern VT to our families camp on the Canadian border. Its a family tradition to head up for the 4th of July and it happens to coincide with the peak of the Hexagenia Mayfly Hatch. The Hex as its called, is one of the largest of the mayflies, about a size 6 or 8 and hatch on warm calm evening just at dusk. The hatch is fairly finicky and we had seasonably cool weather. The first three nights there were enough bugs hatching for some fish to eat on top, and some big ones at that. Since the hatch was not dense fish would pop up, rise a couple times and head down. You had to get into the preferred distance from shore and wait. At times you would go for 20 minutes or so without making a cast waiting for a fish to come close enough to you. Sometimes a fish wold rise in range but then not rise again or a fish would feed toward you only to turn and go the other way just out of range.. Most of the fish caught were when a fish would rise at least twice so you could see what direction it was moving and lay a cast right in front of it. When this happened the fish would eat almost every time and it is pretty rewarding and exciting. I started the first night out with 4.5x and was broke off immediately by big fish on the hook set. I upsized to 3x and over the 4 nights landed rainbows and browns from 16-21". The last night at was about 5 degrees warmer and I anticipated a good night. I took my 2 year old out and we trolled the fly rod and got a nice rainbow. I then went out by myself and bugs were coming off in good numbers and fish were on the surface early. Since there was a good density of giant mayflies the fish were feeding in sort of circles and staying put in an area instead of searching. I could slowly row near a fish and wait for it to come up and usually get it to eat when I could put my cast in front of it as it was eating on the surface. It was a great way to end out time at camp. Aside from fishing the hex hatch, my wife and I went over to Northern NH, and fished some crazy packed water. There were fish and anglers everywhere. We did well though landing about 25 trout and salmon. My wife fished dries, while I fished nymphs. We just had to cover all the water and we picked some nice fish from spots that other anglers had over looked. I caught one big brookie in shallow water on the opposite bank in a place absolutely pounded by anglers. i just think that spot was overlooked and since there was a heavy current it was tough to get a good drift. In another busy spot I caught fish directly where another angler had been standing and fishing with little luck by down sizing my nymphs to size 18-20. The fish confidently took the small nymphs and ignored the larger offerings. Likely because of the pressure. Next we headed down to Old Orchard Beach, Maine for some beach time. I scheduled a trip with Mark Drummond of Drummond Fly Charters out of Kittery Point, Maine. I've been trying for 3 years to get a big striped bass on the fly with no real luck. I told Mark I wanted a big one and we headed out to the broad ocean. On probably my 5th cast I briefly hooked a very big bass right near the boat but he was gone almost immediately. My next fish I landed and was a nice 10-12 pound bass. Finally I had gotten a big striper!! Unfortunately the pics did not save to the camera so I have no pics. We then got into some schoolie stripers and caught a bunch like the one pictured above and smaller. I hooked one other big fish who ran toward shore before turning and running right at the boat. I couldn't strip fast enough to keep pressure on the fish and it came off. I ended the morning landing about 40 schoolies and the big bass. It was a great trip and I'd recommend Mark to anyone. The next morning I took what I learned and landed 10 stripers from the beach on my own, all small fish though. I've got a lot of openings the next few weeks as I think the cool weather is keeping some tourists away. Ironically that same weather is what is keeping the fishing good. Let me know if you want to get out and take advantage of the good mid summer trout fishing! We have received over 2" of rain in the last 12-16 hours. Rivers in our area are very high and dangerous. The Mad for instance is 5600 CFS right now. It begins to become fishable somewhere around 500 CFS. Small streams will clear and drop first so look to them tomorrow. Its also a good time to get out on the lakes and ponds for both warm and cold water fish. The hex hatch is happening now and it brings big fish to the surface. This is a fun hatch when you hit it right. Think warm, calm nights. I have done well on both duns and cripples. Cast to any risers within in distance as fast as possible before the fish go back down and be ready to strike at any minute. You may catch the biggest brown, brook, rainbow trout or bass of your life! I am guiding from camp on a great Hex pond this week Sunday through Wednesday then Ill be in Maine vacationing and chasing stripers. Please let me know if you want to get out for an evening!
I was not on the rivers too much this week but got out with clients a few times. The fish were taking caddis dries in the AM, but mostly nymphs. I fished smaller streams because of the high flows. The fish have definitely begun feeding in their normal summer times, early and late. Ive noticed this switch over the past two weeks. Prior fish were feeding all day, but they are definitely much more active right now early and late. We picked up fish midday but it was certainly slower than it had been. As you can see the bass fishing has been good. My partner and I were happy to take a second place finish at the 2017 Ditch Pickle Classic Fly Fishing Tournament. This was especially rewarding as we had a breakdown and no outboard motor on day 2. We were basically stuck within 500 yards of the launch where we could use the trolling motor. We targeted both large mouth and small mouth with dark colored flies. The magic depth for feeding largemouth was 3.5 feet in sandy bays, while smallmouth were caught in 3-10' of water both on rocky bottom drop offs and sandy bays near the drop offs. I caught my largest smallmouth bass of my life on a top water popper in 4' of water. It was 20.25" and was a beast. My partner did a great job of netting it. All of the fish wanted an erratic retrieve. I'm off to Orvis in Manchester today for the night and ill get some fishing in down there before heading north to camp. Everyone have a great fourth! We've been lucky enough to have the cool and wet weather continue. While most people loved the brief heat wave last weekend, I have been loving the former. We have had enough water that even when we had warm weather the water temps stayed cool for the most part. I took temps in the morning last weekend of 65 degrees on the big rivers. Last year at this time our rivers were low and cooking and out wild trout were under a lot of thermal stress. This year our trout have experienced little, if any warm temps depending on the river. This mean that the trout will have more time to feed and grow bigger, and should be in better shape when we get into July and August.
Fish have been keying into mayfly nymphs and soft hackles, as well as golden stones and caddis to a lesser extent. I have still seen very very few fish rising, but they are willing to feed just under the surface. I spotted two trout today feeding about 6" to just under the surface, but they would not eat a dry fly or emerger drifted on the surface. I tied on a #14 hares ear and #18 soft hackle pheasant tail and nymphed up both fish, one on each fly. Hatches consist of Light Cahills, Cream Cahills, Sulphurs, Iso's, Hexagenia on still water, Golden stones, and tan caddis. There was a hatch of Iso's on a mid sized stream this week. They were big about a size 10. I would have mistaken them for another fly had it not been for finding their nymphal shucks on the rocks. They were definitely bigger in size than our fall hatch, which is when they hatch in good numbers and fish key into them on dry flies. They Hexagenia ponds are going to be getting going and the hatch usually peaks around 4th of July. Ill be guiding on a northern pond that has a great hex hatch and brings the largest Brown and Rainbow trout to the surface. You can scroll back through the last two years fishing reports around the 4th to see some of the big fish we have caught. Please feel free to contact me to set up an evening trip to fish the largest mayfly in the East! Ill be up there the 1st of July through the 5th. As I mentioned already, the fishing has been good this week. I've been on small, medium and large rivers and been able to find very willing fish everywhere I've been. The guided trips have produced well for beginner and intermediate anglers I've had on the water. I did have a customer cancel two days on me this week, and I used this morning where I should have been guiding to do some competition fishing practice. I chose a small low river to fish as this is very demanding and technical fishing typically. The intent was to practice tight line nymphing on small, clear shallow water as well as flat water. Both present challenges to the fly angler in terms of being able to present the fly without spooking fish and in being able to detect takes while keeping your nymphs off the bottom. The solution, besides being stealthy is to fish upstream. This is easily done with a dry fly, but when the fish aren't on drys you need to be able to change tactics. In shallow water casting a nymph under an indicator present a lot of difficulty because you cannot control depth, effectively, and on flat water the indicator can spook fish. What I learned from some very good competition anglers is to the grease your sighter and allow your sighter to float on the surface. This works on both flat and riffly water. By laying your cast at different angles you can control how quickly your nymphs sink. Watching your sighter as it drifts back toward you, you are able to detect strikes by seeing your sighter dart under water. Using lighter weight flies and adjusting the weight of the fly to the depth is important. Eats are not as obvious as with an indicator and you don't feel them at all. It is a definite advanced tactic, but can increase your catch rate dramatically in marginal water, or water I would have walked by a few years ago. If you use a typical tight line drift where you are across from your intended lie, you will spook a lot of the fish in shallow and flat water. I ended up catching 10 browns, one brookie and one rainbow in water that many people would have not even fished, in fact the pools near the dirt road that I felt should have had the most fish didn't have many at all, probably because they had been caught and kept for dinner by bait fishermen. This weekend is also the Annual Dtich Pickle Classic Bass Fly Fishing Tournament on Lake Champlain. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year. This year there are some great prizes and anglers in the event and about 60-70 teams entered. My teammate and I have gotten 4th two years ago and 3rd last year, hopefully we can improve. Either way its a fun time, lots of beers are consumed, friends made and fish caught! the fishing should be good. Water levels on the lake are at a good level and water temps should have fish feeding heavily. We are going to target some productive largemouth water that has produced good numbers of fish in the past, and then go looking for large smallmouths. I wish we would have had time to practice, but that just has not happened at all. Good luck to all the competitors this year. Feels like late July out there right now. I just got off the water with clients from Georgia. Water temp was 65 at 6:30 and 66 when we got off at 10:45. The Winooski was 69 last night at 8 PM and likely hit 70 lower on the river. We will likely get over 70 degree water temps this afternoon, but we get a nice cool down starting tomorrow, and the fishing should remain great through that timeframe. Hopefully people will give the fish a break this afternoon. Thankfully the flows have been on the high side so the rivers are not heating up too bad.
Fish have been keying into golden stones more in the last week and almost all of the wild rainbows caught have been on stonefly nymphs like the one in the first pic. Soft hackle caddis emergers have taken a fair amount of fish as well. Fishing was good the past few mornings. We have mostly been targeting riffles, runs, and pocket water. As the temps get nearer the mid 60's more and more fish will be found in well oxygenated water found in these areas since the warmer the water the less amount of dissolved oxygen the water can hold. This is why we stop fishing for trout at 70 degrees because the fish are stressed to the point that many die after being released. Fishing bouldery brawling pocket water generally will hold a lot of trout but can be difficult for many anglers as there are different currents moving at high speeds, and inevitably, moving in all different directions including upstream. On top of that are huge changes in in depth as water moves over shelves and boulders. Nymphing is usually the most productive method though it requires precise fly placement and depth control in order to get the fly down to where the fish are, while keeping the fly from hanging up. You also need to battle those different currents by keeping your fly and line in the same current or you won't get your fly to the fish. Using and indicator rig has some serious short comings in this water as it often lands in a different current than your fly, greatly lowering your chances of hooking a fish because your fly is not being presented at the correct depth or speed. My method is to use a tight line nymphing technique with no indicator, and varyingly weighted flies. I keep my fly line off the water and control depth with my rod tip allowing me to keep my fly in the strike zone and moving at the speed of the current the fly is in. If you'd like to learn more get in touch with me and I can show you how to land a lot more fish in pocket water. I have specialized tight line nymphing rods and leaders set ups for my guests to use. Good luck on the water, and again, don't forget to get in the habit of taking river temps. (Fishing right now is on fire! We have had cool damp weather that has kept river temps perfect in the upper 50's to low 60's and enough, but not too much, rain to keep flow high but perfect for floating, though still very wadable. We've also got a lot of new bugs joining the party. Large #12 March Browns, Eastern Sulphers #14-16, Cream Cahills #16, and I found my first Golden Stone shuck on the rocks stream side yesterday (which do really well for me in June). Tan Caddis are everywhere, a few small BWO's and I've seen more lime and yellow sally stoneflies, I am sure there are some bugs I haven't identified as well. I don't spend a lot of time trying to identify each bug, as long as you know what species are hatching, and are familiar with their life cycles, sizes and how to fish them you will be ok.
Swinging your flies at the end of the drift is the name of the game right now as fish are feeding throughout the water column and willing to move to your flies. The fish are also spread out throughout shallow riffles, pockets, pools, runs, and deep slow water. By swinging your flies you can cover much more water and you don't need to get the perfect drift to get an eat. When you do swing your nymphs remember to break your habit of tugging up stream when you feel a take, instead sweep your rod low and to the side. Tugging straight back pulls the fly out of the fishes mouth, while the latter will drive the fly into the corner of the mouth and you will hook many more fish. My client on Friday did a good job of making the adjustment. We netted 16 rainbows out of about 40 eats. Probably 2/3 of the fish were on the swing, and many took right at the surface as he was about to pick up the fly. Nearly every time his muscle memory kicked in and he jerked the rod back we didn't hook the fish, but when he consciously made the sweeping low set to the side we had fish on much more consistently. I had a cancellation on Saturday and unfortunately didn't fill the spot. I went out for a couple hours on my own to continue scouting a new area I had mentioned in the last post. I hit a stretch of heavy pocket water and my intention was to fish really quickly at the prime spots to learn more water and what fish inhabited the area. Well a bit under 2 hours later I had covered about 100 yards and brought 28 fish to the net, a mix of stocked browns and wild rainbows. To say the fishing was on fire was an understatement. As soon as I had caught a couple I decided to really start picking the area apart, which is what I like to do anyway when I fish. Its fun to try to catch every fish in an area. This spot was loaded with boulders and pockets with a fairly long, deep run down the middle. I found fish everywhere, in fact, less fish were in the prime looking run, then the tailout, edges, bank, and riffle above the pool. I guess if you take anything away from this is that don't just run up to the nice pool and start fishing. Start at the tailout and pick your way through the water to cover it all. You will end up with many more fish at the end of the day. The fish really wanted a #16 tan fly I tied on a czech nymph hook with a Coyote Mask body, red collar and silver tinsel rib. I tied this to imitate a scud when i was in PA, but it looks generally buggy and the fish could take it as an emerging mayfly nymph or caddis pupa I think. A word on river etiquette, or what not to do, from an out of state fly angler yesterday. As I was landing a fish yesterday, a guy pulled up along the opposite side of the river on the edge of a very busy highway, got out and watched me for a while. I netted a few more fish and then he disappeared. About 10 minutes later he re appeared with his gear on and walked directly down and began to fish about 10 yards up river from me. There was not another sole on the river. I simply told him that he was not going to make many friends high holeing people but I didn't mind if he kept fishing, though other guys might and I would if I had clients. He was good about it and moved down about 100 yards. Generally, my rule of thumb in VT is if there is a car or person fishing, I will continue driving, or if I'm in the river go out of sight of the other person. With so much water and such little fishing pressure, I rarely see another angler on the water anyway. I've got some availability this week so give me a shout. This week looks really good weather wise, and fishing should be phenomenal. Memorial day has arrived and I first want to pay tribute to all of our soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect our way of life here in the United States. If there are any veterans reading this, bring up this post and Ill give you a discount on a trip.
A lot has happened since my report last week. We welcomed our second daughter into the world Saturday evening. It was an event that I almost missed. I was guiding the President of Orvis and his family along with Matt Stedina of VT Trout Bum Guide Service, when my wife went into labor. Thankfully the baby waited for me to get there I guess. We had a great day on the water though fishing was a little slow. Luckily they decided that we would push through the last mile of the float. Thats about the time when my wife began calling. I got loaded up as quickly as possible and met my wife at the park and ride in Richmond. We had the baby about 45 minutes later. I was out every day of the three day weekend and every day was certainly different as far as fishing goes with fishing ranging from flat out amazing to pretty slow. On Saturday I had a full day float and we had pretty slow fishing. We started the day having to change plans a little and head north to find fishable water as the further south you went the more rain we got and the dirtier the rivers. We found high flows with about 3' visibility to start the day and it improved as the day went on. This river never gets very clear anyway and I was really anticipating some good fishing. Unfortunately I that wasn't the case even though there were good numbers of bugs hatching. The theme of the day was inconsistent, as we would nymph up a fish and then not touch another on that fly the rest of the trip, then have a take and a few chases on streamers and then it would be dead. We did find a nice fish rising and fooled him on a hendrickson emerger, but missed him on the hook set. The day ended with me a little confused and hoping for a better day with clients on Sunday. Sunday was just the opposite of Saturday. We were on a different river with conditions pretty similar to the day before, higher flows and stained water that dropped and cleared as the day progressed. The first fish of the day was a memorable one, the wild brown pictured above took a #12 tan nymph in a very slow, long and very deep bend. The fish was sitting on a slight current seam right against a rock wall. It was my client Jakes largest fish of his life, and he fought the fish perfectly. It was really quite a moment. From there things were great and we ended up boating over 20 fish not including the ones lost and missed. At one point Karl in the front of the boat had 2 rainbows on his two nymphs and Jake had one on his line. We boated all three. I would say that would be possible if you were in a hole just stocked but we were no where near a road. It was another moment not easily forgotten. Fish were holding in all types of water from shallow riffles to deep runs and were taking nymphs both dead drifted and swung. From here on out you'd be advised to swing your nymphs as the fish are feeding throughout the water column. We took a lot of fish just as the nymph began to rise off the bottom. I didn't see as many bugs hatching as the previous day. The funny thing is that when the it clouded up for the last 1/2 hour of our trip we didn't touch another fish. As soon as the trip was over I raced up to my families camp on Lake Champlain for a BBQ. I took my wife, and 2 year old out in the row boat for a half hour and we shared one rod and caught 2 smallmouth and a decent northern all within about 40 yards from shore in 4-5 feet of water. The fish were happy and fought like crazy. I don't recall many fish hitting my fly as hard as that Northern did. Our daughter loved watching mommy and daddy catch fish, and see them jump out of the water. We were fishing floating line and a dark clouser. Today, I took the day off from guiding as I hadn't been home since we had the baby, though I did have some people interested in fishing today. My wife did let me take off for a few hours and I hit a stretch of river I'd never fished. It was pretty awesome water. I covered about 150 yards and landed 8 trout, 4 small wild browns, a small wild rainbow, and 3 decent sized rainbows I believe were all wild as well. I am sure 2 of the 3 were. I also lot a nice fish that looked like a good rainbow. I couldn't believe all of the small wild fish as I don't catch nearly as many down lower on this river. It was a challenging place to fish as there were lots of hazards under the water. After landing three fish in the first run I moved up to the next and immediately hooked that large rainbow. After I lost it I attempted to fish the hole hard, well, about 20 minutes and 10 casts later I had lost 6 flies, re rigged 5 times and landed one 5" wild brown. After wondering if there were piranhas in the hole I decided there had to be some kind of cable or metal down there. I continued to lose flies and catch fish as I moved up. The fish were all holding in the deeper areas as well as the tailouts of the spots. Not much in the faster water or smaller pockets. The fish were taking smaller mayfly nymphs than sunday and on the dead drift only. This is a place I will definitely explore again with clients and there should be some big browns with all the juvenile fish around. This coming week looks wet, but hopefully the rivers will remain in good shape. The fishing should continue to be excellent. The hatches are the same as the previous report with the addition of a few lime sally stoneflies I saw this weekend. I had a cancellation for This SATURDAY, if anyone wants to get out for a wade or float its prime time right now. Fishing this past week began slow and ramped up dramatically with this record breaking heat. Temps on the big rivers went from the upper 40's to the low 60's as of noon today. The fish and bugs have responded and today the fishing was good to great.
I started the week floating a stretch of river I had not been on in a couple of years in preparation for a guide trip this weekend. Water temp was 49 and fishing was slow as expected, though we boated 8 trout and 1 bass. The big brown above was one of the 8, and we lost another as big. This big brown took a crayfish streamer pattern, and streamers accounted for about half of our fish with nymphs accounting for the other half. Fish were holding deep and I took a few out of a pool probably 8-10 feet deep right on the bottom. We did have a decent Hendrickson hatch for about an hour that got the fish more active. As the week progressed things really changed with the increasing water temps. I was able to get out with my daughter one evening and we had trout keying into #14 dark and light hares ears. The next evening I hit a smaller stream with my wife and got into some brook trout. This time though, they wanted the larger attractor flies. Moral of the story is that you need to make sure you don't get stuck fishing what you think the fish should want, and fish what they are eating. While you will see a huge variety of bugs hatching right now, the fish may or may not be keyed into them. This morning I guided a good angler who recently moved to VT from California. We worked on his nymphing game as most of his fishing had been done on dry flies out west (lucky guy). Hitting a mid sized stream, It didn't take long to hook a fish on a dark hares ear pattern, but after a few more drifts without an eat, I tried some attractor flies and caddis imitations as there were 4 species of Mayflies, Hendricksons, Quill Gordons, Blue Quills, and a small Baetis or something of that nature coming off. On top of that were tan caddis and dark caddis as well as some brown stones. Thats a lot of options! After coming up short on the caddis and attractor flies we went back to mayfly imitations in sizes 14 and 16, and as his drifts improved so too did our hook up rates. For a while it was kind of silly as we were hooking mostly stocked fish almost every cast with a few wild rainbows in the mix. I'd say we landed 15 and lost a fair amount more. I eventually decided to move on from these fish and we hit the big river, looking for more wild fish and a better chance at a larger rainbow or brown. The water was on the high side for wading, but we managed a handful of rainbows both wild and stocked here as well. The difference was that the fish in the big river and higher flows wanted bigger stoneflies and attractor patterns. We also hit a flat that tends to be be a good area for dry fly fishing, but didn't convince and fish to eat. The fishing should remain very good throughout the extended forecast. The water temps will be in the 50's after the front moves through tonight and there will be plenty of willing fish. Keep and eye on the water levels when deciding where to fish, as the front moving through now has the potential to drop a lot a rain quickly and blow out a stream. I am hoping that the big rivers don't come up too much as I will be guiding from the drift boat saturday. I am fairly booked from now through next weekend, but may be able to get a you on the water for a half day later in the week and maybe sunday morning. Please feel free to give me a shout and we can hopefully get out if not this week then the next. This is a great time to get on the drift boat and fish areas that are not accessible by wading. Hard to believe that we are almost half way through May. Probably that's because we have had April weather the past few weeks. It was snowing here in Northern VT Monday and Tuesday. Water temps have remained cold, and that has kept the bugs and fish from really being too active. That will all change soon however.
Last week was green up day in VT and the family went out to one of my favorite stretches of the Winooski River to pick up trash. Unfortunately I left with extremely aggravated. I found 5 bags of deer carcasses, and picked up 15 bags of trash at one pull out. I was so angry I called the game warden to report it. I really hope that he catches the dirt bag who has been dumping trash and potentially jacking deer. At least we taught bailey about green up day. As far as fishing, I got out on the lake, and we landed some bass and pike. First time out and it was nice to get some quality fish on the boat. Water temps were cold and it was important to retrieve the flies slowly. Trout fishing has been a bit of a grind this week due to the cool water temps but there are plenty of trout to be had. I got out for a little over an hour on a stream not necessarily known for its wild trout. Water temp was 46 in the warmest part of the day. I landed two chunky bows in some pretty fast pocket water. The fish were in the slack water behind mid stream rocks, right where you'd expect them. I didn't see any bugs what so ever. As I said at the beginning of the post, the slow fishing will likely be a thing of the past, I'd say by the weekend. Today was warm and while I didn't get out I heard some reports of Hendrickson's, our first major mayfly hatch. The trend is for warming weather into next week, with a slug of rain on Sunday. This time of year we begin to have a ton of different bugs hatching. Your best bet is to pick up New England Hatch Guide, which will give you an idea of what is hatching and what flies to use to match the hatch. Ill try to go over some of the hatches in my next report when I have a bit more time. The good news is that Pheasant tails, size 12-18, and hares hears of the same size will cover most mayflies right now. I really like to fish soft hackles this time of year, mostly dead drifted. You'll also want some caddis larvae and stonefly imitations from size 6-16. This time of year fish can be keyed into a certain nymph or take just about anything. You'll also want to get your dry fly boxes out and have emerger, dun, and spinner patterns ready incase you find rising fish. Its still a great time to throw streamers anytime you are out. Many streams have been or will be stocked very soon. The rain we have coming this weekend is a good thing if it raises the water levels much because it will spread out the stocked fish. Smallmouth bass have been moving into our rivers in preparation for spawning. Any stream that runs into a bass lake may have some jumbo bass in it. The bass are fairly easy to catch when fishing rivers this time of year. Small streamers or large nymphs will take bass. You'll soon see them on their beds. Drop me a line if you'd like to get out. I have the weekends beginning to fill up but have a few openings and plenty of availability during the week. Don't hesitate to give me a shout and we can hopefully find a time to get out. I had the great pleasure to travel to State College, PA to compete in my first ever Team USA Regional Competition this past week. I headed down to PA a few days early to learn the fishery and have an idea of what to expect when the tournament started. What I found was an incredible wild