My VT Opener 2012

I had been waiting for opening day in VT with mixed feelings...to say the least. I was nervous to see what the river looked like after the flood last fall - where are the fish? are there many fish? did the bugs leave? are the (few) spots I know still there? 


I did not spend much time on the river last fall after the flood. I surveyed the river at the site of a


stream restoration project and was very encouraged by what I saw just after the flood. (Most) all of the structures that were placed in the stretch were intact, and aside from the silty banks and super-high crest mark on the trees the river looked relatively normal. After seeing the destruction that was done by the storm and the emergency efforts completed after the storm in other areas, I was encouraged by the 'Kill. Ample flood plains throughout most of the river in VT were the saving grace for her from the immediate impacts of Irene. Other great trout streams in all of the watersheds around the state were not so lucky. I will be curious to eventually see what is to be made of many of my favorite Brook Trout streams in the area later this summer.
For a great piece about the power of water and an awesome reflection on the events of last fall, check out this entry from the Rusty Spinner.

So, like I said, I was kind of nervous to see what was up with the fishing. At the same time I was nervous, I was pretty pumped. Conditions were lining this up to be the best opening weekend on the Batten Kill that I can remember. She was flowing just under 400cfs (mid-summer levels), the weather was going to be warm (65-70), and overcast. I had also heard some great reports of the Hendricksons happening further down river in New York the week before. I was pretty pumped to say the least.

My good buddy John's wife was out of town for the week, and I happened to find another buddy willing to loan me their extra pontoon boat for the day.

Perfect.

We met up at mid-day...dropped off the shuttle and left to float at about 1pm.

The water was low and the river had changed a bit in this stretch, so there was a bit of walking, and figuring out what depth the pontoons float in. After sorting that out and making some "warm-up" casts that were quite horrible, we found our way down the river.

Umm, it was definitely NOT normal spring flows.

My nervous feelings about finding fish were amplified in the first stretch. We didn't see many bugs, and zero rising fish. There were several areas that were changed in a way that created some pretty cool habitat that looks like they will hold fish during weak flows. We made many drifts through a lot of these areas with zero luck.

We decided to start rowing and move down stream as there were some spots I wanted to see sooner than later. At about 2:30, we found bugs. From what I remember, it was just all of a sudden. There were Hendricksons all over the water. Quickly there were bugs covering the sky. Really. I haven't gotten the timing entirely right for Hendricksons in the last few years, but even when I saw a bunch of them I never saw them like this before.

Amazing correlation can be seen between bugs and fish. Within minutes of going "holy shit, that's a lot of bugs", we started seeing rising fish. Lots of them. There were other seemingly Batten Kill savvy anglers out at this point. As soon as we saw rising fish, we started running into anglers that were on those fish, trying to do the same thing we were. We passed three or four before we got a shot to stop and try to feed the locals. First stop, we both were casting to multiple rising fish with no luck. We apparently suck at fooling trout - I know I put flies over 6 or 7 fish that were eating and got rejected like a fat ginger trying out for varsity hoops in the inner city. We moved, and they kept rising.

We found a bank that was newly undercut from the fall storm and stuck the locals, finally. They were small, but they were pretty.

Gorgeous.

While we didn't have the most epic day of fishing ever, it was a rather epic day nonetheless. I had seen many rising fish, and an unbelievable amount of bugs. I saw where a lot of fish are, and I had a great float with a good buddy. It was a great day and an awesome way to open a nervous season. I am looking forward to exploring the revised landscapes I've rambled over the last few years and learn what's new.

There is a lot of work that needs to happen in VT to restore our rivers - and it's quite overwhelming to say the least. At the same time, there are some pretty hopeful stories out there - the Batten Kill is one of them.

See what you can do to help with local restoration efforts here.