Wahoo!  Just a week until the Otter Creek Classic 15!  We are kicking off the weekend event with the International Fly Fishing Film Tour at the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury.  This is an inspiring event to really kick off you fly fishing season.  There will be some swag raffles and give aways at the film so come check out exciting fly fishing films from all over the world.  Tickets are still available here:  https://www.showclix.com/event/if42023middleburyvt

If you’re still on the fence for the OCC15, the exciting news is that the weather and water look like they should be in good shape by next weekend. More on that below.   You can register for the OCC below.  We have a bunch of awesome prizes and don’t for get to buy your OCC support stickers as a chance to win many of our great prizes. https://mmvt.com/fishing/otter-creek-classic

We are checking some big boxes in our progression to ideal fishing conditions. Runoff is officially here.  The valleys are completely clear of snow and we have lost a good amount of snow in the mountains.  The Leister Flats are flooded. The rain and warm weather is pushing a lump of water down the hill and next weeks really warm and dry weather should finish the job.  Seeing the grass start to green and trees showing signs of life in the valley tells me the ground has defrosted and that is a sure fire sign we have turned the corner. We have a cooler weekend and then some very warm sunny days next week which will start drying things out some.  I fully expect, based on the outlook the Otter Creek Tribs are going to be in some of the best shape we have had for the OCC in years with a good amount of water, but they should be clean by the beginning of next week.  Unfortunately the Otter will be very high for the coming weeks and you would have to be very strategic in where you fish it in the Middlebury area.  The further south you go on the Otter the more likely you’ll find fishing, but I expect it to be high and muddy through the OCC.  All of this will do one very important thing, which is to start to warm the water.  The southern part of the state is already starting to see good bug life including caddis and blue quills.  With the forecast I can only assume the bugs are going to start being prevalent enough to be make the fish take notice, particularly as the water on the tribs drops and clears. 

For fly selection, it’s hard to not to stick with the bigger nymphs and smaller streamers even as the water starts to clear up over the weekend.  But I can recall several otter creek classics were having an assortment of smaller nymphs to match beatis and blue quills reaped fish as well, particularly as the day wore on. Water conditions should dictate what your fishing, but for the coming month you should be ready for anything. Early next week, we will dig into some of the go to otter creek classic fly selection and rigs to bolster your quiver before the event. 

Last weekend on the a trip up for OCC prep, was able to stop and fish some otter creek tribs.  It was encouraging that both stops produced fish, even as the water was cold, high and dirty. One of those was this ~13” Brown that ate a squirmy.  Its clear that the fish are looking to eat and they are working hard right now dealing with the runoff, so they are also looking to gain some calories. 

We should have some great info after the weekend on what things are really starting to look like for the OCC and local fishing conditions, so stay tuned.  Get your IF4 tickets, registered for the OCC and get in on the OCC support sticker raffle for a chance to win some sweet gear.  Can’t wait to see you all.  

Good Luck and Have Fun!