Well, a trip that started well ended pretty awful for me. I drove out to Rood Pond in Williamstown VT to test out my new float tube. Caught some Brook Trout, but also had my hip pack with all my flies and supplies as well as my fly rod stolen in the process. I had forgot to load my gear after deflating my float tube. After realizing this I turned around to go back only to be told two guys took off with it. Such a shame.
I started this weekend off in Bristol VT, fishing some water here that’s as cold as it is clear. My initially prodding of this waterway back in March revealed some extremely interesting looking sections to fish. The water here has a pretty high CFS flow, split between numerous large boulders and falls that create nice deep pools and perfect sections of pocket water as it meanders its way down to lower elevations.
My day started off slow and uneventful. I just really did not have any luck. I tried prodding the water with some streamers, used a variety of nymph patterns and could not get a fish to take. As I made my way downstream to slower moving water, but luck began to change. Able to actually wade into the water i overturned some rocks and found a pretty good amount of golden stone nymphs.
Switching it up, I tied on a size 16 golden stone and began running it through some pockets. The first fish I caught was a little rainbow fry, not exactly the fish I was looking for, but a trout nonetheless, right?
As the day progressed, I found luck on a variety of nymphs. Hares ears, copper johns, they all seemed to work. While I didn’t catch any fish really worth bragging over, if eventually did pick up:
Today was a blast, it was really the first productive day of fishing I’ve had since I moved up here. Nestled among the green mountains of Vermont, I found myself at a nice high elevation pond holding a healthy population of brook trout. It was nice accessing the spot, a short, but very steep hike brought us to the top.
The view was truly spectacular and was only exceeded by the fishing. It didn’t take long to land the first fish. I tied on an old faithful, the wooly bugger to do some initial prodding of the water. A rather large pond, the temperature was at a cool 50 degrees, receiving some help from the snow melt still taking place. Anyways, back to the fishing. I packed my waders so I was able to actually get into the water, I’m still waiting on my float tube, so I only had so much room to work with. My first few casts came and went without much success. On the fifth or six, I had a pretty aggressive take. With a quick hookset, I had my first Brook trout on my line. After a quick battle, he was in my net.
Like I said, this pond was pretty large, so I made sure to make my way around it and fish as many spots as I could access. Every spot I stopped at was productive. I stayed mostly subsurface fishing buggers, grey ghosts, and a couple sculpin patterns. I did however see probably the largest fish of the day rising to what looked like a BWO hatch out in the centers of the pond. Again, this is where my lack of float tube really left me wondering just how big those fish were, and reallllly wishing I had that float tube. Short of any other drawn out stories here’s some more fish:
Before we headed out for the day, we decided to take a trip down one of the limited access roads that finally re-opened for spring:
It was a pretty surreal experience as the road seemed almost out of place winding through the mountains. The road had no real shoulders in this section, with large boulders that you could reach out and touch as you drove by. The road eventually gave way to a split roadway with a small stream running parallel to it. My gut feeling told me we should see where it led to, and boy am I glad we did. We pulled off the road to follow the stream for a while. The water was without a doubt mountain fed, it was crystal clear and absolutely freezing. As we followed it down, we found a series of the renowned Vermont beaver ponds:
We took up a spot on the edge of one of the small pond and waited for the tell tale rings from rising brookies. It didn’t take long to realize how many fish were holding in these tiny ponds, so we strung up our rods, tied on some small stimulator patterns and went to work:
All in all, a great day!
So it’s been a long time, months in number, but it feels like years. I’ve been going through quite a long transition between getting a new job and moving to a new state. No one cares about that, so I won’t get any further into it.
I was home for the weekend and went to my favorite spot on Irondequoit creek. A much welcomed sight was the BWO hatch going strong. I’m a dry fly fisher at heart, and any time I can fish the surface is a welcomed opportunity. The trout here were rising without discretion, and they were easy pickings. These are stocked fish, but it doesn’t make the experience any less enjoyable.
Tying on a size 16 BWO parachute proved to be the most productive fly of the day. The fish seldom exceeded 7-10″, but it was nice to be our again. I’ll be heading out to prospect some of Vermonts finer trout streams and rivers in the coming weeks, so expect some new content!
jdsflyfishing 