Autumn On The EB

Autumn On The EB

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

It's A Salmon Year

"Fishing in rainy conditions may make fishermen seem crazy to the great mass of unimaginative people, but then few fishermen care what they think." - John Gierach


It POURED yesterday and the Swift broke the 200 cfs barrier (245 as I write) and hasn't stopped which was probably the reason that I spent three hours without seeing a soul.  It was worth it!! The two bows were nice and the stray brookie or 3 looked great but I know what I was there for: LL Salmon!!!

As stated in a previous post I'm staying away from the redds as best I can and have had fun swinging soft hackles as if they were an Atlantic Salmon fly AND IT WORKS.   I managed two on the swing.

The fish in the net was about 24 inches long and managed to stick its head through a small tear in the net up to its pectorals. It's a big tear now. Note to Self: Get a new net!

Where are they?  They are everywhere!  Its a small stream so you should be able to find them.  Just  walk on weeds or sand and not on gravel.

This perfect  condition comes once a decade.  Don't miss it.

Ken





7 comments:

Paul said...

Ken, what patterns/sizes on the soft hackles worked?

Paul

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Paul,

Size 12 or 16 partridge and orange of course!

Ken

Dave P said...

But if you don’t have Ken's "magic orange" mystery material, you may be SOL! (LOL)
Cheers,
David

Anonymous said...

Ken, how did that salmon fight? Did it jump like crazy? What a treat to catch a salmon in the Swift! I would love to hear the fish story about such a rare event.I wonder what happens to them a year or two down the road?

I have a friend who lives along a small tributary of the Chicopee River and he claims that he caught a 24" fish out of there 20 years ago, but no one knew what kind of fish it was.

The fish was such a spectacle that they fashioned some kind of cage to keep it in to observe it within the small stream, and I presume take snap shots of it. It could have been a big brown, but my guess it was a big salmon that got washed downstream from Quabbin when it over flowed.

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Anonymous,

It didn't jump but ran like crazy. Gland that I had the 5wt instead of the usual 2 or 3. That Chicopee River fish of 20 years ago may have been a stray Atlantic Salmon.

Dave,

Thanks for the endorsement (haha). At least we got three good months out of the EB.

Ken

The Eye on Harvard said...

The Swift is at 264 cfm and still creeping upwards with a rise of over a foot in depth. Maybe that will pull some weeds out of the gravel...Is the pipe under water yet? TC

Millers River Flyfisher said...

TC,

The Pipe was "almost" underwater last weekend. I would guess that it is.

The current will not pull any weeds out.

Ken