trout fishery that rivals any I've found out west. Along with great fishing was a very dedicated group of anglers and fly shops that supported it. In particular, TCO Fly Shop was a great resource for me in learning the fishery, and a top notch shop and guide service. One thing to expect if you head down is that you won't necessarily find a lot of solitude on the rivers. Fishing pressure is high in this area, but I found everyone to be kind and courteous on the water. Practice for me went by pretty quickly, basically I fished most of the day trying to hit each water in the AM and PM, tying flies in the evening, and sleeping in the truck. As the tournament approached I felt mildly confident, but that completely changed at the draw when I met lots of new faces and heard story after story of the huge numbers of fish caught, and how well everyone seemed to know the rivers. The tournament also has a team component where teammates share info and and tactics, and I didn't have a team. At the draw I was split onto a team of other individual anglers, though they already knew everyone else and only one person wanted to exchange numbers and info. By the time I left the draw I was feeling pretty low about my prospects for anything but a poor finish. Session 1 My first session was on upper Spring creek, a small spring fed stream that is fairly shallow. It has a mix of small riffles, pocket water, runs, and flats. The picture below is of Pat Weiss fishing on Upper Spring. Congrats to Pat on winning the Event. As I headed to the beat I was seeing the water for the first time. It had some nice pockets at the very bottom, a deep bend under a low bridge, a shallow riffle and then a long flat with a deeper riffle at the top. Looking back, I did not fish the beat as well as I should have. I began fishing the tail out of the deeper bend before crossing to fish the pool. It was only a few minutes and I had my first brown on, though it was about 1/4 of a centimeter too short to score. A bit of a bummer but nice to know that I had on a good fly. Before long, my first scoreable fish was in the net. I continued to work the pool and was broken off on the hook set by a heavy fish, minutes later I had on another big fish, which turned out to be a sucker, a huge let down as it looked like a big brown. Moving up towards the head of the pool I landed my second brown trout. I headed up toward the shallow riffle and landed the biggest fish of the session in a tiny shallow riffle. I decided to move down the the end of the beat and hit the pockets at the end of the beat. I should have started here because I spooked a fish on the way down. I ended up landing two more browns but lost three in this small area. Time was running short so I began working up the flat. I casted out ahead of me with my dry fly rod as I had seen a single fish rise. I didn't fool it however. As I moved up the water proved to be deeper and better than it looked from afar. I wish I would have had time to look i over first because I would have spent more time here. I ended up landing two more and losing two more fish, ending the session with 7 scored and 7 lost. I ended up getting a 4 out of 6 on this session and the real bummer was that the three guys above me all landed 14! Session 2 Session 2 was on Lower Spring Creek. Its the same river as the morning, but is quite a bit bigger and and faster. I was feeling OK headed into the session because I had controlled Pat Weiss in his first session and felt like I learned a lot, particularly in fighting fish, that is until I met Pat in the parking area. He had just had his second session on my beat and caught 25 fish. I had to fish the same beat in an hour and he had just destroyed it. I was a little bummed to hear that to say the least. I headed down to the bottom of my beat and was going to work up. Something I had not done earlier. The beat was a series of shallow riffles leading into deeper but small bends and depressions near logs and trees. It was fun water. I began fishing the very bottom of a fast run that was fairly deep. The wind was blowing up river with gusts probably near 40 MPH. My strategy was to use a very heavy fly to and then a light nymph above that. The heavy fly served as an anchor in the water and kept the wind from blowing my line up river and keeping it from sinking. It was only a few minutes and I had a nice brown on. Taking what I had learned earlier, I made sure to keep the fish above my by moving my body down river if needed. This worked great and throughout the rest of the comp I was able to control the fish and quickly bring them to the net. Pretty quickly I had two fish scored, and had missed one. I soon hooked a real good fish at the very end of my beat. Unfortunately I could not move out of my beat and the fish got down below me in very fast water, and it eventually came off. I then began working the shallow riffles right above me making short drifts out ahead of me. I took a 37 CM brown out of about 6" of fast water right on the near bank. I then moved to the opposite side of the riffle and took two more fish and missed another right on the bank in very shallow water. They were lined right up along the edge of the riffle. I had 5 fish and began moving up and exploring my beat. I had not seen any of that water before and was hitting each feature as I went. I took one fish from under a large over hanging tree in fairly slow water then missed two more in a little depression which bothered me. Moving up I found a large log in the water that created a depression under it in pretty fast current . I drifted my nymphs under the edge of a log and saw a very large brown flash near my fly, and suddenly I felt him and set. This was a big fish as I saw him roll. Suddenly the line went a little slack but then I was tight again and a rainbow leapt out of the water. I brought this fish to net and found that the brown had taken my dropper nymph and broke it off. I had two fish on at the same time. I was happy to have landed the one rainbow. I continued up the river and it began to get dark and stormy. My controller mentioned there was a tornado warning. I was having trouble seeing my line or where the flies were landing. I hooked another fish right on the bank but lost it, then caught another that was too small to score. Suddenly a wall of heavy rain hit along with heavy winds. I couldn't see anything but threw into some froggy water under a tree and hooked and landed a good brown. I had about 4 minutes left and it was a severe storm. Suddenly a tree came crashing into the river and I decided that with a minute left I was done! I ended up with 9 fish and got second in the session. I was happy but had the fish on the win the session at the same time. Session 3 Session three was the next morning on Lake Perez. It was cloudy and windy and I figured there would be fish up high in the water column so I began with an intermediate line to fish about 3-4 under the surface. This proved to be fruitless, and I didn't touch a fish. I had seen some other competitors land fish both on dry dropper and on sinking lines so I figured I was not on the right flies. I switched lines and went to a type 3 to get a little deeper and kept running through flies. I missed one fish near the boat. Time was running low and I was facing a blank which would really not be good for y overall. With about 15 minutes left I changed to a floating line and put on a dry with two nymphs underneath about 8' and 10' below. With 2 minutes remaining I finally saw my dry fly dart and set into a 27 CM rainbow. It felt pretty good to save the blank though I knew I was not going to have a great finish. I got a 5 that session. In hindsight I should have gone to the dry dropper sooner, as it worked, and it was easier to cast in the wind because I didn't need to try to lay out 70' casts. Lesson learned and it was off the my final session. Session 4 The final session was not going to be easy. It was on the Little Juniata River and because of the severe storms it was anything but little. You can see the water was high and muddy. I was pretty bummed because I had done very well on this river in practice and thought I could have a good result. It was most like the rivers here in Vermont. That being said with high water, it is fairly predictable where you can find fish, its just a matter of being able to get to them to put a fly in their face. I was confident I could catch at least a fish, and knew that numbers would not be high, so thought I could do alright. I started at the bottom of the beat, and found a small island with some nice soft water behind it. It was beyond obvious that there were fish there and now I needed to land them. I began with two large attractor flies that could be seen in the high water. About 15 minutes in I hooked up and landed a brown. I then hooked another small brown that came off. I thought it was probably too small to score. I worked my up the edge of the river and quickly fished along the bank. I broke off my point fly and decided to just fish one fly for a little cause I didn't want to re rig. I found that I began getting better drifts and was more accurate than throwing two heavy flies. Even though the water was high the actual holding areas for fish that I could get to were small and not real deep so one fly proved to be better. I moved up and briefly had one on before losing it. Getting to the top of the beat I waded deep into a heavy rapid as far as I dared and made a tuck cast over the heavy current. The tuck cast drove my fly quickly into the soft water directly behind a bridge pillar and boom, I set into a good fish. I took off down stream and so did I. I lost my footing in the current and was swimming down river in the heavy current with the fish still on. Briefly I regained my footing but was then swept off my feet again. The fish was still on and I was keeping him from getting below me. About 40 yards downstream, the river shallowed and I was able to get the fish in the net. It was pretty memorable, a fish I won't forget. With not much time I headed back down to where I started and with only on fly on I was able to get some better drifts. I hooked a good fish and again in heavy current headed down. I moved down towards my beat marker and stopped fearing I'd go out of bounds and it wouldn't count. The fish got below me and came off. Pissed, I move back to the same spot with only a few minutes left. I missed a fish, then a few drifts later landed my final fish of the session. My three fish were good for second place in the session and I was pretty happy. In the end I ended up with 10th place overall. I was happy with the finish but dropped too many fish. I did have a great time competing and learned a lot from some great anglers. Thanks to everyone who helped me out and organized the great event, in particular Madoka Myers, Ken Krane, Alan Bole, Pat Weiss, John Anderson, Andrew Koons and Mason Sims. |
AuthorBen Wilcox Owner/Guide Maple Country Anglers Archives
May 2024
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