Favorite

Hi Folks, September to the middle of October is unquestionably one of my favorite times of year to fly fish in Vermont. We have moved away for the most part from hot humid weather with cool nights and really comfortable daytime highs. Lots of hatching activity on rivers with actively feeding trout. Brown trout, Brook Trout, and Landlocked Salmon all preparing to spawn and the smallmouth bass are putting on the feedbag. The fishing and guiding the last couple of weeks has been very good. I am floating my drift boat again and I had a great drift down the Winooski with a client on Saturday. The big river 65 degrees and the weather went from sunny to cloudy to rain, lots of bug activity from #18-#20 micro caddis to an amazing hatch and spinner fall of #12 Isonychia. We started with nymphing a #12 Zug Bug under an indicator with a #18 tan caddis pupa dropper. We also swung a # 8 olive Wooly Bugger into deeper pools and did hook and lose a decent fish. The Winooski is big water with big deep pools. Luckily for us the fish were up in the water column feeding. The tan caddis pupa landed several fish including a very nice wild 15” rainbow. Of the 15 trout we caught, 14 were wild fish with one stocked trout in the mix. From 4pm to dusk there were a large number of rising fish. The splashy eaters in the riffles were on the duns and the gentle sippers in pools were sucking in spinners. We hooked trout on a #12 Parachute with a grey body and pink post. The key to getting the fish to eat the dry fly was to make an accurate cast and drift right over the rise form. The fish were not moving much from their feeding lane. Sunday I changed directions and chased big river smallmouth. The lower Lamoille has dropped to 67degrees and the river was at about it’s seasonal average flow. We worked poppers hard and had 4 fish come to the surface. Black seemed to be the best color as we tried a variety of surface bugs. A #8 Girdle Bug under and indicator worked well. I like nymphing for smallmouth we they seem neutral to non-aggressive. The bass are looking fat as their bellies appeared to be full of craw daddies and other goodies. On the small stream front the dry fly fishing has been really good. Seeing lots of wild Brown trout eat dry flies and the Brook Trout’s colors are surreal. Every fishy looking spot seems to be holding g a fish that wants eat a #14 Royal Trude.Great time of the year to be on the water. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at hone. Have Fun, Willy