Hi Folks, It has been a wet week of fishing. I like late summer and fall rain. Puffs up the watersheds for oncoming winter. It is good to have a charge of water our rivers and streams heading into winter. The main stem Winooski and Lamoille are a bit high and off colored. They are coming down and should be in good shape to fish this weekend if we do not receive too much rain. In addition, big water this time of year moves fish like brown trout and landlocked salmon. Water temperatures are cooling off as I got readings of 58 to 60 degrees on two Lamoille tributaries over the last couple of days. Guiding this week has been spin fishing for trout. Wade fishing casting small plugs. It is a nice way to recon water for big fish. Small plugs move trout whether they eat the lure or not you get a visual of who is home for future reference i.e. fly fishing. On the fly front, still lots of bugs coming off just nor fishing rising in the higher water. The last couple of days I have seen #12 Isonychia, #18-#20 micro caddis and a larger #14 caddis, as well as lots of #20 BWOs. Yesterday with a black and gold Rapala we landed 2 brown trout and a 1 wild jumping rainbow and lost another at out feet. We had another 6 fish strike that we did not hook. With the larger water currently we covered a lot of stream. The fish were holding on soft edges and near the bank under over hanging willow and in large eddies. High water fishing can produce large fish but it takes patience and some thought. Vermont does not have a high density of trout in our larger rivers. So the bigger water can spread the fish about. It is good to cover water and focus on the soft stuff. Trout are energy efficient. I love this time of year for fishing. The air has a nice feel to it and the leaves are starting to turn and the fish begin to put on the fed bag. It has been nice on the water lately with no fishing traffic what so ever. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy
