Hi Folks, Been an interesting couple days of guiding. Finally got a little bit of a respite from the heat with a cold front pushing through on Friday. Alleviated the muggy air and replaced it with nice cool crisp air. We still need rain and our little streams in northern part of the state and northeast kingdom are drying up. Central Vermont seems to have a bit more water. The recent full moon certainly had an impact upon the fishing. We have been catching fish the last few days, but we have worked to get the larger fish to eat. My take is that there is a lot of feeding taking place at night under the full moon and the fish are stuffed by time we fish for them. Guided 5 fly anglers for smallmouth on Friday early and the water was 68 degrees. Not bad all things considered. We did get a few decent bass to eat a #8 frog pattern poppers. There was a hatch of #22 Tricos and fish feeding on the spinners as they landed on the water to lay eggs. Rainbows and Fall Fish were sipping the tiny may flies in the slower tail outs of pools. Tricky presentations on fish that were holding tight to their feeding lane. We did manage to land a nice 13" jumping rainbow and missed several other takes. Not easy fly fishing. That afternoon I took out the boat and encountered an prehistoric beast. Fished a lake that is very clear. The surface temperature was 76 to 77 degrees. Pretty darn warm. We were casting floating Rapalas to downed wood and had a large dark shape chase out a perch Rapala. Turned out that the 30lb plus snapping turtle wanted to eat the lure. It came right up to the boat. This dinosaur would have removed your hand if you got close enough to eats beak. Really impressive. The fishing itself was marginal. Caught half dozen largemouth and smallmouth, a pickerel, and a bunch of perch. No big fish except for 1 hog we did not land. I think the moon and front impacted things as there was no pattern to speak of. Did see several large rainbows in deeper water coming out of the water to eat what appeared to be a #10/#12 egg laying caddis. Yesterday morning fished for lake trout with the long fiberglass rods and reels spoiled with braid and fluoro-carbon leaders. Fishing was tough. The surface temperature was 74 degrees. We set up on deep water humps and worked smelt imitation swim baits over suspected holding areas. Caught 2 lake trout and missed or lost another 5 fish between 3 anglers. Lots of casting. I think once again the full moon and front impacted the fishing. Did see rainbows eating spent #12/#10 caddis at for the first couple hours of day light. There were some #6 Hex shucks on the water and a few random Hex spinners. I bet the fish gorged themselves during the night. Taking today off and back at it tomorrow. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy
