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Best bets around the state
Vermont's trout season begins in just six days, and Friday the weather forecast for opening day called for scattered showers and a high temperature of about 50.
Opening day conditions are expected to be actually fairly decent this year -- with little snowpack left in the state. High water in rivers and streams could prove most troublesome, but dry weather later this week could bring down the levels on swollen streams.
Traditional best bets for early season trout fishing include the Willoughby, Barton and Black rivers in the Northeast Kingdom, and the Williams, Saxtons rivers and Mill Brook in southern Vermont.
The Mettawee is perhaps the best spot in southern Vermont, largely because of its ability to produce wild rainbow trout. The lower Castleton and upper Poultney rivers are good early-season bets for brown trout.
You've probably caught used trout
Despite opening-day images of stringers hanging full of and creels packed with dead trout, a pair of newly released studies show anglers in Pennsylvania release most of the trout they catch. According to Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission/Penn State studies, anglers fishing stocked trout streams in the spring caught about one trout per hour and released 63.1 percent of those fish. Similarly, during the course of the legal fishing season on wild trout waters, average catch rates varied from around one fish every two hours for brook and brown trout on large streams to nearly two brook trout per hour (1.76 fish per hour) on small streams. Anglers released 92.7 percent of those wild trout. "In evaluating fisheries, we consider average catch rates of one trout for two hours of fishing time as 'good.' The fact that both wild trout fisheries and stocked waters averaged, and in many cases far surpassed, this measure is exciting," commission executive director Doug Austen said.
Insects have fish hopping
As a general rule of thumb, the insects that make up the trout diet tend to get smaller as the summer progresses. The most notable exception is the grasshopper. These bugs are relatively long lived and they grow larger during the season. In the last week of July, the hoppers made their appearance in the Sierra and they have the trout looking up for chow. The most common color at this time is tan. The critters are young (1-inch long) and size #12 or #14 flies will be a close match.
The most notable hopper bite from an anglers perspective has been on the Walker River drainage on the east side of the Sierra. Jim Weil from Ken's Sporting Goods in Bridgeport reports that on the West Walker river along Highway 395, hopper fly patterns are the No. 1 fish catcher. The West Walker is just now getting down to fishable flows and a big fly will get the trout to swim up through fast water to take an insect on the surface.
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