Almost a repeat of last Saturday

This time I fished Saturday morning rather than Saturday evening.  I didn't get out until 9:00 a.m., on a bright sunny day.  I fished a different White River tributary, but on the advice of a friend, I went upstream a few miles (although not as far as he'd recommended).

I managed to stay in the part of the river that still has rainbows, rather than getting up to the brookie water.

I found a place to park and worked my way down some steep hills into a beautiful meadow.  I still had a size 20 Parachute Adams on my line from last Saturday, so I started with that.  As it turned out, I never changed flies.

My first 5 casts brought a fish to the surface.  There were so many fish that I assumed, at first, that they were brookies.  I hooked  a fish, after the fly sank, a few casts later, but the fish got off.  I finally caught a fish about 20 yards downstream.  A few casts later, I took a beautiful 9" wild rainbow.  

I simply kept working downstream, and there were plenty of deep holes with wild rainbows willing to come to the surface.  At one point, a fish about 12" came up to the fly and then rejected it.  That would have been a huge fish for this little tributary.  I had about 2 hours to fish - too much work to do at home, so I had to move fast.  By the time I got to a bridge (someone's driveway), I was about out of time.  I did put my fly right on the surface by a big rock, and a fish came up immediately.  This was the 5th and final fish I got to the net.  I probably hooked 10.  I brought 30-40 fish to the surface, although fewer fish hit the flies this week vs. the tributary last week.

Later that day, I got a chance to look at the Winooski River.  It was completely blown out - bubbling chocolate milk would be a good description.  More rain on Saturday night pushed the levels higher and I never got out on Sunday.

But, even when people are complaining about too much rain, about rivers being blown out, about tough wading conditions, there are fishing opportunities out there.  Change your expectations.  The little tributaries might not be full of huge fish (although you can certainly be surprised on occasion), but the fish make up for their size with their enthusiasm, creating a fun fishing experience.

We may see a bunch of rain this week again.  If so, I have a different White River tributary that I plan to fish next weekend.  And I'm sure I'll have fun.  The White and the Dog and the Winooski and the Otter and the New Haven will be there once the water levels drop some more.  I am wondering if those rivers may be too warm to fish by the time the water levels drop.  If so, I'll just have to wait until later in the summer to fish them, and I'll stay in the cooler tributaries until then.