Hi Folks, I have been guiding pretty much everyday for October. I'm on pace to finally guide a 150 trips for the season. The fall fishing has been slow to come this year, but finally over the last few days the river trout fishing has come to together. From Saturday to Monday the fishing improved significantly. I have been on the Winooski the last 3 days from the lower river to the middle section. The numbers of #20 BWOs hatching has increased each day. The water temperature was 54 degrees on Saturday and down to 50 to 51 degrees yesterday afternoon. The water is wicked low and we are accessing water on foot that is generally unsafe to wade. The best fishing has been from 1pm to dusk. It really depends on the cloud cover or lack there of. If it is sunny then the rising will happen later in the day. We have targeted risers with emerger patterns. Not until yesterday did I actually see trout eating duns off the top. Prior to that, most of the surface feeding has been in the surface film line. We caught wild rainbows and had them eat a dead drifted #20 BWO spotlight emerger. An olive emerger with CDC has also been productive. What has been interesting are the number of takes blind fishing the tiny flies on the surface. This type of trout fishing is not easy. It requires accurate casting and good presentations. You have to be dialed in to strike the fish and mange your line. Tough on beginners landing fish. A slow action rod is ideal and a 12' leader with 5x and 6x tippets are a good idea. All about delicate presentations in the slow moving water where the trout have a PHD in studying your fly. Looks like cool nights ahead but nice warm days. Trout fishing should remain good. I'm a little bummed about lake run salmon and brown trout. I cant bring myself to pursue them in the low flows. I'm sure they are getting hammered but honestly they should be left alone until flows change. No one on the water which has been nice. Lots of risers and no angling pressure. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy
