Dog river regulations

Well folks, here we go down that long dark road of  regulations in Vermont.  As of today the Dog River is currently under a new proposal to create a 5.6 mile stretch of catch and release regulation with artificial lure or fly only. We have nothing like this in our part of the state, the southern part has the Battenkill. Much like the Battenkill the Dog has seen dramatic declines of native trout in the past number of years (2001) and is in desperate need of attention. I as a fisherman first and a guide second am in full support of this measure which will last until 2015, however like others I do believe that this needs to go further in the regulation. A 2.5 mile stretch above the end of the proposed regulation is considered to be some prime trout water. at the head of this is Northfield falls and a large impoundment which prevents fish from moving any further up-stream. the river below this stretch consist of certain areas of mainstream spawning and it’s no secret. this area needs to be protected if there is any hope of restoring this river. The river needs to be treated as a whole and as far as I am concerned the dam in Northfield falls should be remove seeing as it plays no role. then the river would be a whole. Anyhow WE has a fishing community need to get behind this, please E-mail Rich kirn at rich.kirn@state.vt.us to show your support. I know there is much debate about this amongst local fisherman. At the meeting which I attended a couple of weeks ago there was one gentleman who was very much against the proposal, his take being one of “how am I to tell my boys they can’t go down to the river to fish”. Well folks that is just not an argument! your kids can go and fish whenever they want the just can’t use live bait. teach them to fish lures and its no problem. Also teach them proper catch and release techniques (more importantly). By protecting the river to the dam It would keep the increased pressure off the 2.5 mile stretch which would ultimately become more heavily targeted by the live bait fisherman hence decreasing the mortality rate of fish due to deep hooking and over pressure in general. I encourage you all to google mortality rates fly/lure vs. live bait. The numbers prove this point and should not be taken lightly! This a rare opportunity in a state that is rarely willing to step beyond social boundaries and do whats right for its natural resources.  In the end I cannot encourage you enough no matter what your means of fishing are and step up and be heard this subject. It goes to the fish and game board in the beginning of december so strike while the iron is hot!

Tight lines,

Dave

one extreme to the other…

our trip to the salmon river in western ny was a sucessful one despite the fact that the river was flowing at 6000+ c.f.s! Ideal levels on this river in my mind are between 750 and 12oo c.f.s so you can see what we were working with! However we made the best of it and brought quiet a few fish to net and lost many others to the ripping currents! spirits were high despite sideways rain changing to snow, I believe that the P.B.R. and Lagavulin 16yr scotch had a little something to do with it but whose to say when your heart is pounding so hard from hooking into a steelhead! check out the photos which accompany this post.  on the local front the story is just the opposite a general lack of rain is making its presence known, the rivers are down well below normal and we really could use a good drencher. I was up in the N.E.K yesterday for steelhead and brought alot of suckers to the bank and one nice VT steelie to the net. all in all everyone is reporting good thing from our local rivers and may is just around the corner…..with our luck it will rain all month. When it comes to the weather it just seems like there is no such thing as moderation! good luck to you all and I hope you enjoy the photos. Dave

spring 2009 update

hello Folks, just to remind you all that I am booking trips now for the 2009 trout season! The season is only 23 days as I write this and the snow in the mountains is still deep! lets hope for the nice slow run off we’ve been having! oh and I am heading to western NY to do some steelheading at the beginning of April! it seems like everyone and their mother is showin up there these days, which is kind of  neat in its own right! we are all better at what we do because of that fishery! Hopefully the health of it is not adversely affected in light of this! I will have photo updates when I get back! If you happen to stumble upon this blog you can check me out at www.sunnydogflyfishing.com! or for more info call me at (802)485-4647

Cheers,

Dave

Just a quick one!

Just a few quick photos from a lovely late season river!

long overdue….

this post is long overdue…. that’s all I am going to say! But lets talk about whats going on here and now! We have entered into the brilliance of fall and waiting for just a little bit of rain to “mix it up”! the rivers and streams of Vermont are on the low side and it looks like there might be some changes in sight! We seem to be going into a wet period with some possibility of some wet snowflakes in the mountains, I hope to see that we get some precip just for the sake of the browns and the brookies to have full access to better spawning grounds. the bigger rivers which are holding landlock salmon have actually been fishing quiet well thanks to the heavy rain back in late august, however that being said I have a feeling that there are fish holding at the mouth of the rivers just waiting to to move up into better spawning grounds. one river particularly seems to be having a great comeback and I hope that a little weather doesn’t throw it off this year! I spent Saturday on the aforementioned river and had a stellar day landing six beautiful salmon and losing one monster which before I saw it I almost stepped on! I did quietly back out of the spot which i was standing and crept back upstream to a more advantageous spot, did a little leader,tippet and fly work and made one cast, two cast and on the third cast hooked into the fish that gave me the ride of the season only in the end to have underestimated it size and to have it break me off in a stellar feat of acrobatics! lesson learned! go for the heavier tippet and work smaller if necessary! on to the next spot! there were fish all through the river and sight fishing was as good as it gets, I stood apon many large boulders peering down through the windows of the river looking for hulking salmon and planning my approach! whata blast. I am always a bit forlorn to see other “catchers” carrying these beauties off the river for the sake of their grills and often times feel that if we just gave them a few more years of catch and release pressure we would have an even better fishery. In the case of this river there is a month of C+R before the season closes so “tralah tralah”.  I do have some time available if any one is interested on doing a trip so feel free to give me a call! Often times its not streamers that does the trick with these fish its more like size 16,18, and 20 nymphs and that’s a thrill! As far as the trout are concerned on the “back 40 waters” the fishing has been pretty good, I have seen a lot of browns in transition and have had some great days, but the days a finicky. Vermont is know for its ever changing weather and those fast changing conditions will greatly affect activity on the water, making way for observation and quiet contemplation. Sit, listen and observe and often you will be rewarded! let me again say that I hope to tend to this blog a little better and hope that in the future I can become disciplined enough to open up the laptop and give some more time to it! Maybe I can carry this sucker onto the river for those quieter times…..NAH!

Be Well and tight freakin’ lines!

Dave Aronson

Into the dog days….

Well here we go, down the river toward the dog days of summer, Thats what I should be saying about now but man! its been in the sixties and seventies and wet for about the past three weeks! I think that most fisher folks in the area are feeling a mix of emotions about this, some love the high water and some love the low, I suppose I’ll take what I can get! It has been spotty as far as what rivers are getting the precip and the parts that are gettin’ it are really gettin’ it! I had a trip on a local river this week and we were definately learn the balance of the fly fishing zen. Standing in the river on the edge of a run and fishing a seam which was half river in spate(high and muddy) and half seamingly crystal clear in comparison. A true analogy for our current situation here! This fishing is holding it own however, in the conditions I just spoke of my client hooked into a beautiful 20+ inch rainbow which in the end he did’nt land but just goes to show that when in doubt look to the pockets. At this point the weather continues on the same track with the potential for a high of sixty on sunday with showers from now till who knows! I spent this past sunday on the Upper Connecticut river in northern N.H. I was on a strecth of river with several points of acess and a 1oo to 1 ratio, one hundred pounds of human to every one pound of fish! It was crowded! My buddy and I were fishing a pool that was about eighty feet long and we had positioned oursevles strategically to fish the pool and cover all holds, about 15 minutes in two fellas came wading in no more than 10 feet below us, with no thought or consideration of the fact that they walked into the holding water right below without even asking if this worked for us, now given the conditions (high fast water) we brushed it off and went and found our own water which turned out to be more productive! I have spent some time lately discussing ethics on the water with another guide and we can all agree that its taboo to wade into a pool that already is being enjoyed by someone else, often times you will have a much more enjoyable experience working your own water and you will always learn something new! Ultimately we ended up leaving and went and found a river with no one on it and fished for native brook trout! often time we tend to forget whats right under our nose in search of the perfect water only to come back to what we once lost sight of! Hope these dog days to come leads you all to beautiful fish and friendly and uncrowded water! Peace

on the rise!

            hello to all! I have finally worked though some password issues and am finally now able to get this stinkin’ blog going. This is a new venture for me and I am very excited about it. I spent this past winter on the couch dealing with a broken tibial plateau from a blow delt by a rather stout little maple tree while skiing! As some of you may know given those sort of situations you typically have a lot of time to think, along with watch your favorite movies in three different languages with subtitles and not remember what you just watched given the effects of Vicadin…. anyhow realization of dreams led me to this blog and I hope this is a dream full of pocket-water, smooth runs and healthy trout!

                                                                                                                                                                     The month of May has been much more like April and visa versa, water levels have been dropping throughout the month and the temps have been on the cool side. the hatches for the month have been quick due to the winds that have been sweeping the bugs off the water due to the ability for their wings to dry and giving them just a bit of extra loft as well.  The trout have not really been looking up to the surface to this point given the current situations.  Nymphs and streamers have been producing well and the fishing as been pretty damn good. It seems as though the rainbows are dropping back into their holding spots for the summer and the browns have been holding there for a while now. Most streams has of todays post have been running between 57 degrees and 63 degrees on a longer flatter stretch of the white river. on Sunday, the White did produce several nice rainbows the biggest being about 18 inches brought to net by my pal Andrew. We did have the opportunity to watch in on some monster rainbows that seemed to understand the structure and how it was one of the hardest pieces of water to even get a line into, we fished at them a bit but to no avail. I will try to post every few days or so with a balance of storytelling and technical information, so for now good luck and If your in need of a guide I’ve got some time! Salut!