We have had some mighty wet weather in the past few weeks and river temps are on the cooler side with mountain runoff still in full (80 inches at the stake on Mt Mansfield as of last weekend!) Lake Champlain sits at historic levels and there’s more rain to come! Trends have got to change soon but with the gulf of mexico sitting a degree warmer this year hence major tornadic activity in the south it would seem that our weather will favor cool and wet! things need to warm up just to get any decent hatches going and about all I have seen around is small brown stones 14s and a few caddis 14-16. best bet with these conditions is prospecting with streamers or bigger nymphs depending on clarity. most importantly is the water is still cold so ya really got hit em in the head!
Spent Four days in Western New York last week and played with the switch rod spent the whole time swinging flies and decided that that’s the only real way to fish for steelhead. Really got my cast dialed in and every fish hooked was a fair hook! Photos to come soon! Quick thing worth mentioning if your there during a period of steady water followed by a good bump in flows be sure to focus on “eggy” type flies, when the water goes up in the spring the fish just go on an egg glut due to the fact that the increased flows a just churning up the bottom that much more! keep this in mind for trout back home! See ya Soon!
Be Well!
