Changing weather

Hi Folks, Looks like a welcome change on the weather is on the way.  Out with the humidity and in with the cooler dry air.  Unfortunately we did receive a good thunder storm on very early Thursday morning that dirtied up small streams and yes brought up the level on the Lamoille.  I guided yesterday morning and evening and it was a bit of challenge finding clean fish-able water in the morning.  In the evening I ran the boat.  We ended up on a brook trout stream where the river level was 3 times the seasonal average and the water temperature was 60 degrees.  We fished a big #10 orange stimulator had a dozen and a half brook trout come to the fly.  Beautiful little creatures that live in some nice spots.  As the front pushed through the wind blew from the north/northwest yesterday afternoon.  It was nice to see the sun and not worry about afternoon thunder storms.  My afternoon trip was with spin gear and with the front pushing through  we slowed down our approach and dragged 5" Watermelon red flake Senkos on 2/0 Red Hooks on the bottom.  The water clarity in the lake we fished was awful.  Lucky for me I had anglers who were extremely patient and loved to fish rubber worms.  We landed 6 smallmouth and lost another half a dozen.  All really subtle takes from the smallies.  You really had to watch your line.  We caught all of our fish in 10' to 14' of water around submerged brush and large boulders.  I am off to chase trout this morning.  Nice and cool out there.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

working around it

Hi Folks, Guided night and day yesterday on small streams in and around my home in Stowe.  Really good fishing day.  Water levels are still up but coming down and it looks like the tropical weather is about to move out.  Cold front on the way tonight which will help things cool down.  The main stem of the Lamoille looks like it is ready to be fished and with the cooling temperatures it could be pretty good over the next few days.  Water temperatures int he two streams I was on yesterday were 61 and 63 degrees.  Water clarity was pretty good, at least good enough for the trout to eat dry flies.  The tactics we used did not vary from one brook to the next.  Carried two rods, one rigged with an #10 orange stimulator and another with an indicator and a #12 double tungsten black stone fly nymph.  I have seen some large stone flies hatching lately and a stone fly nymph is always a good bet in a small bony stream.  Especially when the water is up because the nymphs are not good swimmers and they get tumbled along the bottom and are easy pickings for the trout.  Guided the cycle yesterday as I saw caught a wild brown trout, wild rainbow and native brook trout.  Most of our fish eat the dry fly, but we did selectively use the nymph in some of the bigger plunge pools.  Off to do it again today and then bass fishing in the afternoon.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

eating a dry in high water

Dirty water

Hi Folks, Put in a morning and evening guide trips yesterday as we fished for smallmouth bass.  Took out my boat in the morning and waded in the afternoon.  Seemed to be a day of dirty water yesterday as the lake we fished was off color and the river we waded was off color and rising.  Water temperatures have risen as the lake surface temperature was 75 degrees and the river was 70 degrees.  It is a fricking tropical rain forest out there.  We spin fished in the morning and had a good success with a blue and white Rebel popper.  We had much better luck in the cleaner water with the fish coming to the surface.  There was a percentage of the lake that did not fish well because of the off colored water.  We had a fair number of fish eat the popper.  Working the popper aggressively was the ticket. The moment of the morning was when we hooked a 10" smallmouth and had a huge and I mean huge bass explode on the hooked fish.  It was really impressive watching the big fish try to eat the little one.  Hey, big fish eat little fish.  Afternoon fishing was a little slow with the fly.  We got held up by another afternoon thunderstorm and it caused the water level to rise and begin to dirty.  We landed to fish off the surface on poppers and missed two other.  Off to brook trout fish this morning.  I am sure the water level is up once again.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

changing directions

Hi Folks, Had a nice weekend of guiding and it actually did not rain in the Stowe area for 2 days straight.  Too bad it is back to the same old wet pattern for this week.  Looks like rain today and needless to say the ground is saturated and we can not take any more water presently.  The Winooski is still high and chocolate milk and the Lamoille is 4 times higher than its seasonal average flow for this time of the year, but coming down and clearing up.  Saturday I bass fished with a client from a canoe.  Water temperature was 73 degrees.  We fished a small pond/lake in central Vermont and I was shocked to see all of the fishing traffic.  Not the norm in Vermont.  Fishing was slow as we only landed 3 smallmouth bass and 1 pickerel.  We lost 1 decent fish, but the fishing was tough.  Water is really clear in this lake and I think the fishing pressure made the bass a little tight.  We fed them Senkos in watermelon red flake, baby bass, and craw fish.  There was not one that out produced the other.  Yesterday, totally changed directions and took my clients into a small mountain stream for native brook trout.  Water temperature was 60 degrees and the water clarity was excellent.  The brook we fished was higher than average, but very manageable.  We cast dry flies all afternoon on 2wts. and 3wts.  #12 Stimulators and #12 orange foam things seemed to do the trick.  Lots of french fry brook trout eating the dry.  No larger fish yesterday.  With the current flows and water temperature the fish seemed to be widely dispersed and were able to hold in big pools and secondary water.  I am off to teach the fine art of fly fishing to a young person.  Should be fun.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

4th weekend bass fishing

Hall of fame bass anglers

Watermelon red flake

Hi folks, Guided a double yesterday with the boat and spin gear for bass.  Lake fishing presently as our rivers are pretty darn high and dirty.  These late afternoon thunderstorms are killing us.  Really muggy with heavy air yesterday.  I love that type of weather for bass fishing.  Though we did have to wait a bit in the boat launch for a thunderstorm to pass.  Never good being in a lake in an aluminum boat with graphite rods with thunderstorms in the vicinity.  Not often do I fish the same body of water in the same day, but yesterday was the exception to the rule.  We fished in the kingdom on a lake that is very clear and you can spot a lot of the fish as well as see the take and battle when they are hooked.  Water temperature was 72 degrees in the morning and 75 degrees in the afternoon.  Did see some #6 Hex spinners in the morning and duns in the evening.  Even a few rising trout out on deeper water.  We cast the incredible edible Senko on a 1/0 red worm hook with 4" and 5" watermelon red flake Senkos.  It was a day of good quality fish.  We landed over a dozen and half  smallmouth and largemouth in the morning and almost a dozen in the afternoon.  Even tugged on a few slimy pickerel.  The two best fish on the day were both just shy of 18".  Really good looking specimens.  The key to our success was fishing hard bottoms around Milfoil beds.  The smallmouth like to hang right around the edges of the weeds.  Not in them but on the edges.   A little top water action but the Senko was the trick.  Off the fish smallmouth again this morning.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

holy cow

Hi Folks, I am glad that I did my trip in the morning yesterday because the afternoon thunderstorms and subsequent flash flooding was incredible.  Our rivers are now blown out from small streams to the big water.  Still really muggy out there and should remain that way for a couple more days.  The brook we fly fished yesterday morning had a water temperature of 59 degrees.  The water was up but very manageable.  That is until yesterday afternoon.  We had over a dozen brook trout come to the dry fly.  We did manage to land a legitimate 10" native male brook trout.  Really nice specimen. For the most part though, the fish we we caught we between 4" and 7".  The flies of the day was a #12 yellow foam thing and a #12 orange stimulator.  Nice morning.  Off to chase smallmouth from the boat.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

Brown Trout Mania

Hi Folks, Well, for July I cannot complain that the water temperature was a pleasant 63 degrees this morning on the small stream I guided.  Water is certainly still up on the big rivers.  Matter of fact, the Lamoille was chocolate milk when I crossed it today.  However, tributaries of the big water and small brooks are in fine shape for fishing.  If the water is clear, you can catch trout on a fly.  They have to eat!!!  Its my opinion that when the water is up and down the fish are always pretty aggressive. Especially, when the water is dropping from being high.  So, we waded some really nice pocket wader today under cloudy, misty, damp conditions.  We fished dry dropper rigs and had 1 rod with a #12 double tungsten black stone fly under an indicator.  We landed 8 wild brown trout from 6" to 12" and every fish ate a dry fly with exception of 2 trout.  We missed another half a dozen fish.  One particular brown was very large and swirled under the dry but did not eat.  We could not get the fish to come back and I even resorted to having my client swing a white zonker.  I have the fish marked for the future.  The 2 dry flies of the day were a #10 orange stimulator and #12 yellow foam thing.  Some outstanding takes.  I think because the water is up you have to make more drifts to get the fish to move.  It was interesting how we really did not have many strikes on the subsurface stuff.  Not complaining.  Well, Happy 4th of July. I am going to go wade a stream with some guests.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

Mixing it up

  Hi Folks, Guided a full day yesterday with the boat in the morning and waded a small brook in the afternoon.  Water is still high everywhere and it needs to stop raining.  the main stems of the Lamoille and Winooski are stuffed for sometime to come.  The bass fishing and trout fishing was very good yesterday.  We caught all of our bass on top water flies and hooked most of our trout on dry flies.  Surface temperature was 71 degrees on the lake and 59 degrees in the brook.  We landed almost 30 smallmouth off the top.  We caught two bass with our first 3 casts.  The fly of the day was #4 chartreuse foam slider.  The msot productive spot was a gradually tapering shoreline with lots of wood and boulders.  The fish were close to shore and holding in 5' to 8' of water.  After having fun tugging on bass we moved to a small brook where the level was 5 times the average flow for this time of the year.  We hooked a trout in every pool we fished.  We cast a #10 royal rubber legged stimulator for a dry and #12 Black double tungsten stone fly for the nymph.  We had 7 fish eat the fly and landed two.  Line management is critical when river fishing and recovering slack or holding the line against the rod handle with your trigger finger is important when playing a fish.  Slack  line is a killer.  We hooked both browns and brookies.  Had one very nice brown trout eat a dry fly from under some wood and then made a great leap before a distinguished country club release.  Nice small stream experience especially for the middle of the day.  Off to trout fish right now.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

Not happening

Hi Folks, Spent a really nice afternoon in the canoe casting flies to smallmouth bass.  Surface temperature of the water was 72 degrees with a steady north wind. Very unstable weather and we were spared thunderstorms for a change.  Awful wet June and July looks to start out that way.  Our rivers need a break from the constant rain.  I believe it has rained in some form or another for the last 2 and half weeks.  Complete and total opposite from last year.  So, back to fishing yesterday.  Cast poppers all afternoon to dusk.  We fished shady shorelines and tried several different water types.  We fished an area with good cobble on the banks to sharp dropping shorelines with big boulders and rock faces to woody and weedy areas.  We caught 3 small bass and missed two other fish. Pretty slow.  Each fish we caught did strike the popper aggressively.  Fished a larger #4 frog fly pattern with rubber legs.  I guess we should have got down and dirty with sinking flies and lines, but I hate sub surfacing fishing bass with the fly.  What I can I say, I am top water guy.  Well, day off from fishing, then at it for the next two weeks straight.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  have fun, Willy

High elelvation streams

Hi Folks, Finally got out guiding again today after a couple of days off due to high water and big rain.  We still have a ton of water in our streams and river/brook fishing is limited at the moment.  I know of several small mountain brooks that clear quickly in big rain and can be fished within a short period after a heavy down pour.  These little brooks have a steep gradient with good stability and really good riparian buffer zones surrounding the edges.  It all means that they come up quickly and go down quickly in rain events.  Water temperature this morning was 59 degrees.  The level of the brook we fished was probably 5 times its average flow for this time of the year.  Water clarity was fine and you had to pay attention to wading.  We had 25 brook trout come to the fly between 4" and 7".  The two ladies I guided were new to fly fishing and they did an excellent job with casting to presentation to reading the water and catching fish.  We never changed flies and a #10 rubber legged royal stimulator and a #10 orange stimulator did really well. In high water, the trout you can catch are in the soft margins.  Stay away from the heavy stuff.  Trout are energy efficient machines and they do not want to work any harder than they have to.  In small mountain brooks, the water temperature is pretty consistent from bank to bank.  So, anything knee deep off the main current is fair game.  I love big eddies and bouncing flies off big boulders and letting them drop straight down into the water.  It works really well and the fish almost always their to eat.  Water levels will remain high and thunderstorms are likely in the afternoon for the next few days.  Chasing smallmouths tomorrow.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

Quality verus quantity

Hi folks, Guided this morning with spin gear for river trout.  Needless to say we do not need any more rain presently.  The Lamoille was stuffed today so we fished a tributary that was in good shape.  The water was up but the clarity was fine.  We got on the water early and I have been over the last few weeks.  Started to rain pretty good when we were finishing up around 10:30am. Lots of afternoon thunder activity which has limited my ability to fish any Hex hatches.  The water temperature was 65 degrees which is not terrible considering the hot humid weather we have been experiencing.  We cast a variety of lures with trout imitations being the most effective.  We had four fish eat this morning and we landed one.  Happened to be a 17" male brown trout.  The other three fish were all rainbows because we watched them jump a mile high as they tossed the plugs with a big FU!  Pretty much moved around to big primary pools and got our strikes withing minutes of fishing them.  Keep the focus on always when first casting into a piece of water.  I often ask clients when we only catch a fish or two, but one of them or both are nice quality fish, what do think?  would you rather catch a mess of smaller to average fish or a 1 or 2 really good ones?  I find the answer varies depending on the age of my client.  Anywho, the brown trout we caught today was a quality Vermont wild trout.  High water that is a little off colored and a lure that looks like an easy meal equals nice brown trout.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

Humid

Hi Folks, Ran the boat yesterday morning for smallmouth with clients.  Water temperature on the surface was 72 degrees and it was dead calm.  Cast surface flies all morning under hot humid conditions. Looks like afternoon thundershowers through Thursday which is puffing up our rivers once again.  Not to mention that the big water is too warm to trout fish presently.   I like the high humidity for bass fishing.  I always find that the top water bite is pretty darn good when the air is heavy.  I do not like bright blue skies as I find the fish tend to be a bit tentative when it is super sunny.  We had a combination of both yesterday morning so we focused on shady shorlelines and got on the water very early.  We landed 11 smallmouth bass on frog colored and chartreuse popping bugs.  We mostly focused on downed wood around rocky shorelines and with sharp drop offs.  The fish wanted the fly moved aggressively.  We did not land any really big fish yesterday, but just good steady action.  I will be gudingg bass and small streams for the rest of the week.  I look forward to week ending cool down period.  We do not need any more rain presently.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  have fun, Willy

Bass masters

Fantastic

Hi Folks, Put in a full day yesterday with clients guiding out of the boat for smallmouth bass.  The fishing was really really good.  Water temperature was 69 degrees in the early am and rose to 71 degrees by midday.  Water clarity was excellent and there was little if any wind.  Lots of folks on the water yesterday, but it did not effect the fishing in any way.  We fished top water initially with marginal success.  We did have one 18'" plus bass take a top water popper that was awesome to watch. The fish came under the surface lure and swirled around and as the lure was moved away it absolutely exploded on it.  Too bad we lost it.  Anywho, we started casting 4" Senkos on red hooks and we landed almost 40 fish.  We caught smallmouths from 8" to 17".  The fish were holding everywhere they should be. Big rock points produced numerous fish.  The feed was on.  We landed one 16" bass that coughed up breakfast including a giant tadpole that was still alive and swam off.  Looks like some hot humid weather for the next few days so pay attention to water temperatures and watch for thunderstorms.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species.  Have Fun, Willy

Enjoying the weather

Hi folks, Finally some nice weather without rain and seasonal air temperatures.  Good for my vegetable garden.  Nice big blue sky the last few days so I worked some small trout streams.  Guided a full day on the Lamoille today and we started really early.  The small brooks I ventured into were still holding water temperatures between 53 to 57 degrees.  Flows were still up and clarity was excellent.  Good conditons for larger small stream fish to show themselves.  Indeed they did as I seen 4 9" to 11" brook trout get caught in the last couple of days as well as several 9" to 12" wild bows take a dry fly.  Good darn fun on a 2wt.  all the fish have been holding in the larger pools in the brooks and it appeared that probably had not seen a fly yet this season.  The Lamoille today was 62 this morning and warmed to 66 degrees by time we were done.  I have been seeing lots of #18/#20 olive micro caddis hatching in the morning and some large #10 stone flies at dark.  Sporadic mayflies with some #16/#18 sulphurs at dark.  Good time to be venturing onto lakes and ponds in the kingdom to look for the Hex hatches.  We only saw 3 rising fish this morning and that was not consistent.  We had all of our fish eat nymphs except for one feisty rainbow that took a bright orange #10 stimulator.  The only reason I put the stimulator on was that the fish first tried to eat a strike indicator. We landed 5 wild rainbows in the 7" to 12" class and lost and missed a handful.  The fishing really slowed as the sun got high over head.  Well, looks like summer conditions ahead.  Get out early or at dusk and carry a thermometer.  Starting to transition into small stream action and smallmouth fishing.  off early am to tug on bass.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  have fun, Willy

keep a bend in it!

Hi Folks, Guided the Lamoille yesterday morning.  Fairly cool out there for this time of the year.  Nice, the cool weather is keeping the water temperatures in the high fifties to low sixties.  The Lamoille is still big and especially after Sunday's rain.  Water clarity is fine and the fish are there for the taking.  We dead drifted heavily weighted #10 olive wooly buggers and #12 tungsten black stonefly.  We had 9 fish on and missed a few.  We did not land a fish.  It is really imperative to trust the flex of your fly rod when a fish is hooked and keep constant pressure on the fish.  If the rod is not bent then pressure is not being applied.  The other thing I notice with aspiring fly anglers is that they want to put every fish on the reel.  Strip the line and keep pressure.  Lots of slack when attempting to put a fish on the reel.  I only use the reel if the fish puts me on it with a long run.  So, no hatching insects yesterday morning or rising fish.  River fishing should remain consistent with cool nights ahead.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

Father's Day

Hi Folks, Guided the Lamoille yesterday morning with the fly rods for trout.  Water level is still high, but the clarity was excellent.  The flows are how the river generally is in the beginning of May. Water temperature was 60 degrees, perfect!  The trout fishing the last few days on the Lamoille has been excellent. I lost track of how many fish we had eat the fly yesterday.  I know we landed at least 12 rainbows with a combination of wild and stocked fish.  Good to see wild trout in the 6" to 12" class as I think they were the fish that I had been wondering about after Irene and the heat off the last summer.  We nymph fished all morning with two flies and never changed rigs.  A #14 tungsten prince and #18 olive copper john.  We hooked fish on both flies.  We found trout in the pools and riffles.  They were really on yesterday morning.  The most productive spots were deep seem lines between slow and fast water on the riffles.  We hooked trout dead drifting as well as swinging the fly.  Yesterday morning was as good as it gets on the Lamoille with the exception of the no trout on dry flies.  It is my opinion that taking advantge of the big rivers while you can would be a good idea before everything starts to really warm up.  Look like a good fishing week.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  have fun, Willy