Autumn On The EB

Autumn On The EB

Thursday, May 23, 2019

A Good Caddis Fly, A River Update And Book Me.

"And then there were the aesthetics of the situation. My gear, with some notable exceptions at both ends of the scale, is largely of moderate quality - serviceable, but not extravagant - and my camps are cozy but far from posh. Expresso seemed out of the question. Not long ago I spent hundreds of dollars on a fly rod but an extra seventy-five cents for a pound of coffee still rubs me the wrong way. Once established, priorities must be maintained." - John Gierach from Trout Bum

                                                                                                                                                                          
 A Caddis Pattern
I like the looks of this caddis. It is best described as impressionistic with it's use of rabbit fur dubbing, partridge and ostrich herl. The ostrich is the icing on the cake, representing the head of the caddis better than anything else. I tie this pattern in sizes 12 through 16 with either a gray or olive body.  The body is good, old rabbit with a little copper wire for the rib. Tie some up for this Summer.

Go Fish

FINALLY our long piscatorial nightmare appears to be over. The rivers have receded to normal safe level and the fishing has really picked up.

Millers - 580 cfs, down 143 cfs from yesterday. This may be the lowest reading for this river since last September and with little rain in the forecast for the weekend I would fish this river!!



In case you are unaware there have been some access issues on the Millers. The Orcutt bridge construction is in full swing and the whole area is fenced off.  Then there is the problem with the Bridge Street Pool. The traditional parking area on the Wendell side has been blocked off with boulders and signage.  I guess someone doesn't like fishing!!!! In 35 years of parking there I never heard of any problems.  Very limited parking can be found on the other side of the street.  Good luck!! BTW, the Bridge Street Pool is full of browns!!

The Swift - 565 cfs, down from 628 yesterday. Slowly but surely this river is trending down and with it coming down we will be able to fish below RT 9 and see if the smallmouth have invaded the land of brook tout.  Remember, you can keep fish below Rt 9 until July 1st so maybe we should start keeping smallies. Kill a smallmouth and feed a cat!!!!

The Westfield System - The flows are perfect and the trout are there and there have been NO CROWDS. We have had to work for our fish which makes it interesting.

The Ware - 238 cfs this morning.  Fish this river!!!

Ken





11 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Ken- Love reading your blog!

I live up the street from the Bridge St pool, it's not the fishermen that are the problem (parking), sadly it's all the rock climbers who haven't been very thoughtful when parking in that lot.

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Unknown,

Good point. The climbers, on organized events, overflow the parking for the cliff trail and then park where we park. I've seen this first hand! They over book their events to our detriment.

Ken

DRL said...

Hi Ken,
Thanks for the tip yesterday in Wendell Depot area. I found the pool you described off the end of Blossom St. Some nice fish feeding on top intermittently, but I couldn't get a take on a variety of dry and soft hackle stuff. All quiet at Rezendes for me and another angler until dark.

PS I love the idea of a climbing/fly-fishing double dip at Bridge street, but too old/smart to solo anything and Scout's not much of a belayer 😁 Shame on knuckleheads who's behavior messed up access for both sports.

Anonymous said...

Like that Caddis! Might twist up a few for the Farmington.

Pat said...

Had a few hours after work last night and hit up the WB, flow was excellent, maybe even on the low side. First spot had tons of bugs but no signs of fish. Went up stream and could see fish rising so I put on a hornberg and got my first fish of the year on a dry. Further down I got a nice brookie. The brookie was well over 10 inches. Not huge numbers but nice to see trout looking up.

Unknown said...

Had some luck today below the ware/hardwick bridge 4 bows on a wooly bugger black and green

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Pat,

The WB is a favorite of mine!!

Ken

farleykid said...

Hey Ken,

Enjoy your blog too. And also agree that it was the climbers that were leaving trash in the parking area - thus the boulders by the land owner. (Last fall I was there on a Saturday afternoon and several climbers were swimming.....some thought suits were optional)

I fished the Bridge Street Pool a week ago and caught a nice brown on a Wooly Booger. It was deep water.

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Farleykid,

It is VERY deep and it has a lot of browns.

Ken

Falsecast said...

Hit the Miller’s today and it was the first time since the fall. There is a lot of debris on the shores from the high water. I’ve not seen so much trash on the banks of the Trestle before. The water is definitely still pretty high, but coming into the zone. There are some big trees that make it tricky to get around where it is shallow enough to wade, but doable. I used a deep nymph rig and took two in thee heavy water. I stayed until dark and before the wind picked up I ran into a lot of bugs and some rising Browns after 8 in the Kempfield. I saw 4 risers and caught all 4 on an Ellk hair caddis. First time it felt like summer. Only saw one other person......on a Sat.....on Memorial Day weekend....it really is a strange year. :).

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Falsecast,

I was on the Millers for the first time this year last Monday 5/20. Latest start and highest water ever and it's been 45 years!!!

The Bridge Street pool had flyfishers both times I was there. The Kempfield was empty and although the island at the head of the run was still underwater the wading was easy.

Did well with browns and brook trout.

Ken