Hi Folks, It has been a a couple of interesting days on the water for me guiding. A big cold front pushed in to the Stowe area on Tuesday afternoon dropping air temperatures significantly, It really feels like fall outside and I have even resorted to wearing waders yesterday morning. Water levels are around the seasonal average though the small brooks look like they could use some water. Water temperatures are dropping. The surface temperature of the lake I guide Wednesday was 70 degrees, a Winooski trib on Wednesday afternoon was 63 degrees, and the bass river I guided morning and night yesterday was 68 degrees. With the incoming cold front fish behavior appears to change to a degree. We have been catching smallmouth and wild trout, but the takes have been interesting. Whether it was a trout rising to a dry fly or a bass taking a piece of rubber presented slowly, the fish have not been crushing our presentations. I watched trout rise to my clients dry fly Wednesday very subtly. They simply just elevated their nose and sipped a #12 royal wulff. On the bass front, we have mostly fished Senkos dead drifting them in rivers to working them ever so slowly on the bottom back to the motor boat. All of the takes have been very slight. You really had to be on your reel and maintain good line control in order to detect the takes. In addition, the smallies have been really slow to eat the rubber and it takes a lot of patience to not set the hook to quickly. Ah, the fine subtleties of fishing. Slowing it down in fishing is never a bad thing when the fish get fussy. For bugs, more and more #12 Isonychia everyday and still good number so f #22-#24 Tricos hatching in the morning. Lot of #18-#20 micro caddis and I have seen some large #8 stone flies laying eggs at dusk. Starting to notice increasing numbers of #20 BWOs coming off late afternoon and trout rising to them. Well, going to fish Tricos this morning. Nice, cool, and crisp out there. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy
