Out with the old in with the new

Hi Folks, I am happy to move the fly fishing business into June. I found May fishing to be very inconsistent. Pretty much how our weather was with snow to summer heat back to a Fall like temperatures. The fly fishing for landlocked salmon and steelhead in rivers was pretty slow. When pursuing lake run fish, it requires time spent. I spent the time, just did not get the desired results. Resident river trout fishing was very up and down. Now I have not spent an inordinate amount of time trying to pound on stocked fish. I like catching wild trout.  The most consistent game for me was pike fishing on the fly. The fishing the last couple of days has picked up considerably. I’m pretty grateful to be guiding and keeping busy. Now the fish are falling into place. Yesterday I floated the Lamoille. Nice damp day with water levels just below the seasonal average flow. Water temperature was 64 degrees. Nice to see it cool down after last week. The trout fishing was pretty darn good. There was a great hatch of #14 Sulphurs around 3pm. It was the Dorothea Sulphur mayfly, the larger of the  Sulphurs that will start to hatch at dusk fairly soon. Unfortunately, there was not any rising activity. We caught all of our fish on #8 olive buggers and white wooly buggers rigged in tandem with small #10 muddler minnows. We landed well over 15 fish and missed a few. The previous day I took guests to pursue lake run salmon where we saw a great hatch of #10/12 March Browns. We could not drum up any salmon but we tugged on some very large smallmouth bass. I love bass fishing on the fly but I get pretty obsessed trying to catch cold water species this time of the year. The bass were a bonus. We swung #6/8 Zonker style flies in olive and white. White colored streamers have been very productive the last few days. On the bug front, I have seen #10 Damsel Fly casings on the shoreline and on large rocks. A large stone fly pattern or black Copper John are both good imitators of the nymph. A fair amount of caddis activity on sunny days. A #14/16 dark bodied caddis and a cinnamon caddis have been hatching consistently. Mayfly activity has been erratic. March Browns, Sulphurs, Grey Fox, and some Baetis have all been coming off. The best rising activity has been at dusk in long slow deep pools. Fussy fish sipping spent spinners. A #12-#16 Rusty spinner has been the go to dry fly pattern for me. June is setting up to be a great month for fishing. Lots of different opportunities. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy