Hi Folks, Been keeping out of trouble guiding trout the last few days. Did a double yesterday floating the Winooski in the morning and wading the Lamoille in the afternoon. Nice weather cool down and our water temperatures have dropped in the the high fifties. Perfect! The rain earlier in the week has put a nice charge of water in our streams. Ample water now for floating the drift boat. Yesterday morning was interesting as the fishing started out very slow for the first couple of hours. Probably due to the cold night with air temperatures in the 40's and mountain snow showers the previous day. The fish needed a chance to warm up and get the metabolism cranking. We witnesses a fabulous hatch of #14/#16 Grey Fox and with the windy conditions many of the duns struggled to get off the surface. It was a true light switch effect as the fishing just turned on. I have found over the years that on the Winooski there are many large deep pools for trout to hide in and if the are hunkered down then they are very difficult to get to with a fly. However, when a big hatch takes place, it prompts the fish to move up into the riffles to feed. We landed 10 fish in the morning and missed a few. Two of the 10 were brown trout with the largest measuring 18". We caught most of our fish on a #16 brown bodied cooper john and a #10 double tungsten black stone fly. One very nice wild rainbow did succumb a #14 purple haze nymph. Interestingly enough the fishing was the best from mid morning to mid afternoon. Almost like fly fishing in early May with the weather and the bug activity. The afternoon fly fish on the Lamoille was with aspiring anglers who did a fine job. Not nearly the number of bugs hatching with a few #16/#18 sulphurs coming off at dusk and some #18/#20 micro caddis showing up on the seen. I did not see any Brown Drakes at dark. We worked for our few strikes but did manage to get a few nice rainbows to eat a #8 bead headed olive/black wooly bugger. Looks like a great weather pattern over the next week for trout fishing. I am off to fish the still water this morning for smallmouth. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy
