Autumn On The EB

Autumn On The EB

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A Few Caddis For The Millers - And Other Rivers




I've never felt good about standard caddis dry flies. They either seems too bulky (elk hair caddis) or too weird as in Henryville Caddis. They work at times but so do many patterns. How about this: an appropriate body color, a tent wing of CDC (appropriate color, of course) and a semi-palmered collar. Nice and light and a buoyant construction. Maiden voyages worked well on the Millers until the Great Drought last year. I'll have them ready this year especially on the lower Millers around Erving Center which is, of course, pure caddis land!!!

The snow melt in the Millers and Westfield Watersheds has been heavy during the last two weeks. I'd like to see things slow down a bit. High Spring flows are no indication of late Spring or Summer flows. A slow melt with NORMAL rainfall will keep the rivers HIGH for April but can give us very good May/early June flows. If we don't have a drought after the 4th of July we will have a NORMAL Summer for the above two rivers. A normal Summer is a great Summer for the Millers and the EB!!

Ken

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ken,

Nice idea on the caddis and I'm going to tie some up. One question on the summer drought. What's a good summer flow on the Millers that me and others should be looking at??

Ted

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Ted,

I don't like to see flows in July below 150 cfs for a long period (a few weeks) Anything between 150 and 400 is golden on the lower C&R. 150 cfs works well in the Bears Den since it is narrower and has more shade than the lower section.

I've fished some skinny flows in the past but the weather wasn't really hot and the fishing was tough but worthwhile. I've seen very hot weather (2006) but the flows ran between 200 and 400 cfs and things were great.

As long as we have the water....

Ken