Hi Folks,
May 2019 will be a fishing month for me to not remember. Spring really never sprung. High cold river temperatures and a lack of warm weather certainly poised some problems. However, the cool wet month will pay dividends down the road for the rest of the fishing season. With all of the rain, our rivers and lakes are fully charged with water. I finally found some consistent rising trout on Saturday guiding the main stem of the Lamoille. I attempted to fish last night, but the thunderstorms drove us off the water. The last hour of light was pretty good with a decent hatch of #14 Sukphurs, Ephemerrella Dorothea. There were #14-#16 dark olive caddis egg laying and the large number of #12 Midges over riffles. At first I though the midges were March Brown spinners, until I had a closer look. It was a literal light switch effect with fish sticking their noses out of the water to eat the sulphurs. Our efforts nymphing and casting streamers were unproductive The fish were still rising when we left in the dark. A #14 Sulphur Compara Dun worked well getting the fish to eat. Fun for me witnessing my clients catch their first trout on a fly and especially a dry fly. We targeting specific risers and had fish blindly eat the dry. Water temperatures are warming slowly. A Winooski trib, I was on Wednesday and Thursday was 52-57 degrees while Lamoille was 58 degrees late day on Saturday. On the lake front the water has not warmed that much more significantly either. I ran the boat Friday for pike and the surface temperature was 55 to 58 degrees with a slight NW wind. Water color was off. We caught 3 large pickerel and a small pike using fire tiger colored lures. Lots of casts for a few fish. We fished in skinny water. Tons of panfish in the shallows but I did not see any spawning activity from bass. No visible beds nor did I see any fish cruising. Typically prespawn bass are in the shallows warming their body temperature in preparation for reproduction. We did have a few follows from other pike but the fishing as a whole was slow. We really had to slow down our approach to get fish to eat. I took my kid and a friend bank fishing Friday late and we put on a clinic in catching yellow perch. Good Fun. I am feeling it for June, The next few weeks should really turn on. The almighty question will be what species you want to fish for. Fly fishing trout the rest of the week. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.
Have Fun, Willy
