Thursday, May 3, 2012

Big Vermont wild trout on a dry fly

Hi Folks, Guided an accomplished fly angler today on a Lamoille river tributary.  Water temperature was 52 degrees on a cloudy overcast day with a short brief showing from the sun.  Saw a great hatch of #14 Hendrickson mayflies today with trout rising in every pool we fished.  We took advantage of a good thing and landed 3 trout over 17".  The first fish was an almost 20" wild rainbow who was gulping duns in the lower section of a pool.  My client did a great job casting a 3wt. and playing these larger fish on such a light rod.  It was funny that in the same pool we were unable to get several smaller fish to eat.  Moving upstream we found the large brown trout who was swinging in the slow tail out of a pool gulping duns.  Pretty fun watching big sail boat looking mayflies drifting downstream and disappearing into the hungry mouth of a trout.  We got the brown to eat pretty quickly on a #14 red quill tied Catskill style.  The brown was a solid 18" wild fish full of piss and vinegar.  In our next spot we found a healthy 17" wild rainbow gulping duns in heavier water.  Love the air time of wild rainbows.  We landed one more smaller 14" wild rainbow on a #14 sparkle dun.  We missed a couple of fish and lost another but we did land the ones that count.  Awesome day with zero fishing pressure.  We ended the day on a pool with a large number of spinners over the riffles.  The spinner fall did not go down like we hoped.  Will have pictures of these fish soon.  Weather looks wet over the next few days.  We will see how it impacts the fishing.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy