Wednesday, June 22, 2011
longest day of the year and great fishing
Hi folks, Really nice weather pattern for fly fishing our trout streams currently. Cool nights into the 50's and cool mornings with bright sunny days warming into the high 70's. The morning trout fishing has been outstanding. I guided a Lamoille tributary yesterday morning where the water temperature was 60 degrees at 6:00am. Nice #16 tan bodied caddis hatch all morning as well as some #18 caddis hatching and #14 rusty mayfly spinner was egg laying. We found fish rising subtly to the spinner and good splashy rise forms to the caddis. The rig of the day was a #16 parachute caddis with a #16 caddis pupa dropper. We landed 5 stocked brown trout and 3 wild rainbows. Probably hooked and lost another 7 fish. We found adult fish rising in big primary pools and younger smaller trout rising in the riffles. I was introduced to an interesting method of fishing yesterday by my guest. He had a Tenkara rod which is a form of fishing used in Japan. A long telescoping rod without a reel with a fluorocarbon leader attached to the tip of the rod. No reel what so ever. The rod was 11' and the leader was slightly longer. You could false cast this rig and it was really slick for short drifts and casts. Reminded me of a bamboo cane pole I used as a kid to catch bream and crappie. We did land a couple of fish using it and and lost a few. Pretty interesting and I think I will be looking into the Tenkara set-up. With the bright days, I prefer fishing in the morning as the afternoon has a limited window of opportunity when it is so bright. Right at dusk basically. Will be chasing trout in the morning tomorrow. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. have fun, Willy