Being flexible

Hi Folks, Lots of rain in the last week.  Always tough in the guiding arena when you river fish.  Guided a full day yesterday on a local watershed.  Lost 3 trips over the last week due to blown out conditions on our rivers.  The Lamoille and Winooski are still too high to fish effectively.  The small streams are high but clear and are in very good shape for fishing.  Oe nice thing with the current weather is that things have remained cool and our water temperatures are perfect.  It was 55 degrees to 57 degrees yesterday on the brook and stream we visited.  Water clarity was okay but not perfect.  Over cast all day with a few showers.  We began the day chasing brook trout and had well over 30 fish come to the fly.  Large #10 and #12 royal rubber legged stimulators and large #10 Wulff patterns drew lots of interest from our native brook trout population.  All of the fish were in the soft water that was at least knee deep.  Brookies can hold in a variety of spots in small mountain streams as water temperature is not an issue.  All about energy efficiency and not getting picked off by a predator.  We moved down in the watershed in order to catch a few larger fish.  We did have one large brown come to fly and landed several more brookies on #12 Royal Wulffs and a #14 green foam bodied dry.  Moving further down river the water conditions deteriorated a bit as the water was higher and more off color.   Swinging #8 White Zonkers and dead drifting a #10 heavily weighted wooly bugger produced stocked rainbows and one nice 13" wild bow.  Big difference in how the wild fish versus the stocked fish fight.  I guess I just prefer wild trout as I feel like the stockers fight like a wet paper towel on the end of the line.  Plus, much more gratifying catching a real trout.  Anyway, will be attempting to dodge the weather thenext few days and get some rive fishing in.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy