Lighting it up like a Christmas Tree

Hi Folks, It has been an awful good week of fishing. Guiding doubles pretty much thru Labor Day. I have been in the water a lot and the smallmouth bass fishing and small stream fishing has been excellent. We keep receiving just enough rain in the Stowe area to keep the water levels reasonable. A big cold front just moved into town and it looks like a return to cold nights with air temps. in the low fifties. The brook trout stream I was on this am was 58 degrees and the level was just below seasonal average. We had well over 20 fish come to the fly including a couple of bonus wild brown trout. The Brookies are beginning to become fired up with color as spawning season approaches. I know I sound like a broken record, but a #12 Royal Wulff, a#14 Royal Trude, and a rubber legged green stimulator produced fish equally. Tight line drifting with accurate casting into soft seams and eddies off of heavy plunges. It is fun watching the fish emerge from under a rock to eat the dry fly. The river bass fishing has been fantastic. Water temps. have ranged from 69 degrees to 74 degrees. Catching a lot fish off the surface. No better way than seeing a big bronzeback slurp in #8 frog popper. I have been using a lot of foam flies in black, chartreuse, and orange with great success. Being patient on the hook set is important when a smallie takes off the top. Give them a chance to eat it. A bonus fish this week have very large FallFish. When landed one the other day that was almost 20” long. A FallFish is in the chub family and is the largest species in this part of the world. We caught two giant FallFish off the top. One on a floating jointed Rapala and the other on a black foam crease fly. They bend a rod, just not the target species. I’m off to run my boat in the am for bass. Enjoy the weather. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native-species at home. Have Fun ,Willy