Game On!

Hi Folks, One great thing about spring fishing is that the conditions improve daily. In essence, the water slowly but surely warms up and the fish become more active and aggressive. Guided the upper Winooski yesterday and the Lamoille the previous day. Water temps. in both rivers were in the low fifties. The Winooski was 53 degrees at 3 pm. A decent number of bugs hatching. Saw my first #10/#12 March Browns of the season. Lots of caddis coming and going. #14 dark olive caddis hatching and egg laying as well as #18 dark bodied caddis hatching. A few #14/#16 Hendrickson spinners at dusk. Still nothing for rising fish. However, beneath the surface the trout were eating. On the Lamoille the stocked rainbow trout were extremely greedy eating pretty much every nymph we drifted past them. #12/#14 tungsten Pheasant Tail nymphs, #12 Dave’s Red Fox nymph, #12 Prince nymph, and #14/#16 Olive caddis pupa all hooked trout. Dead drifted #8 wooly buggers in black and olive have produced as well. All of the trout were holding in pools and on the drop off/ledge from the riffle to pool transition. We worked a little harder to hook fish on the Winooski. However, the quality of the fish were much greater. Wild jumping rainbows that did not surrender to the net. These trout were a bit more fussy. A #16 olive caddis pupa and a #14 peacock soft hackle were the patterns of the afternoon. Seems like the trout fishing is really turning on! Time to take advantage before our big rivers become too warm. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy