A brief respite

Hi Folks, Spent the last tow mornings guiding on the main stem of the Winooski.  Hard to believe that can happen in July.  The cld front that moved in the other day dropped water temperatures. Night time air temperatures in the 50's have really helped to cool off the big rivers.  The Winooski yesterday morning was 64 degrees and today 66 degrees.  The Winooski can be interesting as the erratic nature of some of the dam releases can effect the fishing.  Unfortunately, with the exception of the Waterbury Reservoir tail water release, all of the other dams are releasing warm water.  I think it takes the trout a bit to orientate when the water levels are going up or down in the big water.  Not much for hatching bugs the last few days. Lots of #6-#10 stone fly shucks on rocks and lots of cased olive caddis in riffles preparing to hatch.  Starting to see grasshoppers.  Any foam green or olive bodied hopper pattern between a #10 and #14 can be effective blind fished. We have worked for our trout the last two days managing to land a couple of wild rainbows nymphing with a double rig consisting of a #8 double tungsten stone fly and #18 micro caddis pupa as a dropper.  All of our fish we have hooked have been in the heavier riffles.  Makes sense with things warming up. Have missed a few trout, but that always happens.  We still need rain!  A little bony out there though the central VT streams appear to have more water in them than the northern waters.  Off to chase small stream trout with the fly rods.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy