Monday, July 20, 2015

Thunder and Lightening, high water,and humble pie

Hi Folks, Guided the last two mornings river fishing for bass.  Big time thunderstorms and heavy down pours have dirtied up our streams significantly.  The Lamoille and Winooski are currently blown out and will take several days to come down an clear.  I guided a spin/fly trip on the lower Winooski yesterday morning and the fish had absolute lock jaw! The water temperature was 72 degrees and the level was slightly above the seasonal average flow, but the clarity was fine.  We drew 3 strikes all morning and that was it.  We got blown off by the thunderstorms but I can't say that the fishing was going to pick up.  We cast floating Rapalas, dead drifted Senkos, swung Clouser Minnows and dead drifted stone fly patterns.  I can only figure that instability to the weather contributed to the slow fishing.  Interesting after having a banner day bass fishing on Saturday we cant catch a fish in prime smallmouth water to save our lives.  This morning with the big rivers blown out, I guided my clients with ultra light spin rods for wild trout.  The brook we fished was 59 degrees and the water was slightly up and off colored.  Still pretty clear.  We focused on primary pools.  We had multiple follows from browns and brook trout.  We hooked 3 brown trout and 4 brook trout.  Lost every fish at our feet.  We had a 15" plus brown  trout on that made two spectacular leaps prior to tossing the hook.  All of the strikes were lightening fast as the trout seemed to emerge out of nowhere.  Good option this morning with all of the big water temporarily decommissioned.  Chasing bass again tomorrow.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy