Thunderstorms and High water

The rain and thunderstorm event that lasted yesterday through this AM changed things up considerably on our local rivers. From the Lamoille north, generally saw under an inch of rain while to the south we got around an inch and a half with some places seeing more.  All rivers are high and dirty and even this afternoon many small streams were still dirty.  By tomorrow the many of the mid sized rivers will be fishable to some extent.  The large rivers should be OK by the weekend, I hope.  I plan on getting the drift boat out for the first float of the season Friday afternoon, and will head to whichever river has the lowest flows.  

As far as fishing goes, I got out on the Winooski yesterday afternoon for a short time right after the Thunderstorm rolled through and the water rose.  I nymphed up a few Rainbow's which were holding in a long narrow depression in the middle of a riffle that is around 1/4 of a mile long.  This means that fish have been willing to venture into summer feeding lies now that the water temps have warmed into the 60's and bugs have been popping.  I did not have any action on the swing, but from now on I would recommend swinging every drift and slowly stripping your nymphs back to you.  

I saw a few caddis, a few Hendircksons, and a fair amount of Blue Quills.  I flipped some rocks and sticks and there were a LOT of Golden Stonefly Nymphs crawling around.  I saw a variety of sizes from about a 10 to a 6, in fact a #10 double bead golden stone nymph was the hot fly yesterday for me.  

My go to flies for the week will be Golden Stones, PT nymphs, Lafontaine's Sparkle Pupa in chartreuse, a green and purple caddis pupa imitation, Zug Bugs, Princes, and Hares Ears.  We may see a few rising fish but I doubt there will be many.