Lit up like a Christmas Tree

Hi Folks, The dry fly fishing has been outstanding on the Winooski the couple of nights. I have just floated my drift boat the last 5 days. The water is low and we really need sustained rain. The boat is great for lining up on rising trout in the big water of the Winooski. Many of the surface feeding fish we have located have been holding in water that is tough if not impossible to wade. Floating is also allowing us to swing a sink tip fly line with a #10 black/olive wooly bugger with a caddis pupa dropper into deep pools that are unreachable from wading anglers. The last couple of nights the fish have been gulping #14/#16 Sulphurs and #14 caddis in long slow hard bottomed flats. Presentations have required longer casts and good mending. In the slower water the trout have longer to analyze your drift versus an aggressive reckless take by a fish in riffled water. I like to tone down my fly patterns in the slower water for rising fish. A #16 Lawson’s crippled mayfly and a #16 CDC caddis have been very effective. We have been catching wild and stocked rainbows and landed a nice jumping wild brown last night. With the cold nights water temperatures have really been ideal for our Vermont trout rivers. The Winooski has been holding between 62 and 65 degrees. The trout fishing right now is best early and late day. The last hour of light has been fantastic for dry fly fishing. I’ll be wading later today. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy