General Fishing Report May 18, 2019

Hello Anglers!,

For the time being our wet spring has seemed to stabilize, and with it some improved fishing conditions. With warmer air temps, more bugs have been hatching, with yellow sallies, Hendrickson’s and some Blue Winged Olives being seen on the warmer afternoons.  Most area rivers have received their yearly allotment of hatchery fish and we’ve been catching a mix of these along with some wild fish over the last week.  As rainfall has slowed here are some things to consider moving forward. A rain event that brings the rivers up and off color (which seems to take less rain fall with our saturated ground) consider throwing some streamers and having a shot at some of our larger wild fish.  Streamers seem to have gotten more attention during these events more than nymphs.  Keep your tippet strong (like 2x or bigger) and swapping out flies and or colors if you are not getting action.  As the water lowers and clears, switch to the nymph rig and as the water is still stained consider stone fly nymphs and then swap to more natural and smaller stuff as the water clears even more.  On a day like today with sun for most of the day it would be wise to drop the size of the fly as well.  Another tip, if you are an angler that likes to sit on a run for a bit,, is to swap flies every now and then, changing not only size, but color and amount of flash, etc.  Flies that have worked for us in the past few days have been stonefly nymphs, hares ears(size 12-16), frenchies(12) and slender mayfly nymphs (12-14) like the iron lotus.  

Smallies are in and plentiful on our local Lake Champlain tribs, and with that comes anglers, but it is an opportunity to tie into the biggest smallmouth of your life!  Keep some various colors of streamers on hand and vary your retrieve to fit what the fish want. It is awesome to catch these hard pulling fish, but please remember that these fish are in our rivers to make the next generation of smallies, so treat them with respect. I’m also going out on a limb and thinking that the pike fishing is about to improve.  Flows on the Creek are dropping but at a good level to float and water temps, while still a bit cool are looking to warm up a bit in the coming week.  There is a fine line between good pike fishing and when the Creek becomes too warm for our toothies to chase flies. Such is late May in Vermont and the fishing opportunities that it presents to us. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend folks, have fun out there, be safe and enjoy this beautiful state that we call home.  Steve in the shop can answer any questions you might have while picking out some flies or shoot me an email dave@mmvt.com and I will be in touch. 

Cheers,

Dave