Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Learning the fine art of fly fishing

Hi folks, Spent yesterday morning and afternoon guiding young fly anglers.  A return to summer outside with air temperatures reaching the mid eighties.  My morning trip we fly fished on the Winooski down river a ways from the Bolton Dam.  Water temperature was 68 degrees and had risen to 69 degrees by time we finished up in the morning.  A fair amount of hatching activity with #18 tan bodied caddis hatching and #12/#14  Isonychia beginning to hatch towards late morning.  We caught a ton of Fall Fish with 1 brown trout and a landlocked salmon in the mix.  When taking teenagers fly fishing it is important that they catch fish. You need a little encouragement when learning to fly fish and fall fish are much more user friendly than trout.  We swung flies all morning using #14 tungsten bead head prince nymph and a #16 olive wire copper john.  In the afternoon I took another teenager fly fishing for brook trout.  Brookies are greedy and more than willing to eat dry flies.  The mountain brook we fly fished was 60 degrees and gin clear. Always fun watching native brook trout come to the fly.  We worked up stream casting #14 royal wulff.  We had well over a dozen brookies come to the fly.  Like usual most of the brook trout measured between 4" to 8".  We leveled the playing field by casting a slow action 6' 2wt.  It was a nice day for me to see teenagers getting into fly fishing as I do not notice too many kids fly fishing let alone regular fishing these days.  I am off to chase smallmouth all day with a morning boat trip and a canoe trip in the afternoon.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy