Champ Sighting

The "Champ" was recently sighted warming up for the DPC in an undisclosed location

Happy guest of Bass Fishing Vermont!

Finally just sitting down to the computer after a great Father's Day weekend!  Hopefully everyone's getting out and enjoying the great conditions we have had.  The above pic of The Champ was sent in over the weekend.  It appears that even The Champ needs a little DPC prep-work ;-)

The Lamoille is really looking as good as I can remember seeing it this late in the season and it looks like that's not going to change much in the near future.  The Lamoille is about 10-15 degrees cooler than we are used to this time of year and the trouts are certainly happy about that!  Although running higher than it's average, the Lamoille has great clarity and fishes like a totally different river at these flows.

The tribs are maintaining much more seasonable flows, yet still on the high side.  There's really no reason not to take advantage of the big river fishing we have right now since the trout fishing conditions are almost never this good in mid-June!

In many spots, bass are now post-spawn and very hungry!  Matt A. had some guests out over the weekend and found most fish between 2-8' of water with temps around 64 degrees.  No matter the conditions, Matt always puts fish in the boat and this weekend was no exception!  If you want to fine tune your bassin' game with the spinning rod, drop us a line and book a trip with our bass pro, Matt Applebaum!

THE TROUTFITTERS WILL BE CLOSED WEDNESDAY (6/18) & THURSDAY (6/19)!!

Pickle Progress

Vermont Fly Guys fresh ties

We took advantage of the crummy weather up here today to have a brief meeting about the upcoming Ditch Pickle Classic on Lake Champlain June 29/30.  We've got just about 80 anglers currently registered and likely some scragglers will filter in up to the last minute.  If you've yet to register for this amazing event, do it now!  ditchpickleclassic@gmail.com

Another evening of steady rains last night has everything blown out.  The Lamoille is a muddy mess and even the smallest tribs are looking like class IV whitewater!  It'll take some time for this to settle out, so might as well get the boat, yak, canoe or whatever out and make the most of the really good bass fishing we have right now.  We have fly and spin guides at the ready, so give a holler and let's go fishing!

I just had a visit from Brian Price of Vermont Fly Guys so we've got a fresh assortment of VFG Gliss'n'Glint Baitfish and Indiana James patterns in the shop.  Get in here and get'em!

And Yet Again...More Rain

Best Fishin' Buddy Ever!

Sorry it's been a few days between posts.  This is the first time I've turned on the laptop since Friday, so I'm playing catch-up today. 

Once the rain started falling last night, it really didn't let up all night, and things are really stuffed with brown water today.  That will be the case likely over the next several days since we have another quarter - half inch forecasted for tonight and a tenth to a quarter inch every other night this week.  The Lamoille is currently blown as are the major tribs and even most of the tiny stuff too!

Friday night, Mike and I floated a piece of water on the Lamoille and had a great time.  Not a lot of fish, but enough action to keep things interesting.  Once the season gets rolling, Mike and I don't get to fish a ton together, so it's always nice getting out when we can.  

Bruce & Paul - These guys were great company!

Saturday, I woke to seemingly stabilized flows on the Lamoille and set out on a float with 2 great anglers in 800cfs.  The river looked great that morning and I really thought the stars had aligned for these 2 guys.  Whew...not the case!  By the first hour, the river had gone up over 1200cfs and the fishing was absolutely piss-poor as a result.  Rapidly rising flows are never a good thing in my book.  We ended up absolutely pounding the water with big ugly streamers only to come up with a small'ish wild rainbow and a few exciting follows from some creamy looking fish ;-)  Really 2 of the coolest guys I've fished with and Iook forward to getting them out again this Fall (which may be the next time we have fishable flows at this rate.) 

On Sunday we had a float trip re-schedule and I had my youngest son at a birthday party.  I took the opportunity to get my older son out for a little lake fishing and we had a blast!  At 7 years old, that kid can really drop a 6" sluggo on a dime!  Times like that will stay with us forever.

Yesterday Mike had a great father/son duo out and the trib they fished didn't fish very well.  These heavier flows have really been shutting the fish down lately.  Luckily they were able to move around and find a couple fish.

This little rainbow was one aggressive fish!

 



Drakes...Lot's of'em!

Wild Brown ate a Brown Drake Cripple

Conditions don't always pan out for us on the Lamoille during Brown Drake time.  Generally this hatch coincides with water temps that often excede 70 degrees and there have been several years that we would sit on the bank,watching the massive mayflies fill the air, hoping that the river will dip below 70 at least for a few casts.  This year is a totally different ball game with cool, above average flows.  Last night we snuck out by my house in Hyde Park and were welcomed by massive amounts of Brown Drake spinners.  Some doing their spinner dance, some sailboating down the river and some random cripples that were unable to leave the surface of the water.  For a while it was hard to dial in what the fish wanted.  It seemed obvious with all the Drakes out and about, but very few were on the water and the fish looked as though they were keyed in on emerging caddis.  I had one missed fish on a caddis pupa, but mostly we picked up fish on Brown Drake cripple imitations on the surface.  Just before dark, the bug activity picked up and we had a variey of march browns, sulphurs, tan caddis and brown drakes buzzing about.  Then like a light switch the air got a bit cooler, the bugs dissappeared and fish stopped feeding on top.

Today, I fished a small stream in the Lamoille Valley with a raw beginner.  Although being a bit high, this stream was in prime condition but few fish were willing to play.  We threw several different presentations into the mix, but a prince under an indicator was all that could draw strikes.



Fly Times

"Mornin' Beautiful"

Aside from the bright sun today, conditions really couldn't be much better.  The mainstem rivers are still a bit higher than average, but we'll take it!  Tomorrow's rains look like they'll be in the latter part of the day and we shouldn't see any heavy downpours tomorrow, so take advantage before the rain blows it all up again over the weekend.  We've seen some scattered Brown Drakes around the Lamoille, along with March Browns, Sulphurs, Caddis and Stoneflies in different sizes.  For the most part, keep beaded princes, PT nymphs, copper johns handy in your nymph box.  For dries, para adams, elk caddis and stimulators should be in the box.  The recent hot spell also brought out the hoppers which we all look forward to! 

Are you interested in learning to fly fish or improve on the basic skills?  You should try our "Fly Fishing 201" class!  For only $59, we'll give you a solid foundation for your fly fishing journey!  This is the best value you'll find for such a well-rounded experience.  Give it a try or tell a friend and get them hooked for life!  Reach us at gmtvermont@gmail.com   

Tribbin'

Wild Rainbow (Winooski Trib)

After a short set of super hot summer-like weather, we're back into fall-like weather today.  It was 50 degrees on my way to the shop this morning and it's only climbed into the mid 60's.  With a pretty gusty wind out there, it's not a bad day to bust out the hoody!  Starting Thursday, we have more rain coming that could drop several more inches of rain on our saturated area by the end of the weekend.  Currently the Lamoille is thumping at over 700cfs at the Johnson gauge, but the clarity has come back, at least for the moment.  The Lamoille tribs are a bit high, but still in great shape.  This cooler weather pattern will do great things for trout fishing as long as the pending rains don't blow everything up.  The major drainages were dangerously approaching lethal water temps last week and the Winooski even found it's way over the 70 degree mark so keep your stream thermometers handy just in case! 

I fished a little gem of a trout stream in the Lamoille Valley yesterday and, whereas backcountry brookie fishin' isn't really my cup-o-tea, I had a great couple hours rock-hopping, bushwacking and tugging on Vermont's smallest trout wonders.  The brookies were pouncing all over bushy dries like stimulators and elk hair caddis.  It's great to see a 4" trout try and eat a big dry fly. 

 



Spreadin' the Fly Fishing Love



Our Brown Trout t-shirt image from our man, Damon
at Kind Designs.  Damon is the man!

Wow!...what a scorcher out there!  It's amazing how fast things can change from cold and dreary to hot and muggy.  It looks like the heat has already taken it's toll on the Winooski River, which clocked in a reading of 71.2+ degrees in Montpelier today!!  The Lamoille is much cooler but it won't be long with this kind of heat so get out there and get'r'done!  It's been such a welcome change of pace here with multiple fishing options currently available from bassin' to brookies, and anglers out and about catching good numbers of fish.  It's always great to turn new people on to fly fishing and today was a great day for spreading the love!  I had an awesome couple from Essex this morning for a casting clinic that really proved to be naturals with the fly rod.  After casting practice, we decided to move on to a Lamoille trib for some practice with the dry-dropper presentation, and my man Russ quickly went to work landing a wild brookie, brown and rainbow for the trifecta!  These fish were all 6-8" and as beautiful as it gets.  I think Russ is hooked for life!  The fish were feisty and seemingly keyed in on caddis based on the slashy rises.  We drew strikes dead drifting stimulator/prince rigs and stimulator/caddis pupa rigs.  The fish were chasing the nymphs right back to our feet!
I took another very cool Vermonter to a trib this afternoon and he landed his very first fish on the fly!  If I could bottle that excitement of the first fish on the fly and sell it, I'd be a millionaire.  Way to go Dave and "Underhill Jim"!!...You guys are what it's all about! 
Who knows what's going to happen tonight with the rain forecast... ??  We'll have to wait and see..
We have some days this week open with different options available depending on your taste.  Depending on how much of rain we get, we can wade and float this week, so hit us up.   Matt's also ready with the bass boat if you want to hit the lake with the spinning rod and "Mr. Bass!"...Over 25 fish with his last guests in a half day outing!  Let's get out and fish and help you dial your conventional and/or fly fishing game! gmtvermont@gmail.com