Hi Folks, We finally received some rain. More would be welcomed. With the warm week, water temperatures have jumped up a bit. All of my trout fishing has been in small water. The Brook I was on yesterday was 60 degrees at 6:00 am. The bass river I fished this am was 70 degrees. With the rain, our streams came up and it really turned the fishing on. Catching trout on a fly is not easy. Especially in low water. Water comes up and down and I have found that the bigger trout show themselves. They simply feel more comfortable feeding, there is more food drifting in the foam line, brown trout are ambush predators, and opportunistic. We landed 5 wild browns yesterday and 14 native brookies. We switched up patterns between a #12 Royal Wulff, #10 Rubber Legged Royal Trude, and a #14 Chartreuse bodied stimulator. It’s amazing that you can fish a pool, a certain boulder and wood in low water and not see a fish. When the water comes up, wow, the fish show themselves. Fun seeing trout in the 15” plus class in little brooks on 2wt.and 3wt.outfits. The key is good dead drifts. The high mountain Brooks I have been guiding are fishing well. Loads of native brook trout. Fish in the 4” to 8” class mostly. They eat dry flies with a reckless abandon, live in beautiful spots, and make you an accurate fly caster. Smallmouth fishing has been good. I have mostly been river fishing. The top water bite has been consistent. With the low river levels prior to the rain, the fish have been holding in big primary pools. We have been mixing up popping bugs. #4 Chartreuse Gurglers, #6Black bumblebee poppers, #6 Foam popping bugs in frog pattern, and a #6 yellow deer hair bugs. We caught bass this morning on a #8 yellow/green hopper. Mixing up the cadence of the retrieve of the popper tends to produce more strikes and violent strikes! Well, fishing right now is an early am thing or very late day. For insects recently, micro caddis #18-#20 tan/yellow bodied and black caddis. #8 Stone fly shucks on large rocks and more and more terrestrials all the time. I suspect we should see the #10 Epheron hatch soon on the lower big rivers. The smallies will go nuts. #20-#24 Tricos are right around the corner. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.
