March Browns

Hi Folks, I guided the Lamoille yesterday afternoon with the fly rods.  The river looked like a summer level as the water is still very low.  We really could use some sustained rain.  The temperature was great with it holding at 57 degrees all afternoon.  Nice big bright sunny day.  Let me tell you when the sun became low in the ski the fishing really tuned on.  Pretty interesting how slow the trout fishing was while it was bright and sunny out.  They really do prefer low light.  Fantastic hatch of #10/#12 Stenonema vicarium or commonly know as the March Brown.  It is a a big bug that hatches mid morning to late afternoon with big spinner falls at dusk.  Not much happening in the way of rising fish until the light got low even though the bugs were coming off pretty steadily.  March Browns are clinger nymphs and like to hold in heavy riffles.  We nymph fished with a #12 pheasant tail and tried a #10 olive black wooly bugger with minimum success.  We drew 4 strikes nymphing.  Once we started seeing fish rise then the fun really began.  We landed a dozen wild and stocked rainbows on a #12 parachute brown dun.  The fish rose aggressively and we missed a few trout as well.  We had rising for for a good 2 hours as they transitioned to eating March Brown spinners and then there was a #16 olive bodied caddis hatching in late afternoon.  Good drifts did make a difference in getting the better fish to eat.  The smaller trout were willing to eat the dry fly swung after the dead drift.  We did have some success in the later afternoon with a #12 Rusty Spinner.  I am off to chase smallmouth this morning and then trout fishing in the afternoon.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy