Millers River Fly Fishing Forum

The Low Time Of The Year

2012-01-23T18:46:00.007-05:00

It's that time of year. No matter how many flies you tie, no matter how many shows that you take in, no matter how many how many books and magazines you read it's the dark time of year for the fly fisher. Unless you are lucky enough to fish the Swift and the Farmington on occasion it is a season of longing for better times. Don't get me wrong. Fly tying in the depths of Winter can be very rewarding, a deep thought, creative process. I'm in the middle of that now!! But I would rather be fly fishing and I will be as January moves into February, the month where we first see the seasonal signs of change.

February - It's right around the corner and it's like a new relationship as an old relationship fades away. There is promise of a new beginning, a Spring that makes us all young again. It will be soon.

Fly Tying - it's been consuming but my inventories of scuds and Moby Dick Wets are now getting up to good levels. The demand for these patterns were very much appreciated in 2011. Hot Spots, for some reason, became very "hot" during the Fall. I have plenty of them too.

The Fly Fishers Guide To The Millers River - someone told me recently that it is a "classic". Hmmm....maybe not that but a very good guide to a very good river is what it is.

The above photo was taken on the "lower" Millers. This is where very few fly fishers go, even the locals. I guide on this section (and others) and WE CATCH TROUT!!

Think Hendricksons!!!

Ken

2012 - A Few Things To Do

2012-01-15T15:01:00.002-05:00

Hello 2012!!! Today is January 15 and the air temperature at 10 am is 12 degrees. The Y Pool parking lot is EMPTY and all I saw at the PIPE was one shore bound bait fisher who had caught nothing. It was cold and even though I was dressed in space age layers I was glad that this was a non fishing trip. It was tooooo cold to wade and that was that. There is a limit to Winter fishing.

Winter fishing - this is the venue of the tailwater angler. The stream will not freeze over and if you can take the elements you may have success. I've been asked about Winter on the Millers. The Millers is not a tailwater and I can say after 28 seasons on that river that I can count on three or four frost bitten fingers how many Winters actually proved successful. This river, during most Winters, freezes over enough that you can see the deer tracks crossing it's most famous pools and runs. It's a common occurrence to find the stream gauges non operational because of the ICE!! One can fish around the outflow of the Orange WWTP if one likes doing that or dunk bait from shore below the dam in Orange BUT is this what we really want to do?? One may find a spot or two of fishable water but this is the season to tie flies, tie leaders and read about our sport and fish the Swift or the Farmington.

Did I say TIE LEADERS??? I gave up using standard tapered leaders for most sunken flies a year ago. Why?? The answer is that tapered leaders used on deep drifted offerings like cone head buggers, weighted nymphs or even the tiny Swift offerings fished deep are a waste of money (the cost of a tapered leader) and are not as effective as the system that I use now. To get down deep I use a 6.5 ft leader made of only two leader diameters. A 4x terminal end is made of 5 feet of 3x and 20 inches of 4x. That works well for buggers early on the Millers and the EB. A 5x terminal end is made up of the same lengths of 4x and 5x. For 6x on the Swift I use 4x and a 6x tippet.

Now, someone may ask "how do you cast that rig"?? The answer is that you don't have to really cast it. You are just placing the weighted fly on interesting water using a short line. The weighted fly will straighten out the mono and because the mono is very thin it will sink very quickly. Your fly will get into the zone quickly. I do a lot of "high sticking" on the Swift and a long, tapered leader only gets in the way. A short, thin leader gets the job done. Once surface action begins I go to a tapered leader (10 to 12ft) to catch trout.

I don't waste money on these leaders. For the 3x portion I buy a small spool of .008 diameter clear mono at any fishing store. You get 100 yards for a few bucks. In fact this diameter works well with a 5x tippet. I tie up a few of these leaders and put them in small, labeled zip lock bags. It works. Just don't try a 40 ft cast with a size 16 dry sulphur with these leaders. That's what tapered leaders are for.

Thought I'd show a photo of a Millers Stonefly from early June. THINK SPRING!!!

Ken

Last Post Of 2011 - Swift Salmon

2011-12-30T19:24:00.002-05:00

This River is FULL of Salmon!!!! Say the same thing about the Lakers. I took one of each, another two fly fishers took two salmon each and another took ten lakers. His secret?? Think MONO!!!

I swung a size 12 Orange and Grouse Soft Hackle and caught both at the end of the swing. Two others fished small beadheads under an indicator and the "Laker Man" fished a streamer. The Summary - put the fly in the zone (deep) and they will hit. That doesn't explain my swinging soft hackle which resulted in nice subsurface (just below)hit.

Smelt have been found along the submerged bushes and that has added to the game. Fish a smelt pattern and catch an salmon. Fish a size 30 larvae (yes, it's true) and catch a salmon. Fish soft hackles, beadhead nymphs, streamers, wooley buggers, lefty's deceivers (scratch the last fly although it seems like it could catch fish here) and you could do well.

I don't expect a horde of anglers to hit this place, the Y-Pool section, because it's hit by hordes already. Find a spot and fish it. The salmon fishing will last as long as the overflow and it's near 600cfs flow continues.

The above photo isn't a salmon but a rainbow from the Y Pool section and an older photo at that. I've managed to leave the camera in the car. Just imagine a much larger fish!!!!!!

Have a great 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ken

Who Fishes Our Rivers - The 2011 Survey

2011-12-26T15:32:00.003-05:00

Last Spring I began to rant against one of my biggest concerns (actually it's my biggest concern)dealing with trout stocking and that is our State's reliance on rainbow trout as the premier fish as far as numbers of fish stocked are concerned. They are dumped into every freestone river in this State in numbers far exceeding brown trout. Appox. 60% of the trout stocked in Massachusetts are rainbow trout. Browns make up about 25%. Our DFW states that rainbows grow quicker and larger and people want large fish quickly. How come Connecticut and New York have numbers that are the reverse of our stocking numbers but seem to have great fishing? Is this a problem??

The answer is YES if you want season long fishing since the bows disappear by mid July.(DFW are on record as saying just that for the Millers and the Housy) It's NOT a problem if you only fish the rivers in the Spring which is the strategy of the hardware and bait fishermen. Our State has always stated that they must cater to the majority of fishermen so they enact a policy geared to non fly fishers as if they were the majority on our rivers. It simply isn't true!!

Last Spring I asked the readers of this blog to do a head count of who they saw on the rivers that they fished. Fly Fishing Only rivers/sections were excluded, of course. Count the fly fishers and count the non fly fishers - that simple. 22 different rivers and streams were surveyed starting in late April. Who fishes our rivers?? It's fly fishers by a long shot!!

April had one week on the survey and it was a 50/50 draw. 21 fly fishers and 21 others for that one week. Then came May when the fly fishers were in the majority 55% to 45% (240 to 190). From June 1st onward it was a landslide, 90% to 10% (215 to 23).

Now granted, this is a small sample survey but so are the polls coming out of Iowa over the past year. There were a little over 700 "heads" counted. And the majority of counts were done on rivers that had just general regulations and no C&R status.

What does all of this mean? Here's the answer. When I took up fly fishing for trout in 1970 it was in the era of "Opening Day" when EVERYBODY had to get out there and fish. Rivers were crowded, worms and lures were flying through the air and stringers of trout were proudly displayed. The non fly fisher on our rivers was in the majority but the State got rid of that opening day nonsense by 1977. I believe, by doing just that, it killed the urge to fish rivers for many people and those people were not fly fishers. I see, over the last few decades, less non fly fishers on our rivers. Where are they?? Drive by any stocked lake or pond (even Jamaica Pond in BOSTON) and you will find these casual anglers. It's easier there. THEY ARE NOT ON THE RIVERS!!

If anything this survey should cast a shadow on the idea that Billy Baitbucket and Harry Hardware should be catered too when it comes to setting stocking policy for RIVERS. THEY ARE NOT THERE ANYMORE!!! That policy includes the species of trout stocked and the regulations concerning the fishing for them.

Thanks to Jack T. for a all your info!!

Happy New Year!!

Ken

Late December On The Swift

2011-12-17T17:09:00.003-05:00

Forget the ice shown in the above photo. It's an older photo of the Swift spillway from six or so years ago BUT it shows the condition of this river now. The PIPE is under a foot or so of water. The Y Pool really cannot be waded. The Bubbler Arm is flowing very high with the bows and salmon hugging the banks. In fact they are hugging the banks throughout the river. Places where we waded two weeks ago are now too deep and fast to wade successfully. That's what a 740 cfs flow will do and this may be the condition for many weeks if history is any indication. We passed the 700 flow range in July of '09 and it lasted for weeks and that was with Summer evaporation and vegetation draw up. There's none of that now.

Wait and see.

I worked the areas where one could safely waded and had a short strike or two using a smelt pattern. Why not?? LL Salmon and smelt patterns seem to be a good bet but the current conditions of high water really limit us.

Let's hope for a lower flow.

Merry Christmas to all of you!!!!

Ken

Soft Hackle Success

2011-12-08T17:23:00.002-05:00

Backcast to October 2006 when I took this lady on a guided trip to the Swift. She could cast pretty well but hadn't had a lot of success catching fish. I rigged her up with a size 14 grouse and flash and all hell broke loose. Most everyone down at the Pipe were throwing size 18 what-ever and beyond but she (a good student) kept a short line and landed 10 rainbows. Was she an expert? NO! Did she fish a fly that everyone else didn't fish? Yes! Did this fly represent an impending hatch? No way!! The fly was different but it had the lifelike attributes of a real insect and that made it a target for the Swift River 'Bows. That's what soft hackles do!!

Salmon have come over the spillway into the Swift. These fish have grown to these impressive sizes by feeding on FISH but they still hit those small soft hackles. Why? The answer is that this fly style is pretty much irresistible to most fish that feed, or have fed, on insects. The resident 'bows of the Swift love them.

I like to fish a grouse and orange above a pinhead or hot spot on the Swift. Trout on this river seem to hit the G&O early and then go to the smaller fly as the water and air warm up. On the Millers and the EB it's the bottom fly below any bushy dry fly.

Soft Hackles rule!!!

Ken

Salmon On The Swift

2011-11-28T19:12:00.002-05:00

There are so many of them. The past month has seen some impressive catches of Landlocked salmon below the Quabbin. One local fish hawk rose 31 and landed 15 in a two week period. It has also almost depopulated the Y Pool because the salmon have moved into better lies downstream and the fly fishers have followed.

Friday saw a mixed bag of trout and two salmon strikes which threw the hook. The above salmon in the photo belongs to my friend Rick who landed the brute that was about 22 to 24 inches. The fly?? A size 14 orange and grouse soft hackle. Eggs and streamers will also work well.

Again, don't trust the gauge. It's not even half of the +650cfs flow that's advertised. So use up what's left of your 2011 license and hit the Swift.

Ken

Don't Trust The Gauge!!

2011-11-20T12:45:00.004-05:00

I hit the "Pipe" at 7:15am just like a week ago. Water was just barely covering that metal tube, again, just like a week ago but the gauge is reading a flow in the HIGH 400's today while last week it was in the mid 300 cfs range. The electronic gauge must be off. The Pipe will be my gauge going forward. That high reading may be the reason why I fished alone for two hours before the next guy showed up.

That high reading was the reason that I took along two size 12 marabou streamers to try out. The tiny marabou streamers did the early morning trick. Six bows smashed them on the drift with four landed. Next came the reliable Hot Spot which took another six with a few throwing the hook.

There is a lot of action above RT 9 dealing with the "spillway salmon". I'll fish for them but not during the weekend. Too many people. Maybe that's why the Pipe was all mine this morning.

To all of you - Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Ken

A November Morning On The Swift

2011-11-14T20:16:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again. The Dark Season is upon us, all five months of it but there are a few golden days in November where the sun shines and the temperature nudges past 60 degrees. This is the real Indian Summer of New England lore, when the color has left the trees and it gets unseasonably warm. We had a few days of that as the weekend approached and it killed me not to be on a trout stream but Sunday dawned with the promise of a good day as I headed down Rt. 9 towards the Swift.

The flow at the "Pipe" was high, very high, although the gauge that morning read 180cfs. Two weeks before, at 209cfs, one could still see six inches of the pipe. Now it was totally underwater. They fixed the gauge after the snowstorm but it still needs an adjustment. Keep that in mind.

The fly fishing - I first tied on a hot pink SJW 18 inches below a split shot to just wake those guys up. One came to the net, one got away as they have been doing in this high water. I switched to a Swift Serendipity and got another hit but couldn't fool another. Next came a #16 Hot Spot and that's when the game changed. 18 bows took the fly, 10 where landed. I will remember one large bow that hit, jumped and then ran to the top of top of the Tree Pool (I was at the Pipe!!) before jumping again and throwing the hook.

Fall is wonderful on the Swift. One has the opportunity to fish for actively feeding trout, with surface action thrown in, while most of our other rivers are really winding down. Get out there if you can especially if the temperature on these last golden days nudges past 60 degrees!!!!

Ken

After The Snow Storm And The Top River For The Year

2011-11-06T12:39:00.004-05:00

Driving down the turn off to the Pipe this morning was like driving through a clear cut zone. Lots of trees and branches down, lots of chain saw work. If you wondered why you can't get a flow reading for the Swift the simple reason is that the antenna at the gauge is resting on the ground. Who knows when that will get fixed. The flow is high with just the tip of the pipe showing. That is a +250cfs flow if my memory serves me.

The flow is one thing but the tree debris in the river is another. I with I had taken my camera to record this although I believe the trees and limbs will be there for a while. The short pipe stretch is graced with a large tree that broke in two. There are other "new arrivals" up and down the river and I would just as soon leave them there. This river can stand more trout cover and more woody debris (bug food), especially the former and certainly the latter. Lets hope no well intentioned soul decides he's going to spend a day doing "stream improvements".

Over the last two years I've rated my three rivers, the Millers, EB and the Swift for their yearly performance. In 2009 the EB was the best, followed by the high water Millers and the flooded out Swift. In 2010 the order was reversed. The Swift won by being a refuge during the worst heat wave/drought that I can remember. 2011??? It's the SWIFT. It was not a runaway decision.. The Millers and the EB fished well up through early July but fell victim to another drought and heat wave for most of July and August. Then came Irene!! The Millers hasn't seen a 400cfs day since August 28 and Irene killed the access to the EB and it's Fall stocking. Meanwhile, the Swift just purred along from 45 to 120 cfs all Summer and provided great fishing. Ok, it has an unfair advantage being a tailwater but ......who cares!! It's just a great place to spend a Summer day working over highly educated trout!!!!

I'll be there this winter, half frozen and thinking of sulphurs and short sleeves!!

A Fall Day On The Swift

2011-10-27T19:39:00.004-04:00

It was a good day on the Swift. Cloudy, cool October weather and eager trout. It seems like nobody fishes the "Pipe" this season. That's a mistake. There are plenty of fish there but few fly fishers. Lots of hooked trout and some landed.
That's the case for the last month.

The "bubbler arm" or the "brook" has been working well with anything that resembles anything that is tiny and dark. We even found a lot of room at the Y Pool to work over a sparse hatch of small BWO's.

It's snowing as I write this. There will be some warm November days where everything will connect, maybe even on the Millers if the flow keeps dropping. BUT the "Dark Season" is almost upon us. The freestones will freeze up. That will leave the Swift for the wading Massachusetts fly fisher to ply their trade. We will fish through the Winter dreaming of Hendericksons on some beautiful Spring day.

Here we go!!

Ken

The Upper, Upper Swift River

2011-10-22T09:27:00.003-04:00

The West Branch of the Swift River rises in the highlands of Shutesbury and flows southeast into the Quabbin. It is a small woodland stream that has one important feature: It is the spawning ground and nursery for Quabbin's landlocked salmon population or at least a great portion of it. In a good year (good flows) hundreds of BIG salmon work their way upstream through many obstacles to spawn in it's upper reaches.

Now, I don't want to be accused of spilling the beans on some secret spot. This stream and it's Fall run are well known. There is some fly fishing done, most of it catch and release. There's also some snagging done by a few locals and that's why I'm writing this. I've fished this run on occasion, caught a few, but mostly I've just walked this section just to look at the spawning salmon and to look for snaggers. I've got the DFW law enforcement number in my cell phone and will use it and so should you.

I would not mind seeing this stream placed off limits during the Fall. That would make it hard for the snaggers to get away with what they do. This stream is just too valuable as a resource and placing it off limits would not put a dent in anyone's yearly fishing hours.

So, take a walk with a good camera within the next few weeks on the West Branch. It's really a great sight!!

Ken

Columbus Weekend On The Swift

2011-10-12T17:12:00.003-04:00

Sunday morning was strange. I thought that maybe I should of made reservations for the "Pipe" section. At 8:15am I was the only one there and for the next 4 plus hours I had ONE fishing companion named John. We took turns turning trout that slept in until 10am. A sparse hatch of BWO's turned these fish on and we got takes. I hooked 10 and landed only 4 but it was a ball. Monday morning my two clients hooked fish. The landing was another story with the same batting average that I had the day before. Then we went to the bubbler arm and hooked, landed and lost more fish. The 'bows in this river are full of fight and have seemed to have learned how to throw the hook!! BTW, even with 20 cars at the Y Pool parking area we had plenty of room on that Bubbler Arm. Everyone was at the Y and downstream. The Bubbler has about 100+ yards of water with plenty of water to fish.

I'm back on Wednesday (today) to revisit the Bubbler. Three fish in an hour with #18 hotspots and then nothing for the next two hours. Such is life!!

Fall fishing for me means low water and smart trout. The Swift has it.

Ken

Miller/EB Season Wrap Up

2011-10-02T15:49:00.003-04:00

Yes, that's right. I'm wrapping up the Millers for the season. At 1500cfs it is pretty safe to say that the flows will not get down to the flows that we have normally had at this time of the year. I looked back on my October posts from 2007 and 2008 and read about evenings with normal flows and rising browns. Not this year. And the idea of chasing freshly stocked rainbows does nothing for me.

Ditto for the EB. It's flows drop quicker than the Millers BUT Hurricane Irene hurt this river and closed the access road. Jack, a contributor to this blog, found out that the DFW will not stock the EB this Fall because of access problems. I think that this will not bode well for the Spring. Roads are not repaired in the Winter so the same excuse might hold up next May. Lets hope not.

So that leaves the Swift which seems to be slowly rising. It's always a delayed reaction behind that dam. It takes a while for that "pond" to fill up. Let's hope that we don't get into an overflow situation. That could last for months!!!!

It's been a strange season!!!

Ken

Early Fall Morning on the Swift And the Kayak Dam

2011-09-25T15:43:00.002-04:00

First, let me get this off my chest. I don't like having to hear a full throated F-bomb because you lost a fish. That happens. Grow up and get over it!!Have some class. Second, don't feel that you have a constitutional right to crowd others out. The Swift is heavily fished BUT not that heavily fished this morning. (the Pipe, four flyfishers). Have some manners and try not to talk so much either.

Outside of the above "events" it was a good morning with some bows landed. The best part was seeing (first seen on Labor Day Weekend) the giant pine that fell and crossed the river a few hundred yards below the Tree Pool. This will keep those dim witted kayakers from moving upstream to the Pipe section. Let's hear it for Mother Nature!!!!

Ken

A Short Evening On The Millers

2011-09-22T17:27:00.004-04:00

First, sorry for the old photo. I believe that I used it last year BUT it shows that change-of-season that is now upon us. It's my blog and I will do what I want (haha).

5:30 to 7ish was the time frame. The flow was at 322cfs at 3:00pm. Close enough to hope for some surface action. MY surface action didn't happen. I took two browns on a subsurface offering that, well, is an odd ball nymph that I didn't have much confidence in. I saw no rising trout in the Upper Kemfield Run which is usually (20 years and running) a good spot. I met another fly fisher who claimed to take a 15 inch brown on a hopper at the tail of the large Kempfield Pool. I saw him hook another fish at mid pool, on a hopper, that broke him off. It fought like a brown. I believe in his 15 inch fish.

The browns are there including the occasional rainbow. Dry Fly fishing, real sight fishing, will begin once the river flow drops into the sub 300cfs range. That is when it begins in the late Summer/Early Fall.

Let's hope that the rains that are predicted for the weekend hold off. That would be great!

I still plan to hit the Swift.

Ken

Start Exploring The Swift!!

2011-09-14T18:57:00.004-04:00

All the rivers are blown out!! That leaves us that little jewel called the Swift River. The trout are there, the fishing has been great. I've had double digit days with dry flies BUT I have basically fished alone. Why? Because everyone heads to the Y pool. It's a common sight to see over 20 cars parked at the RT9 turn off and I know where the everyone is going - Upstream!!! Why not do some exploring!!! This past Sunday morning, after a late start, a friend and I had the ENTIRE section from the Duck Pond to the Pipe to ourselves!! We caught fish and it was great.

The section above RT9 has a lot of fish BUT it has a lot of fishermen. Let's spread it out. There are trout everywhere. Check my posts from the Summer of 2010 for info on the Lower Swift. It's great down there too AND it looks like a trout stream.

Ken

The EB - Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-06T17:03:00.003-04:00

Sunday morning September 4. The above photo says it all for the access road along the EB. Just a 100 or so feet beyond the Bliss State Park sign the road gave way during Hurricane Irene. There is a ditch, actually a sink hole, that is appox 50 feet long, eight feet wide and up to four feet deep. The road beyond is in rough shape too. The Town of Chesterfield, which added more material to the road blockage since last Wednesday, appears to be dumping fill in the large parking lot at the top of the road. Maybe it's to fix this road, maybe not. In any event, fishing the EB will be a walk in affair until things are fixed.

The River - it was STILL cloudy a week after the deluge even though the flow resembled the third week of May!! In fact, it's cloudier than early Spring!! That is very disturbing since this river usually clears up very quickly. There's a lot of sand/clay material along the shore. It's safe to say that it's still suspended in the water. A major flow will expose sand or clay (worse)deposits which can discolor a river for weeks. To make matter worse I saw "NEW" rocks in the Bliss Pool!! I know that spot pretty well and know that the large, flat rocks leaning on end against larger rocks are new arrivals. I wonder how the trout did.

More rain came today and sent many rivers into flood stage. More rain comes tomorrow. What a difference a year makes.

Yes, I took some casts but fishing silty water in September........

After Irene - The EB And The MIllers

2011-09-01T18:25:00.005-04:00

It's Thursday, September 1st and I've taken a drive to check out the EB. First - the road is closed (see above photo). So I parked at the top and walked down. The river looked great at it's flow which I guessed was around 300 to 400cfs except for it's cloudy condition. This branch runs clear but not at this moment. I walked past the first turn off (on the right) and saw the condition of the bank side vegetation. It looked dead, stripped of all greenery (see above photo)! My real concern was the condition of the road over the next hundred yards. There have always been two fairly deep ditches which you had to drive over carefully. The storm has leveled them out! It is easier to drive this stretch of dirt road than before the hurricane. I walked past the swimming hole stretch which looked unchanged and walked half way to the Bliss Pool. The river looked the same as it was when I walked it this past Saturday.

Some observations - First, I stood 50 feet from the river and looked UP at flood debris that was caught in a tree (see above photo). The debris was about a foot over my head. I'm six foot two!! Needless to say the river was beyond flood stage. Second, the road didn't have much of any blow down litter that one would expect from this tropical storm. There certainly were not any trees/branches blocking the road. It was a rain event and not a wind event.

Summary - You will have to walk to fish the EB until the road is opened to vehicular traffic. The road seems to be in good shape. The river seems unchanged, just cloudy at this point.

The Millers - As I write this the Erving flow is at 2540cfs!!! Kiss the next two weeks goodbye!! There's always the Swift where I spent a lovely three hours this past Monday evening doing what I love to do in the late Summer: fooling trout with dry flies!!!!

Ken

Here Comes Irene - There Goes The Fishing

2011-08-24T17:20:00.003-04:00

I'm not going to rain on anyone's parade. Hurricane Irene will do that starting Saturday. The forecast states the possibility (where the smart money is) of 5 to 10 inches of rain in Central New England for this weekend. Here's what it means for the three rivers that I write about:

The Millers - A flow in excess of 2000cfs is a real possibility. In June of '08 a 3 to 4 inch storm drove the river from 250cfs to 1600cfs in 30 hours. It took a few weeks for it to come down. The same happened in '09. This river doesn't like to give up it's water!! Wadable water may have to wait until September.

The EB - It will soar up like a rocket and then drop like a rock! In the Summer of '09 I saw an 1800cfs flow fall to 500cfs in about three days. Lack of big tribs means a quick drop in the flow.

The Swift - The above photo is of the spillway in July of "09 when the overflow brought the river up to 700cfs where it stayed until the water stopped going over the spillway. It took a few weeks, at least. The key for this storm is whether there is enough unused capacity in Quabbin to collect the rainfall and still not breach the spillway. Also remember that Quabbin overflow is always a delayed reaction - the "pond" has to fill up first and then the river rises. That could be days AFTER the hurricane passes. Also realize that the rain that falls ON the Catch & Release areas will be of little consequence. It's what happens behind the dam that counts. My prediction - a 5 to 10 inch storm will cause overflow and the Swift will go up. I hope I'm wrong!

Check the stream gauge links at the bottom of this blog for updates.

Have fun tying flies!!

Ken

Two Days - Two Very Different Rivers

2011-08-21T17:16:00.003-04:00

My Friday night plan was to hit the EB early Saturday morning. At 5:30 Saturday morning I checked the online gauge and saw that the river had gone from about 120cfs early Friday evening to just a hair below 600cfs by midnight but had now dropped to 445cfs. That's fishable but I should have known better. You can't have that kind of flow increase without the dreaded effect. As I drove down the access road the river had the color of a Dunkin Donuts coffee, one cream, no sugar!! The submerged rocks, usually easily seen, were hidden in the murky flow. I had left the big, heavy flashy stuff at home because, well, I don't like to use it at this time of year. So I spent a couple of hours working a dull hares ear dropper below a a large Wulff dry. No runs, no hits and no errors!! I did see one health rise which let me know that something had survived that hot, dry July. I'll be back.

Sunday morning found me heading east on RT9 for a few hours on the Swift. 8am and the Y Pool lot has 8 cars but that place was not my destination. Neither was the PIPE. I took the right onto River Road and drove a few hundred yards to my "spot".

I love this place in the Summer. It doesn't have the number of trout as the two previously mentioned areas but that means it doesn't have the fishermen! The thin water means that the trout will be VERY difficult. That's OK because it gives me what I want - the chance to fish a dry fly slowly upstream in what amounts to my own private spring creek.

The flow was in the mid 40 range, down from the 120 flow of the previous week. That made the fishing even more difficult. I took two and lost another two in two hours and had a ball.

I could of stayed longer but my grandson's birthday party trumped any thought of that. I'll be back this week in the late afternoon.

I had plans to hit the Millers after the party but the thunderstorms in the air and in the forecast for the evening killed that idea. I'll be there too!

Ken

Quiet Places On The Swift

2011-08-14T10:03:00.004-04:00

I've been spending a few late afternoons during the week this past month plying the Swift. So, it seems, is everyone else!! The Y Pool should have a reservation system installed and the Pipe has it's usual crew plus it's been bombarded with hardware tossers. This leads me to find quiet places. The Gauge Stretch is nice to fish but this season it just seems "off". Still good but not like last year. From the Gauge to the Crib Dam is reliable and like the previous two spots it doesn't get hammered much except on weekends. Are these the only spots? No!

I'll let you guess where I took the above photos. The water is low and gin clear. The rainbows hold behind the occasional rock or log and sip tiny offerings from the surface. Careless wading or poor casting will send them running. A slow upstream approach fishing with dries will do the trick. They'll take most surface flies from mayfly to ant imitations and they will rip line from your reel when the hook is set. Friday afternoon I took five 'bows and a brookie on this quite water, watching them rise to the surface through water that seemed like liquid air.

Will I find this place packed with anglers because of this entry? I don't think so. First, my description fits a lot of spots on this river. Second, the average Swift River fly fisher has his or her favorite spot and they will fish there regardless of the crowds.

Am I writing about a certain section of this trout filled river OR am I writing about ANY place on the Swift where you can fish alone?? I'll let you decide!

Ken

A Summer Evning On The Swift - Cut Short

2011-08-03T18:46:00.002-04:00

All day long we had blue skies but at 5pm I was flying down RT 9 to beat the T-storms that seemed to be hovering in all directions. My three hours of planned fishing ended in an hour of fishing BUT it was a good hour!

The Y Pool lot was FULL but nobody was at the Pipe lot. I've heard that there's lot of fish above Rt 9 but that means lots of fisherman. I had the Pipe and beyond to myself and that was great.

First, I caught a bunch of those 8 inch escapees on my Swift Serendipity. Thunder rattled close by as I moved downstream to the "tree pool". Another four 'bows, in the 16 inch club, smacked that Serendipity. But then the skies opened up, the lightning flashed and I was out of there.

I saw something last night that I have seen on occasion on the Swift. A trout will make a beeline of over five feet to take a fly. We have been taught that trout really need to have that subsurface offering bounced off of their nose but that is not the case. The bow TRAVELED to take the tiny serendipity. It was great to see it in that skinny water!

High Summer will slowly drift into Late Summer and then into Early Fall. Swift Serendipities and Pinheads will will get the job done as the seasons slowly change on the Swift. It will be a great time!!

Ken

The Swift And Thoughts On HOT Weather Fishing

2011-07-26T16:55:00.002-04:00

First, The Swift - Everything is RIGHT! The July 1st stockers have wised up and the days of double digit catches of 12 inch or better bows are now, for me, a memory. I fished the PIPE and below starting at 5:45 Sunday morning and took ten bows but all were in the six to eight inch range. It was a far cry from the Sunday before. That's fly fishing. Next time will be better!!

Now for the topic that seems to have taken over some blogs this Summer and that's if it is ETHICAL to fish during heat waves on freestone rivers. Here's how I feel.

One can go out on the Millers or any similar river when the temperatures are in the 90's, fish the pools and runs that you had great success on during April, May and June and you will NOT have a detrimental effect on the trout population for one simple reason: YOU will not catch ANY trout!!!

There's a reason for that. I am still amazed that there are those out there that still believe that trout must constantly feed to maintain vitality to survive and that the catching of trout in mid Summer will weaken them. The "science" is below.

Trout are cold blooded animals, their metabolism is based on their SURROUNDINGS, namely the temperature of the water that they live in. They have a temperature ZONE that is optimal for their metabolism. Take this example - You're fishing your favorite pool (if you can) on the last week of February, hoping for holdovers, and if you catch anything, while fishing slow and deep, it will be an event!! Why?? Because the trout, in that 35 degree water, are in slow mode because of the temperature and do not require that much food. I worked in a trout hatchery 20+ years ago and the time of slowest growth and less food consumption was during the Winter. Their "motors" are not in second gear yet. They are not active because of the temperature and don't require much food, pure and simple.

Now forward cast to the second week in May. The water temperature is in the mid 50's, we are catching trout on EVERYTHING, and we are all experts. Why is that? It's because trout, in that low 50 to mid 60 degree range, are at their most active behavior. So is everything that they feed on. It all depends on water temperature for most trout. That temperature range is their comfort range.

The heat wave and July drought that we have experienced will kill off any worthwhile fishing. You may catch a FEW but not the numbers that you did a month and a half ago and that will not be detrimental to the whole population because the trout are not actively feeding. The bulk of the trout population has found a place to hunker down to make it through the Summer. They will not respond to you.

Robert Behnke, maybe the world's foremost authority on trout, has stated that the greatest cause of natural trout mortality on freestone streams is WINTER kill, not Summer kill.

Many of you will say that "You fish the Millers during the Summer". That's RIGHT! I fish during NORMAL Summer weather. I didn't fish the Millers in 2010 from the end of June to late August. It was too hot and dry. In normal Summers I will fish as long as it isn't too hot and dry and I catch trout (browns) in the evening. There's a reason for that.

Browns handle warmer water better than rainbows and brookies in the Millers. I've seen dozens of browns rising (they are feeding) at dusk in July and August after a normal Summer day especially when there is a healthy (normal) flow. That's why I am pushing for more browns on this river. They will survive the weather and US. They swim away strongly when released because they adjust to this river nicely.

Behnke spoke of this ability to adjust (over many centuries) when he spoke of catching a high country desert population of rainbows that rose to dry flies and swam away briskly in 83 degree water!! Millers River browns don't need centuries to adjust, just a few months on the Millers.

One person said to me that he stopped fishing when the water temperature hit 65 degrees. Too bad. No science there!

Ken

Summer On The Swift - Low And Cold

2011-07-17T17:29:00.002-04:00

It felt like ice water or as cold as 54 degree water can feel at 6am on the Swift this past Saturday. The flow had dropped from the 120+ range to the high 40cfs flow which brought the temperature down as predicted. This is my favorite time on this river; skinny cold flows, small flies and thin tippets. It's how I always think of the Swift.

I was the first at the PIPE except for the blue heron that was intent on the flow below that outflow. I settled into the "tree pool", had made a cast or two and lost one fish, when two other anglers appeared above and below me. Five minutes later three more showed up so I went downstream to the first set of riffles. You find yourself casting under trees here but it was great. The 'bows grabbed my serendipity and that 20 yard section yielded a number of them.

The great section around the gauge yielded two rainbows and the PIPE brought four or five 6 inch bows, most likely recent escapees. All told I took about 15 fish from in that three hour span.

Serendipities and hot spots did the trick. It was fun!!

Ken

A Strange Night On The Millers

2011-07-10T12:24:00.002-04:00

It may have been the world's largest comparadun!! I was crossing the trestle Saturday evening when I saw something swimming downstream towards me. At first I thought it was a beaver BUT beavers don't have long ears or a long snout. It was a young deer, not a fawn but no more than a yearling. It came out from under the bridge where I snapped the photo. I've seen deer in this river before but they were the unlucky ones that drowned in winter or spring or were walking cross in the shallows. In any event it swam another 100 feet and then hopped up onto the shore.

The Fishing: I started at the bottom end of the C&R in Erving. I like this place because the tree cover shades this stretch during the day which means that things usually start earlier. They did. I noticed the rise behind a rock and then dropped a #12 MDW just above that spot. The 14 inch brown took it and was soon in the net. Another brown, slightly small, did a repeat performance further downstream.

I ended the evening at the Kempfield where I saw one rising brown but failed to get it to take. Blind casting to the rocks resulted in a another brown taken on a #12 stonefly dry.

Then another strange thing happened. I heard a splash to my left right up next to the bank. I figured that it must be a bass chasing something only to be surprised to see a brown, 14 to 16 inches, CLEAR the water six inches from the shore. What was he chasing? Minnows, crayfish, some thing that moves quickly obviously. It was a nice show but I wish that he was in midstream taking mayflies instead.

Try the Erving Center Stretch. It's a good place.

The Millers, EB and Swift Update

2011-07-03T14:13:00.005-04:00

So what has been happening?? Here it is.

The Millers is into an early morning/evening mode which is normal for this river. My game plan is either to hit this river very early (6am) or wait until the evening rise. I did see rising browns at two in the afternoon just a day or so ago but this is not the norm. I'll be fishing this river in the evening for it's rising browns!

The EB is HOT but it will become an early morning/evening fishery soon enough unless the flow stays high. If this river reads 200cfs or greater than fish it during banking hours but below 200cfs it's an early morning/evening fishery. I have had great luck using a large dry (stimulator) or such through the fast water. I took a 17 inch brown doing just that this past week.

The Swift - The trout are there but not in the usual places. The Pipe? forget it! The "tree pool"?? Same thing!! The trout are there but they are downstream and there are many of them and many are BIG. The Pipe was stocked July 1st but they were spread out all the way down to Caddy Lane. Chances are they will end up in the usual spots over the next few weeks. C&R rules until New Years below route 9.

BTW, the temperature below the Pipe stood at 64 degrees at 9am. This "high" temperature is due to the overflow which is still running into the river. This will end shortly (hopefully) which means that the temperature will drop into the mid 50's which is what we want for the Summer.

What's Up With The Swift??

2011-06-25T13:34:00.003-04:00

Ok, what's going on with this river?? If you have had success below rt9 then hats off to you. At the beginning of April I caught a number of holdover rainbows during a two hour trip. I thought that this would be the start of something great but April came and went without SEEING a trout in this section. Nobody that I knew had seen any either. By May 1st the river passed the 200cfs mark and then peaked around 300 and stayed there for a while. I revisited the Swift today at 7am with the flow around 185cfs. I was the second car there. The first belonged to a few casual hardware guys and they caught nothing. No other fly fishers were there. I caught and saw no trout in the quick hour that I spent working this water.

I remember, only a few years ago, when I would brave 200cfs currents and have double digit days on this river. Have I lost my touch?? I don't think so!! Are you doing better? I hope so!

When I first passed the Y Pool parking area I saw one car. An hour later I saw a second car. By 8am on a Saturday in June, with most other rivers blown out by the rain, one would expect more fly fishing traffic on the Swift.

What's up with this river???

The attached photo is from a much better time!!

Ken

An Evening Rise

2011-06-20T21:48:00.003-04:00

It's that time of the year. The trout know it - the insects, which graced the waters during balmy Spring days, have been replaced by other species of mayflies and caddis. These are the evening insects and they will be with us for the next few months. They start to emerge as the shadows lengthen over the pools and runs of my favorite freestone rivers, the Millers and the EB. They were there tonight on the EB.

My little gem, the Slant Rock Pool which is classic dry fly water if there ever was any, was slow tonight. One bow came to my Harrop Hairwing Dun so I moved up to the Bliss. With the same fly I began to work the water from the mid section heading upstream, casting that dry and taking an upstream step every few casts.

The rises began. It was a slow, casual sip of the surface which reminded me of Millers River browns and not the EB's slam bang rainbows. That's because THEY WERE BROWNS!!! I took four on that Harrop dry and failed to entice the rest before I decided to call it a night.

The emerging insects were large. A dusky caddis and a dusky mayfly. My offering actually looked like the mayfly as they drifted together in mid pool!!

The evening rise is what I live for. Everything before hand in April and for most of May is a warm up act. Let the shadows fall on the water, let the insects begin to hatch and let the trout begin to rise. You can have the rest. I will not need it!!!

NOW For The Millers And An Odd Fish

2011-06-14T19:53:00.003-04:00

What a difference a year makes!! Last year at this time we were praying for rain which really never came. Now things are perfect on this river. Although the flow topped the 400cfs level yesterday it is now on the way down which will give us the best mid June flows since 2007 and it's reasonable to suggest that these flows will last through the weekend at least. The browns are working the surface so get to them!!

I've had stoneflies on the brain (an annual June affliction) and evenings on the EB and photos like the one above only reinforce it. This fly, dropped into the heads of pools and danced around the glassy tailouts, will cause trout to lose caution and smash this imitation. Don't leave home without it!!

The "Odd Fish". This happened this past Sunday while guiding two fellows on the lower Millers. We brought a fish to the net which at first defied description. It was 9 to 10 inches long. If it was 4 to 6 inches we would of known the species. It was the LARGEST Atlantic Salmon smolt that I've seen on this river. Smolt stage salmon are usually in the 12cm to 15cm (4-6 inch) range. This fellow was WAY over that. Now, a quick web check revealed that the last parr stocking in this river was in 2008. Correct me if I'm wrong. That means that this fellow was at least three years old. I would assume by it's size that it was older. All parr stocking for the last 15 years has been done in Royalston which means that this fish may have been heading to sea as a very large 3 year old or as an older fish. Anyway, it was a surprise and it was released quickly.

The Millers season is just beginning!!

Ken

An EB Evening And A Word On The Millers

2011-06-07T22:13:00.003-04:00

Tuesday evening and I'm heading for the EB for a few hours by myself. Between guiding and filling fly orders I find myself without the usual casting time. This would be the quick fix!!

The guy who likes to throw sticks into the Swimming Hole Pool for his black lab was there so I headed down to the Bliss Pool where I found two women and three dogs. Ok, down to Slant Rock. I was in the water at 5:30 and I had the place to myself UNTIL two fly fishers showed up at the head of the run and began to walk through the BEST holding areas. Now, these guys were fishing by the book and by that I mean they were nymphing which is ok BUT this run screams DRY FLIES!! I took two on a Harrop deer hair dun before I gave up and headed back to the Bliss Pool.

The dogs and the ladies were gone and I had this beautiful pool all to myself. I've had stoneflies-on-the-brain since Memorial Day so tonight I would work the cure with a size 10 dry stonefly.

I took thirteen out of that pool, all rainbows except that 16 inch brown that had the color of butter in a frying pan. The stonefly was beaten to death. I had a ball!!

The Millers - there are fish all over the river BUT they have wised up since early May. It's becoming an early morning/evening game right now and that will last through the Summer. FISH THE EVENINGS and catch some rainbows before they disappear. The Browns?? I bet they are rising as I write this!!

Memorial Day Weekend On The Millers - Bears Den

2011-05-31T18:16:00.006-04:00

I didn't cast a fly this weekend but the guys that I guided did. Two days were spent working the Bears Den From S. Royalston to the Gorge Pool. The crowds that I thought that we would encounter failed to materialize. We saw six fly fishers on Saturday and five on Sunday. Watching and asking showed that my guys took about 80% of the trout (all browns). The flies making the honor roll were: black and olive buggers (duh), the Moby Dick Wet (it took a NATIVE brown), a black nose dace (1st trout caught on a fly that my client tied!!!!!!!!!!!!)and a size 10 white marabou streamer.

I remember a Memorial Day weekend six or so years ago when the Rezendes Pool exploded with rises at 11am. That didn't happen this weekend but I believe, if the past is any indication, that June evenings will provide that surface action.

I hate to do this BUT let's hope for a little rain. Maybe one good rainy day a week. That would be nice!!

The EB is PERFECT right now!!!

Ken

The "green fly" is a damsel fly. They will be hatching all over the stream banks this week. It's the nymph that matters.

A Short Trip To The EB, A New Fly And My Favorite Mayfly

2011-05-26T21:24:00.005-04:00

I live close to The Swift and the Millers which allows me to take some nice after work trips to spend an hour or two working these rivers. I do it a lot! I live VERY CLOSE to the EB so when a short window of opportunity comes around I take it and drive the 10 minutes to the Gorge. Tonight was one of those nights and the 75 minutes were well spent. First, I tried out this creation which had it's first test on the Millers two weeks ago. The fly was too large and resulted in short takes. Tonight's revision, in a wet fly style, took 7 in that short period. I'll post the instructions when I come up with a name. All I can say is that this fly is proof that trout are at times not too finicky.

The EB has dropped from 1100cfs to the high 400's since Sunday. It is perfect. It will also be perfect for the Memorial Day non-fishing hordes that will fill the first 1/4 mile below the Gorge this weekend at mid day. Get there early or just go downstream for solitude.

A neat thing happened tonight. For the second time in the last 5 years a March Brown landed on my left hand in the same spot as one of the same species had before. I've used the first photo of that Millers MB in my slide show of that river and now I can add this critter to the Westfield show. I took some photos and just watched it for a while before it flew away and it made me realize again why we pursue this sport. That fly was beautiful! The late writer, Robert Traver, once said that trout can only exist in beautiful places. He was right. This activity has always been a quite endeavor, vastly more contemplative than competitive, always a more measured response instead of pom-pom waving enthusiasm. Let's hope it stays that way.

See you on the Millers this weekend!!

Ken

EB Update

2011-05-22T18:22:00.005-04:00

The fish are in the Chesterfield Gorge section of the EB - that's for sure!! The only thing is you have to work hard for them. This morning I parked at the first turn off on the right and walked to the first turn off on the left and then scampered down the hill to the spot I call the "Swimming Hole". Visit this spot at noon on any Summer weekend and you will know why I gave it that label. It's a neat run to fish on Summer evenings and today I was hoping that this pool would offer holding area for trout from the high flows. I was right but just barely.

The weapons of choice were a 5wt equipped with a full sinking line. The ammo was the dreaded, bead headed bugger assortment. I "rediscovered" my sinking line strategy after many years of plying floating lines in heavy flows. It worked on the Millers two weeks ago and it worked today.

I took five 'bows and a brookie in the two hour trip. First, the fish were smaller than the fish of the last few seasons. All were around 12 inches except for the 8 inch brookie. I'm not complaining because these guys will provide great surface action with 3 and 4wt rods and tiny flies soon enough. Maybe the larger fish just didn't feel like playing today.

The EB drops like a rock from flood flows to that 250-500cfs range quickly. That should happen over this coming week (at least to 500cfs, anyway)if the rain holds off. Let's hope so!!!

Ken

Helping The EB And A Millers Update

2011-05-15T11:11:00.003-04:00

First, It's May 15th and the EB of the Westfield River, through the Chesterfield Gorge, has been a trout desert. Rumor has it that because TU moved their weekend party to the Quinnie the Gorge, the longest single C&R section in the State, may be put on the back burner. So please do this before next weekend - email the DFW and say you want the traditional May stocking of that river section to continue. The email address is: mass.wildlife@state.ma.us This is a quick way to bury them with our concerns. Let's show our strength!!!!!!

The Millers - Yup, the fish tales of 20 fish and 30 fish days are all true. That's what happens when you fish within a day of a stocking. But the browns are BIG and they swam quickly away when released so no harm done. And yes, it was fun catching them. The predicted rains will not move these fish around like it does with rainbows. They will just become harder to catch and will soon begin to shy away from those buggers we've been tossing. By late May/early June dries and emergers will rule the day.

BTW, word has it that the Erving Center bridge (the end of the lower C&R)on downstream was stocked heavily this past week. It's a beautiful section that gets little pressure and holds trout all Summer. If you want to try a new spot.........

Ken

Millers And EB Update

2011-05-11T20:35:00.000-04:00

The fish are there!!! The EB has them although they seem to be fairly spread out. Last Friday found me on the Bliss Pool where I saw one 'bow dead on the bottom of the pool. I fished that pool hard for an our looking for survivors but found none. The base of the Gorge brought two to the net on a hornberg, a fly that seems to work on that river when I'm forced to fish subsurface. BTW, the big tree that fell across the road has been removed and the road seems to be drying out nicely.

The next day I visited the lower Millers to fish one of my favorite springtime runs - The Bridge Street Pool. Two 'bows came to the net, one on a Millers Stone and another on a brown bugger. Then I took my first trip of the year to the Kempfield. The 600cfs flow hid all of the familiar rocks. The bugger took another rainbow. BTW again - I fished with a FULL SINKING LINE!! It was the standard procedure years ago to go with a sinking line in the spring until the flows dropped and the trout rose. Don't leave home without one!!

We're starting to get into the REAL fly fishing season! Warmer days, lower flows, more insects and RISING TROUT. The data that many of you have emailed to me shows something else - the hardware/bait season has peaked on many of our rivers and fly fishers now outnumber the others. Keep the data rolling in!!!

Also, I've gotten a lot of Millers Guide and fly orders. THANK YOU!!

Ken

Open Guide Dates And Reporting For The Study

2011-05-04T19:07:00.003-04:00

A short note: I have open guiding dates (full days) for the Millers, EB of the Westfield or the Swift on the following dates - May 29, June 4 and JUNE 12. It's first come, first served. Just email me at millercaddis@yahoo.com to reserve a spot.

My full day trips end by mid June on the Millers and we switch into a late afternoon/evening mode for that river. The EB can work a bit later in the season if water conditions permit although it offers GREAT evening fishing during the Summer. One can fish the Swift ANY TIME of day all season long.

The fly fishing/non fly fishing study - please report your observations to my email address which is millercaddis@yahoo.com. It's just so much easier for me to keep track of.

Thanks,

Ken

Three River Update And Your Help Requested

2011-05-01T16:50:00.005-04:00

Here we go: The EB of the Westfield is running at 490cfs, the Bears Den of the Millers is at 545cfs, The lower Millers has finally dipped below the thousand mark at 975. All have been stocked and with the right flies (weight) and presentation should be producing trout. Let's hope that the deluge forecast for Wednesday doesn't happen. Hey, what about the third river?? The Swift is RISING and has climbed above 200cfs for the first time in months. I was at the pipe Friday evening and saw only two other fly fishers and NO TROUT. Without a doubt it is the strangest April that I've seen on this river. If anyone has caught anything at the pipe section during the past two weeks than you are much better than me.

The Millers will get it's stocking of browns over the next two weeks. GOOD!!!!!

Now, I need your help for a little "study". Going forward please keep a mental note when you fish on one of our Ma. river of the number of flyfishers that you see on each trip vs. the number of non flyfishers that you see for each trip. Example: fished the Quinni and saw 4 flyfishers and 2 non flyfishers. When you get back just email me the results. Don't include Fly Fishing Only locations, of course.

Good Fishing!!!!

Ken

Fly Hatches For The Millers

2011-04-21T18:59:00.003-04:00

I have been asked many times to provide a "hatch guide" for the Millers River. In short, there is no hatch guide for the Millers. Here's the reason: The Millers is very much like many freestone rivers in central New England. The flies that you find on the Millers are very much the same as the flies that you encounter on other central New England rivers. The hatch times are pretty much the same as on other central New England rivers. Now, our fly boxes are loaded with every creation to "match the hatch" as the saying goes, so why worry! If there are hendricksons hatching we have the right fly. If it's March Browns, Sulphurs, or BWO's we have that too for every stage. In short, worrying about hatches is a fools game. We have enough flies to match what's happening, period!

If you want to have a "guide" to the important insects then buy Tom Ames " Hatch Guide For New England Streams". That is all that you will need.

Here are a few pointers: The Millers is loaded with Hendricksons BUT they are a minor event. I have seen the river loaded with them but with no rising fish. So have the Harrison Brothers who claimed that their paddles drowned hundreds of these flies without seeing a trout rise. The great rod maker Dan Trella says the same thing about the Quaboag River - lots of Hendricksons but no rising fish. Last year's low water brought a great hatch at the Kempfield with RISING BROWNS but it was a rare event.

March Browns - This large fly is a standby from mid May through late June. It's always there and brings the evening fish to the surface. Any March Brown pattern will work if the presentation is correct.

The "Tan Flies" - Sulphurs, Cahills, you name them. They can be all over the river at times from late May through September. ANY tan pattern will work ( I know this from experience)if the size and presentation is right. Sizes 14 through 18 will fill the bill in most occasions.

Caddis - Don't go crazy with the array of surface/sub surface patterns that are out there. Caddis patterns, for the Millers, work best in the top six inches on the water column. My Moby Dick Wet pattern has been doing the trick over caddis water for years as long as the presentation is right. I hardly fish a dry caddis anymore!

In short, don't fret too much over what's hatching. You probably have enough of the right flies to be successful. The again there's always the wooley bugger!!!

The EB Gorge - It's Still Winter/Our Stocking Philosophy, read the comment section!!

2011-04-10T09:37:00.006-04:00

You've read the stocking reports of all branches of the Westfield getting their first stocking of trout over the past week or so. That made me take a trip (non fishing) to check out the EB on a balmy Saturday afternoon. The river looked great above the Gorge but the access road at the Gorge was still covered with ice and snow. The mountain of plowed snow, at least five feet high, will keep vehicles out for another two weeks.

I saw NOBODY fishing at the Gorge or above it. Where are the stocking truck chasers?? Was there an actual stocking?? Hmm.....

A late Friday afternoon trip to the Pipe on the Swift produced a goose egg. I saw no trout and no anglers. This NEVER happens on the Swift during April. Water conditions are perfect which makes this scene a total mystery. Maybe next week will be better.

I'm starting to book up for trips to the Millers. Things start in May. Don't wait!!

Ken

Early Success At The Pipe

2011-04-03T14:11:00.003-04:00

There were two sets of tire tracks in the inch of new snow as I made the turn off of River Rd.onto the Pipe access road this past Friday afternoon at 2:30. That meant two things. First, there were two cars in the lot or second, that someone had come and gone. The second theory proved correct as I followed the coming and going footprints down to the Pipe. The footprints never entered the water which meant that a bait/hardware angler or some sightseer had paid a visit. I saw no other footprints on either side of the river which confirmed the rumors - the fishing has been very slow here. I had the place to myself.

I rigged up a #16 Swift River Scud and started from the head of the Pipe and worked down to the Tree Pool. No runs, no hits and no errors and from my vantage point I could see no fish. Time for another walk through. This time I got a "follow" from the top of the pipe. The next cast resulted in the same thing! A half dozen casts to the same area were ignored so I switched to a #18 Swift Serendipity. Everything changed!! That fish came up and was landed. The next CHASED that fly for two feet before it made a grab and hooked itself on the side of it's head. I'll count that as two landed. The third inhaled that Swift Serendipity and then came to the net. All were dark rainbows, survivors of this brutal winter.

I had to give up at 4ish to make the trip to see my daughters. I didn't feel bad about leaving since the evening would be great and I didn't really expect to catch anything if the rumors were correct. The 'bows were a bonus.

By this time next week the Swift should get it's first helping of trout. Why it hasn't yet is a mystery. Plenty of anglers of all types will be there. It may be the last time that I will fish that section ALONE at mid afternoon until next winter! I will not complain. I can't wait for a 70 degree day on that river. When the crowds come I'll just find a place, work the water and catch some trout!!

Ken

Brown Trout - Why They Matter!

2011-03-26T13:11:00.003-04:00

Backcast 40 years ago when a long haired(me)budding fly fisher began plying sections of the Squannacook River on idyllic Summer evenings for the chance to take a rising trout. That trout, on almost all occasions on every section of that river, was a brown trout. Oh, I caught rainbows and brook trout but I learned quickly that these were the "Spring fish" - dumped in to satisfy the hordes that worked that river to a froth during the first month or so. By mid June those fish disappeared but not the BROWNS!! They stuck around, allowing that piscatorial tug of war, through the Summer and into the beginning of the "dark season". They were the survivors and the saviors. They made me become a fly fisher for trout!! Their legacy continues for over 25 seasons on the Millers - the other species will pull a disappearing act but the browns come out to play during that magical time, the evening hatch!!!! They are the fish that makes the season.

SO WHY DOES THE STATE (MA) CONTINUE TO WASTE THEIR RESOURCES WITH RAISING AND STOCKING OUR FREESTONE RIVERS WITH SO MANY RAINBOWS???? There are a few "official" answers to this. One is that people want to catch (big) trout easily and rainbows fill the bill. But this crowd that is catered to is mostly a seasonal crowd of bait and lure slingers who keep score by the size of the stringers. By early June they're off doing something else. Are season long fly fishers being catered to?? I think not!!

Here are some numbers to cast over: The State of Connecticut stocks browns that equal appox. 53% of the trout that they stock on a yearly basis. The Baystate stocks browns equal to appox. 27% of the trout stocked. The "official" response is that Massachusetts stocks so many more trout than Connecticut BUT they only do BECAUSE they decided to rely on rainbows for the bulk of their stocking. Connecticut stocks far more browns than Massachusetts. Again, why rely on a species that will not survive through the Summer? Does Connecticut have it right? I think so!!

Massachusetts throws clonebows into Jamaica Pond (downtown Boston) and into the wilds of Lake Cochituate (Framingham). So be it. Stock your freezers but that's not trout fishing. Take all of the 'bows that you toss into the Millers and salt those urban angling destinations with those fish. I wouldn't mind. Just put more browns in the Millers and other similar rivers.

Some rivers seem to work well with rainbows through the season. I can't include the Swift because it's a tailwater river, a different breed of river. The EB of the Westfield holds rainbows when other freestone rivers don't but conditions have to be very good for that to happen. I'd like to see more browns in that river. The Deerfield has had a great reputation as a rainbow fishery but the photos on the HARRISON ANGLERS website show something else - photo after photo of steroid browns. I can remember the TU talk twenty years ago that there were few browns in that river. Photos of big browns mean that browns are holding over and/or are reproducing in that river.

The Millers is a brown trout river. So is the Squannacook, the Deerfield, the Nissitissit, the Housatonic and many other stocked rivers in this State.

An Afterthought - The sport of fly fishing continues to grow. I see far more fly fishers during the season than I did 30 years ago. I've seen fewer mobs of stringer fillers over the years on our rivers. The cost of a decent fly line, not to mention a fly rod or fly reel, is much more than a seasons worth of crawlers or power bait or shinners. To the Ma. DFW: Where's your future???

The Millers River - Early Season Spots

2011-03-22T15:06:00.006-04:00

Ok, I know that we are all going crazy looking for a place to fish especially on the Millers. There are a few things that we know. Spring stocking doesn't start in the central or western parts of the State until next week at the very earliest. It will probably start a few weeks after that. Even then, the flows on the Millers will be high - count on it. So the question is: where can I drift my buggers, streamers or heavy stonefly imitations with a limited chance of drowning AND a good chance of landing a few trout?

My first choice would be the Bridge St. Pool of the Millers just below Farley Flats. Check out the above photo. This WIDE riffle/pool section fishes well in higher water because it is WIDE - the flow is spread out through the riffles before it hits the deep pool below the bridge. Even with flows over 500cfs you have a good chance of working the bottom especially with a weighted fly and especially with a sinking tip AND EVEN MORE SO with a full sinking line. (Note: full sinking lines were the weapon of choice years ago until someone invented the sinking tip. I'll fish a full sinker over a sinking tip in high Spring water any day).

There was a raw Spring day a few years ago when I worked this riffle/pool stretch in heavy water. The clone bows hit that weighted stonefly but so did that 20 inch brown. A beautiful holdover fish.

A few pointers: 1.BRING A WADING STAFF!! I didn't say that it was easy wading, just a fishable section. 2. Get to the head of the riffles by walking under the bridge while heading upstream. It's safer!!

I had a great time at Charlie's this past Sunday. Lots of old friends and lots of new friends and lots of questions during my presentation. It was GREAT!!

Ken

A Swift River Update

2011-03-18T16:50:00.003-04:00

What a difference a year makes!! Last year, on this week, I fished the upper Swift (bubbler run to above the Y Pool) and caught about 60 trout in 4 outings. My one trip this week resulted in a total strike out. I didn't see a fish in the bubbler run and saw one fish taken in the "Y". In the parking lot I talked to an old "regular" who said that he caught trout in the overflow arm of the Y Pool. The trout were circling the outside edge of the ice. One minute you'd have a hit and then have to wait a while before they circled around again. I don't like the Y Pool and certainly don't like that circling setup.

The "Pipe" has been dead according to my sources which are pretty good. I think that this cold, snowy winter has sent the trout into wintering quarters - deeper spots.

Things should get better as March turns to April. They will start stocking, of course, and holdovers will stop hiding.

I can't wait.

Ken

A Few Caddis For The Millers - And Other Rivers

2011-03-16T17:01:00.004-04:00

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

A Hidden Millers Run

2011-03-10T18:31:00.005-05:00

Check out the above photo. Many Millers fly fishers will recognize where this photo was taken - from the railroad trestle upstream from the Kempfield section. Check out the fly fisher in the photo. (click to enlarge) I had to take this photo BECAUSE this guy was the first fly fisher that I have ever seen working that stretch above the gateway rock that marks the beginning of the Kempfield. Throughout the season this section, with it's fast water chute, is always overlooked by fly fishers as they make their way down the hill to get to the fabled water. I will do the same thing if there is no one (or one) downstream. But if there are "a few" working the bend I'll work this section. Why fish it? First, it's fast chute at the head of the run is a great place to throw a big, bushy dry on a Summer evening. Second, the run is deep and rocky with plenty of holding area for browns and 'bows. Third, it always produces whether you are on the surface or slinging heavy buggers. In fact, heavy buggers work very well here. Fourth, it's a good lookout spot during the low flows of Fall to keep an eye open for rising browns in the big railroad pool just upstream. There have been a few late season evenings where my plans of fishing "around the bend" were canceled because of the upstream action. The drawback, as I see it, is that it can be slightly dangerous with it's many rocks during the high flows of Spring. Watch your step and always carry a wading staff. The bottom is totally different then the bottom just a hundred yards downstream.

So tuck this tidbit away for the next two months. When Hendricksons fade to March Browns this section will be ready!!!

Ken

Spring - It's Almost Here And A Sunday At Charlie's

2011-03-08T16:52:00.006-05:00

SPRING - At 6am this past Sunday morning I saw a cat walking across the frozen Mill River which runs behind my house. At 6am on Monday the ice was gone, replaced with a raging torrent that was the fourth highest flow recorded on that river. The snow pack behind my yard shrank by at least ten inches in those 24 hours and now I see the sap lines and buckets on my daily travels. There are more birds singing at dawn. Spring is unofficially here and that is a very good thing. I'll hit the Swift this week to get the kinks out of my cast and to just be on the water. It's been a LONG winter.

Two things to look forward to - I'll be at Charlie's EVENING SUN FLY SHOP at noon on Sunday, March 20th. I'll be showing a presentation on the Bondsville section of the Swift and some sections less cast to on the Millers. It will be a good time to get some information for the coming season. BRING A PEN AND PAPER to write down some directions!!

Second, I'm working on an added feature. I hope to throw it on the blogosphere by the end of the month after those kinks are worked out. Stay tuned!!

Ken

Millers Update And Some Dry Fly Ideas

2011-03-01T18:25:00.008-05:00

A Millers Update - sorry but I have nothing to offer. The river on this first day of March is buried in snow and ice as is the entire watershed. April flows will be high and our best bet will be mid May for anything other than deep dredged WB's and streamers. Ditto for the EB which is buried in the same winter conditions.

Here we go about Dry Flies again!! Back around 2005 a newbie to fly fishing (that's how he described himself) asked me the question: How come dry May Fly imitations have wings pointing straight up (90 degrees of the hook shank) BUT real mayflies have wings pointing back up to 45 degrees of the hook shank?? How is that an imitation?? My answer: I have no idea!!! "Matching the Hatch" has dealt with color and size for decades but not profile. This "newbie" was on the right course. Mayfly wings slant backwards!!!!! All imitations over the past hundred years, except for the "sidewinder" no hackle patterns had wings standing upright like ship masts! Some of our other dries, like elk hair caddis have the right profile but just too much material to be passed off as a mayfly. Is there a way to imitate this wing position??

Try this - I've fished comparadun patterns for years and have FORCED the wing material BACK with some heavy dubbing towards the front of the fly. The wing material is pushed back in a position that resembled a natural position. The above photo shows (just barely)a comparadun with the wing slanted backwards.

What about hackled dries - The above photo shows a style that I will offer this Spring/Summer if I have the nerve. It's goofy looking BUT it is very much like the profile that Theodore Gordon first tied as a dry offering. The slant back wing worked for him. I'll try it out!!

Last year, at the end of April, I and those that I guided caught rising browns working hendericksons. Not this year. Look to mid May for real fly fishing!!

Ken

All This Snow..What Does This Mean??

2011-02-17T17:48:00.002-05:00

There has been some chatter about how this heavy snow season will effect our fishing Spring on the Millers and other freestone rivers. Here is an observation.

Let's backcast to the winter of 1991-1992. We had unbelievably heavy snow which allowed me to cross country ski in the woods of north central Ma until mid April. That sounds great BUT the last moisture that fell from the heavens, to any real extent, fell in late March. May through September were very DRY and that hurt the fishing for the Summer. Double haul to 2001-2002 where we had very heavy snow but a drought during the Summer. The Winter of 2006-2007 had a a light snow pack BUT a Spring and Summer that were wet enough to keep the rivers UP and flowing and the fly fishing was great. The 2008-2009 Winter was average but the Summer was a washout. The 2009-2010 Winter was also average as far as snow was concerned but the Summer spelled DROUGHT like we have not seen it in 25 years.

What does all of this mean?? We like to have a heavy snow pack for the winter BUT we really need a Summer that is NOT DRY!!!!!! An average Summer rainfall will work very nicely. That has been the case on the Millers for years. Occasionally Summers will run dry but most of the time we have the rain that will sustain us.

Let's hope for another "average" season on the Millers. Ditto for the EB!!!

Ken

The Lower Bears Den Of The Millers

2011-02-05T13:18:00.007-05:00

The old black and white photos had that "look" to them. Men with fedoras and flannel shirts, each holding a bamboo rod in one hand and a stringer of Millers River browns in the other. The photos were taken during the 1940's and early 50's before the Millers became too polluted to fish. The late Bob Roleau, who owned the photos, explained one thing to me: the photos were all taken on ONE STRETCH of the Millers. "The best stretch", as Bob explained. Say hello to the UTD Dam and the lower (end) of the Bears Den.

This is the lower end of the Bears Den catch & release section. The C&R officially ends at the UTD dam (UTD stands for Union Twist Drill, a once large employer in Athol that gave up in 1984)which can be seen from downtown Athol. The pond behind the dam is of little fly fishing value except to provide wintering quarters to some of the trout. What is of REAL VALUE is the stretch above the pond. It is 200 yards of the best dry fly water on the Millers - period!!! This stretch, with it's even, bank-to-bank flow and moderate depth, is fed by miles of riffles and a few springs along the way. The stretch is loaded with insects with two being very important. The first is the large Golden Stonefly. I've been on this stretch on early June mornings and have seen the tall grass at bank side loaded with hundreds of the adults of this species. The second is the hellgrammite. There are tales of well lit windows of bank side dwellings being covered with these critters on summer nights.

I have had unbelievable evenings on this stretch of the Millers and I have NEVER seen another fly fisher. The place could easily accommodate more anglers, there's plenty of water here!! The place could also accommodate a few more browns if the local TU Chapter can get them in there. Hint: Ask permission to open the access gate to the dam area and just throw the browns in.

To get there just google up Chestnut Hill Avenue in Athol. Take the first right off the lower end of this road and park by the side of the yellow gate. For more information on the Millers just order "The Guide" from this blog.

The photo on the left shows some of the miles of riffles that feed the stretch. The photo on the right shows the upper part of the ponded area and "the stretch" as it disappears upstream on the left of the photo.

Just a few more months to go.....!

Ken

DRY FLIES DRY FLIES DRY FLIES!!!!!

2011-01-25T19:20:00.005-05:00

Backcast to 1971. The Squannacook River spills over the dam at Townsend Harbor and dances over riffles for a few hundred yards until it slows down to form a long slow pool before it hits a bank and takes a 90 degree right turn before entering a riffle flow again. I'm at the top of those last riffles when I see it - a rising trout right in the pool formed by the above mentioned bend. I've been fly fishing for a year, have caught a good amount of trout, many on my own primitive sunken offerings but NEVER have I caught one on a dry, my known or anyone else's. Now is my chance. Off goes the nymph and on goes my own hand tied, size 14 light cahill with a tail that's too short, wings that are too long and oversized hackle that was lathered on hiding most of the hook eye. But it's my dry fly and I'm in the classic position for an upstream approach. A few casts and that dry fly disappears and I bring a 12 inch brown to the net. That did it. I was hooked on the dry fly.

The next few years found me fishing Summer evenings on the Squannacock using dries exclusively. The habit continued on the Millers where I met the evening rise on the Upper Trestle Pool or the Kempfield with an upstream approach. In fact, I've never fished the Upper Trestle after 6pm without a dry offering on the end of a leader. The same can be said about the EB's Bliss Pool. I've also worked and I mean WORKED over the years to perfect my tying of dries. I guess that I'm hooked!!

Do I still fish subsurface flies? Of course but dries are more fun. Last winter I read the great early 20th century author George LaBranche's "The Dry Fly And Fast Water". LaBranche, ever the purist, didn't need rising trout to fish a dry. He worked likely looking water the same way that we do with subsurface flies and got them to rise. It works - believe me!

Maybe some season I'll take the plunge and right at hendrickson time I'll switch to dries for the rest of the season. No soft hackles, no possum nymphs, only flies that I can see. Or maybe I won't. All of these ideas sound good in the depths of January.

Ken

The lower, LOWER Millers River

2011-01-22T16:06:00.004-05:00

I've been beating the drum for this river for some time, from the Bears Den down to the Kempfield Section. I've also talked about the Lower River, the section below the town of Erving, and have guided some to the top of this section but I've only guided one fly fisher who said that they HAD to fish this lower river. Did we catch trout = yes! Did we catch outsized smallies = yes! Did we see another angler = NO! Was it fun = Totally!!

How to get there - Start at the Bridge St. Pool (order my guide for directions) and fish downstream or find the RR tracks on the south side of the river and fish the places that look good to you. There will be many! The mouths of Mormon Hollow Brook and Lyons Brook are good spots. If you want an easy way of doing this than drive past Farley Flats on Rt2 west until you see a rest area on the left. CAREFULLY enter the rest area, suit up and walk down through the trees until you see the river. You will see a long, slow pool. The head of this pool is known as the "Funnel", a kayaker death trap in high water. In lower water it's great fly fishing. It's about three miles below the last stocking spot but the trout are there. So are the smallmouth who come up from the CT. River to spawn in May and June. These fish are measured in pounds instead of inches. I know that from experience!!

I wish that it was the second week of May right now!!!

The January Doldrums Part 2 - Flies To Tie

2011-01-18T15:18:00.002-05:00

Ok, it's mid January. I went to the Marlboro Show which really was a flat line event. As I said in the previous post a person new to the sport will feel like it's Christmas morning but the longer that you live a fly fishers life the older this show gets. I did pick up a collection of Theodore Gordon's work and a fly tying tool that is now discontinued. That is that!!

January is a good time to make sense of that growing inventory of fly tying material that we just can't seem to get enough of even if we don't use half of it. While plowing through the boxes I found a rust colored hares mask that seemed like a good idea to have two years ago. The short story is that I never used it! The long story is that a light went on in that brain of mine that this color/texture would make great thorax material for some soft hackle flies that have been drifting around in my subconscious. (Yes, flies and trout drift in my subconscious) The above photo is the result of these ramblings.

The Partridge and Orange has worked very well for me for over 30 years. The body was always made up of orange silk or orange floss. The thorax (I tie most of my soft hackles with a thorax) was usually olive or gray. They worked but just never looked RIGHT! The rust colored hares ear is perfect. I'll ask my friend Rodney Flagg if he knows of a rust colored dye that I can use on that mountain of Australian possum which I think will work even better.

Let's go back to the body - I dumped silk and floss years ago and now tie my soft hackle bodies with 3/0 kevlar. This "glass" actually has a waxy glow to it which just beats the look of the older materials. Try it out!!

I downloaded my license and am ready for the 2011 season. Let's hope it stops snowing!!

Ken

The January Doldrums - Things To Do

2011-01-09T12:39:00.002-05:00

January - I've always thought of this month as the direct opposite of July and as far as those who have an interest of climate cycles it IS the opposite of July. July is the warmest month for us. January is the coldest. July has the second highest amount of daylight, January the second lowest amount of daylight. I can make you feel better by saying that the Groundhog will roll his dice in about three weeks or that the sap lines will be flowing in six weeks but that doesn't do much for me either. Us hardy New Englanders will just stoically bear this dark season as we always have by doing the following:

The Swift - it's very fishable right now. The flows are good, much better than some of the past years, and the "keep um" crowd hasn't been in evidence below rt 9 to any extent. I'll be out soon as soon I can grab some weekend hours.

The Marlboro Show - I usually walk through this show every other year and even then it still seems to be much of the same. That's the case with ANY show that is centered around a specialized activity. There are some book sellers that may get me out to pick up some Winter reading. Last year I picked up an old copy of THE DRY FLY AND FAST WATER by Labranche - a classic!!!!!

My presentation on the Lower Swift - It's at Charlie's EVENING SUN FLY SHOP on March 21 (I believe). Check Charlie's site and mine for this event. I'll throw in the Millers River and answer all questions (as usual)!!

Order the Millers Fly Fishing Guide - So many of you have done this and have thanked me for making it available. I say "THANK YOU"!! It's the best ten bucks that you will ever spend if you want to know where to go on this river. It's not a "map" but a 30+ page guide with many photos of great runs and stretches and directions on how to get there and what to do once you are there. Ordering directions are on this blog.

Tie Flies - I don't think that I have to tell you. The REAL DIEHARDS are at it already.

One More Thing - Some well intentioned but misinformed people are raising a ruckus about how beavers are bad for brook trout. They ignore the fact that beavers and brook trout THRIVED together for thousands of years and still do in areas that didn't have beavers eliminated (read Robert Travers). They want a return to the time of 1750 to 1980 when beavers were missing. Of course, this was the period that saw a great reduction in beaver/brookie habitat! Hmm...? See the connection??? I've caught enough native brookies behind beaver dams in Ma. in the last twenty years to know that the native brookie fishing is better NOW than BEFORE those dams were created!! And I know that we have waterfowl in places where we didn't have them before those beaver dams came on the scene. Ditto for more wetlands too!!

Where beavers threaten property something has to be done but if you think that your fishing has suffered because of beavers then I suggest that you improve your angling skills because the brookies are there, bigger and better than ever!!

Ken

The Moby Dick Wet - A New Standard Wet Fly

2010-12-29T18:20:00.002-05:00

By late February we will be dreaming of those days and evenings of May and June when trout are breaking the surface chasing caddis and mayflies OR if you are beyond hope (like me) we are thinking of those days NOW!!!! We have five months to survive before we see that action. In the meantime we can create those offerings.

I am a sentimental fool for the "old patterns", namely the old wet flies that have performed so well before they fell out of favor. The Moby Dick Wet, first mentioned on this post three years ago, is one of those patterns. Actually it's a new tie in an old form. What will it do? It will nail trout before and during a caddis hatch! One fellow that I guided on the Millers near Erving Center took a half dozen browns in a hour one evening with this pattern. Another took almost as many. I've done the same working those beautiful riffles at the head of a Millers pool. It's caught trout from northern New Hampshire to Connecticut all season long. It has the color and profile that just WORKS!! Fish it in the surface (damp!) and it's irresistible. When the surface action really starts switch to the appropriate dry if you like. I mentioned in that long ago post that I wanted to tie this in a size 6 for night fishing. I did. The trout that I caught were not measured in POUNDS like I had hoped but were good fish that attacked this fly. I will keep my hopes up on this "after hours" thing and will still count on this pattern as the sun sets.

Happy New Year To All Of You!!

Ken

A Cold December Morning

2010-12-19T18:23:00.002-05:00

It seemed like a good idea on Saturday night - get up at 5am Sunday morning and hit the Swift for a few hours. It didn't sound so good when the alarm went off so I ended up buying an extra hour of sleep which resulted in me crossing over the Rt9 bridge at 7:40 instead of the planned earlier hour. Everyone else must of had the same idea/excuse because the Y Pool parking lot was EMPTY!! So was the Pipe lot too!! I guess a sunrise temperature of 14 degrees will do that! Anyway, I had the place to myself from 8 to 9am coaxing a few reluctant bows to the net with serendipities and Marla's jailbird (a very good fly). At 9am George and this other gent made an appearance. The action (?) was slow for all of us. I took four by 10am when I decided to call it quits.

The fish are there but they were like me at 5am. Not in the mood!! Maybe we can get a 50 degree day before our licenses run out.

Merry Christmas!!

Ken

Mistakes Made Over The Last Season

2010-12-16T17:54:00.004-05:00

It's late December and I regret some of those plans that I hatched last February and March when fly fishing plans are usually hatched, namely that I didn't fish where I said that I'd fish. We all know the drill: I'M GOING TO FISH THIS PART OF THE RIVER but you really never get around to it. You go to where the "action" is even if the action doesn't always play out. I did explore and fish the Bondsville section of the Swift. Check off one plan as completed. I spent wonderful hours above the pipe with hardly anyone there. What I didn't do was go back to my haunts of '06,'07and '08 and that's the section above the crib dam up to the "duck pond" on the Swift. '06 through '08 gave us low Summer flows and dry fly action to ants, beetles and other critters. It was great but hard fishing but well worth it. 2009 gave us mid Summer flood conditions that made wading this section life threatening. I said that I would go back to this seldom fished spot this past season (never saw another fly fisher) but I never did. My mistake!!

How come I didn't go below the Bridge Street Pool on the Millers?? Maybe it was because the Millers, like many freestone rivers, were hit by the "2010 Drought". Maybe I was playing it safe by fishing the Kempfield Section which survived the Summer. It was a plan of mine to pack a sandwich or two and spend a day fishing the miles of water below the bridge for outsized smallies and browns. They are there. I should have been there!

We are two weeks away from "New Year Resolution" time. I'm already making a list. Let's hope that I stick to it.

My Three Rivers - A 2010 Summary

2010-12-07T18:57:00.002-05:00

This blog has centered on three rivers in Massachusetts over the past three years and those rivers have been the Millers, the East Branch of the Westfield and the Swift River. If I was to rate the rivers for 2009 they would have been 1. The EB, 2. the Millers and 3. the Swift. What about 2010??

Number 3 - The EB. If I were to ask the gods above for one more season on one river for 2010 it is certain that the EB would be my choice. 2009 was perfection - great flows and rising trout from May through November. I couldn't ask for more. That didn't happen in 2010. The hot weather and the drought wiped this place out. My last trout was taken in July, a far cry from the heavenly, October day in 2009 where the bows sucked in BWO's and my dry fly offerings. It was a sad summer on this river. A normal year, weather wise, would be much appreciated. So would more browns!!

Number 2 - The Millers. 2009 was a cursed with high water. In 2010 fishing for those browns was great until the end of June when the worst drought conditions that I've seen in over 20 years took hold. Did those conditions kill off the river's browns?? The answer is NO. I caught them, as did others, in the early Fall. This river will come back!!

Number 1 - The Swift. A great part of 2009 saw this river turned into a flooded, kayakers dream. This past year saw it running between 45 and 115cfs - perfect flows. What gives this river the top prize for 2010 is the fact that I "discovered" the lower river in Bondsville - no crowds at all and plenty of trout. I really and truly love that lower river. The above photo shows one of my favorite runs on the lower Swift. Solitude and rising trout. Who could ask for more!!

Say a prayer, fly fishers, that 2011 will bring a "normal weather" year.

I'll be on the Swift and probably the Farmington this Winter. I'm also looking forward to a week long fly fishing adventure next June. Tenting, campfires and fly fishing until I drop!! You know the drill. Any suggestions??

Ken

Post Thanksgiving On The Swift - TheTributary

2010-11-29T15:37:00.003-05:00

Let's start with the Saturday after Thanksgiving - When I got to the PIPE at 7:30am it was crowded with six anglers jammed into the area from the PIPE down to the TREE. I rigged up while listening to a very loud group that were fishing just below the PIPE. I left the circus atmosphere and fished upstream past the gauge station to the crib dam. A nice morning that saw a half dozen 'bows and brookies playing into my experiment. The experiment was to see what size mattered as far as the trout were concerned. First I rigged a size 14 scud on the top with a size 20 serendipity on the bottom. The smaller fly worked best. I switched the setup but the smaller fly still prevailed. Then I went to a size 20 serendipity on top with a new creation in a size 24. The size 24 won out!! Hmm, this year the smaller fly is the choice!!!

After two hours I walked back to the PIPE where I found one new angler fishing about 30 feet below the PIPE. I decided to take a few casts with my new creation at the PIPE outflow. I immediately took a bow within 5 feet from the PIPE which caused the other angler to say that I was crowding him. I said that if he thought that he was being "crowded" he should of been there three hours before!! I was casting far above (for the pipe) where he was casting and the end of my drift was in water that he wasn't close to fishing. I like solitude but the PIPE is more communal than any other spot on the Swift. One person from the PIPE to the TREE is not a CROWD. When there are three or four in this section I head upstream or downstream. I am certain that I was minding my manners!!

The TRIBUTARY - Sunday afternoon I took a walk down to the above section just to check out the situation. I saw a Hummer parked at the gate which said that George was there with the usual good conversation. That's when he decided to show me the trout in the outflow stream above the PIPE. I've heard of the trout here but never explored the area. We walked past the "No Trespassing" sign (sorry, we were on a mission) and saw dozens of large fish in this outflow. Nice to look at BUT you CAN'T FISH THERE, PERIOD!!!! It reminded me of looking at the outflow from Quabbin into Wachusett years ago. Lots of big fish but NO FISHING!!

The outflow from the hatchery is the largest tributary on the Swift. It's extremely fertile and effects the trout behavior for a surprising distance downstream on the Swift. It is tempting but.......don't fish there!!

Ken

The End Of The Swift!!

2010-11-20T15:53:00.001-05:00

No, there wasn't a spill or a fish kill. Today I decided to do some exploring, sans fly rod and waders. The aim was to check out the lower, LOWER Swift and to find where it joined waters with the Ware River. The above photo shows the junction of these two rivers. It's a nice pool. The flow of the Swift meets the Ware head on creating a beautiful drift line that seems to last forever. Below the junction there is a nice set of riffles. Above the junction the Ware offers nice, nice dry fly water. The Swift's cold flow should provide sanctuary for some of those Ware River browns that we hear about. Maybe or maybe not but it was worth the trip. I'll be back to this spot next Summer for sure!!!

More time was spent exploring this lower Swift River and it included me spying on some rising trout! As expected there was nobody there except me and the trout.

Tomorrow morning I'll be working the Swift with some new creations. Will they work? As I said earlier - maybe or maybe not.

We could get out first snow within two or so weeks. Fish Now!!

Indian Summer On The Swift

2010-11-13T17:20:00.000-05:00

First, let me define "Indian Summer". It's not what the TV weather bunnies claim it to be, namely a warm Fall day with lots of foliage. Here in New England it has traditionally been a warm Fall day AFTER the foliage season. If you don't believe me then ask Robert Frost!!

The day starts with a temperature of 30 degrees and ends in the low 60's. Perfect. I meet Dick at the Pipe parking lot at 7:30am. I forgot to make reservations for the Pipe (haha) so we have to fish the stretch upstream to the crib dam. (actually this was the plan!!).

This stretch, almost always devoid of flyfishers, was ours for over three hours. We fished upstream with Dicks red beadhead and my scud taking and losing 'bows and brookies. Not too bad!!

After working this stretch we went back down to the Pipe to find a few anglers who had decided to drop anchor for the day just below the outflow but the "tree" pool was vacant. We were seated immediately (haha) and began to work a steady rise to midges or something very small. A size 24, mentioned in a recent post, tied onto the business end of a strand of 8x brought a couple of more trout.

It was a good day with good company and good trout. These sunny, comfortable days are in short supply. Fish them if you can!!

Ken

The "light" Season Ends, The "Dark" Season Begins

2010-11-06T16:06:00.000-04:00

The alarm is set for 5am. I leave the house at 6:30am after two cups of coffee, a bagel and some drifting on the web. It's dark. Dawn is scheduled for 7:29am which means that you MAY be able to thread on a size #20 to a strand of 6x at 7am. I'm up for this but in a strange way. Tonight we set the clocks back and that's what's bothering me. Sunset on this Saturday is at 5:30 which means that tomorrow sunset will be at 4:30. The best hours of the year, for me, have disappeared into memory. The hours of the "evening hatch", the sublime time between dusk and dark, of shirtsleeves and rising trout, are gone for the next six months. That time means more to me than Hendricksons at 1pm on a late April afternoon. The road ahead means frozen feet, icy guides and lots of fly tying. The "Dark" season is here.

I get to the "pipe" on the Swift at 7:15am. Within a half hour there are six working this crowded water. I hook three and land two. Time to move!!

I almost always have the crib dam section and the water below to myself. The fast water at the base of the dam yields nothing to my rig which consists of a #14 scud at the top and a #20 serendipity at the bottom. Twenty yards below I begin to pick up some small brookies and browns on the scud. From the gauge everything changes!! More small brookies and browns on the scud but now some good bows smash the serendipity!! And these guys want to rip line from my reel!! I take ten from the crib downstream, six are good sized 'bows!! That was it for today.

I went home and raked leaves again, turning a lot of them into the garden soil. It will build up that soil for next Spring. Next Spring......

I'll fish through this Dark Season but my mind is on next Spring!!

Ken

Tiny Flies For The Swift

2010-11-03T18:40:00.000-04:00

Things will change on this river. Five seasons ago a #16 olive soft hackle made dark colored trout go nuts during the Fall. Since then it's been a second tier player. Scuds and hot spots have had great days and always will BUT something has surpassed them at least for this season. The above photo shows what I have been using up and down the river. Size #18 through size #26 works and have produced 43 trout in my last five hours on this river. Early morning or late afternoon seem to work best for this pattern. Maybe it's because these hours yield the least fishing pressure or maybe because the air is full (especially in the late afternoon) of tiny flies. In any event this fly works! I like it!!

There is the occasional post concerning my generosity dealing with naming locations on certain rivers. It has now spilled over to my sublime posting of fly patterns which work on the Swift, Millers and the Westfield Rivers. Frankly, I don't understand it. I really want people to do well on these rivers! I'll continue to post locations, conditions and patterns on this blog because it's my blog. But for this pattern I'll give the pattern instructions to anyone who emails me on the email address that I have on this blog. If you want to tie this fly then just email me. If you don't want to know about this fly then keep fly fishing and have fun!!

Daylight Savings Time ends this Saturday night. Sunday morning (11/7) will have light at 6am but darkness around 5:30pm. Bummer!!!! The "Dark Season" begins!!

Ken

The Swift - 10/18 to 10/23, What Crowds??

2010-10-24T07:07:00.000-04:00

A lot has been said about the crowds on the Swift. Lots of fish and lots of fly fishers!!! Here's my experience over this past week.

Monday, October 18th found me stepping into the pipe section at 5pm. There was one other fisher down by the "tree" and that was it for the hour that I was there. I took 16 'bows mostly on a tiny creation that I worked up the night before.

Thursday, October 28th I scouted the same spot around 5:30pm. Only one fly fisher!!!

On both of these days the Y Pool parking lot was full.

Saturday (yesterday)found me sleeping until 7:30am (that's considered "sleeping in" for me), eating breakfast, doing a 40 minute hard walk, picking the last of the green tomatoes and then a full raking of the backyard. Then came lunch followed by a trip to the Swift.

The Y Pool lot had a dozen cars but the Pipe lot was almost empty at 2pm!!!! On a Saturday????? The lone car belonged to Marla Blair. You can make out the car on the extreme right of the photo. It was a temptation to stop right here and take advantage of the rare elbow room but I had been thinking of one stretch at Bondsville (above photo) so downstream I went.

I fished Bondsville for a a little less than 2 hours, caught two 'bows, and then went back to the Pipe. It's still a ghost town and now Marla is leaving. She said the place was empty when she got there at mid day and remained so. Very odd!!

I fished the pipe totally alone from 5 to 6pm and took 20 'bows on that same creation I used Monday. The fly was one of a two fly rig and it was the only thing they wanted. It worked in sizes 18 through 26. More on that latter.

I can't think of a reason why the Pipe would be as lonely as Bondsville on a Saturday. Maybe it was just a fluke. It may be a good bet to hit the Pipe in the LATE afternoon to avoid the "practice green" atmosphere that we usually see.

Ken

The Millers/EB - This Past Season

2010-10-16T18:08:00.000-04:00

How do I explain this season on my two favorite rivers. 2008 and 2009 were mid season washouts for the Millers with great May through early June fly fishing followed by flood conditions that thankfully ended by late August which gave us very good Fall fly fishing. The EB of the Westfield was heaven during those past two seasons - dry fly HEAVEN!! This season, the driest in the last twenty years, brought these two rivers to their knees!! Browns survived in the lower Millers, rainbows in the EB are another story. Things like this will happen. In over three decades of fishing the Millers I know that some fish will survive although the number of survivors will be fewer than years past. The rivers are running at strong levels as I write which should help for winter refuge on the Millers. Let's hope so. I keep thinking of the dozens of Autumn trips on this river where we fished and fished for rising trout. Not this year.

The Swift - steady flow, cold water, lots of fish. Also lots of fly fishers. Take a break and go downstream to Bondsville. Steady flow, a good number of fish and very few anglers. It's soooooo... different from the tee time atmosphere that you encounter up by RT9.

Check it out!!

Ken

What They Are Rising To...

2010-10-08T17:58:00.000-04:00

Here's a short post. I was fishing the pipe section, catching a few, while watching a local fish hawk hammer one 'bow after another. The fish are there. Sometimes we will wonder what the trout are after when we see the surface action which was evident. Well, a good indicator can be found on the new leaf deflector panels that the DFW have installed a few feet from the intake building above the pipe. (the photo is an old one, minus the leaf deflector panels) The panels are just a few feet into the current.

The panels are made of pexiglass which seem attract mayflies. On an early Thursday evening (yesterday) the panels were covered with blue wing olives duns running about a size 20. And I mean COVERED!!

There you go!!

Ken

September Review - Early October

2010-10-02T16:46:00.000-04:00

The rains finally came. Not in a series of wet days but in a 4 inch deluge which brought the lower Millers up to the 600cfs level and the Westfield EB roaring at 1800cfs. When it rains it pours!!!!!

The Millers needs this deluge. The rising browns that we caught last April need some depth of water to make it through the winter again. This recharging will do that, I hope. Those fish are still there and they survived this horrid Summer but they need water for the Winter. Hopefully they will have it.

The Swift - The flow was reduced from 112cfs to the mid 40cfs range just prior to the storm. This morning the Bondsville section was low, clear and wonderful. And I got skunked!! Trout were rising but in a very odd fashion. Two and three quick rises and then nothing for as long as 20 minutes. I couldn't get them to cooperate whether it was to a small olive emerger or to my trusty soft hackle flies. That's ok!! The Autumn sun was warm, the flow was perfect and two and a half hours just drifted by. Not a bad day for me.

The attached photo shows the location of those rising trout. You may recognize the spot or if you are new to the lower Swift you can easily find it easily.

Time to think of seasons past. Just one year in this case. Check out my post for October 23 of last year. It tells a tale of a warm cloudy day on the EB when dark colored 'bows took in my dry fly offerings in a way that leaves memories for fly fishers who look for memories. It was a perfect day but it was after two perfect Summers with good flows. We didn't see those conditions this year. It is something to feel sad about. Hopefully next year things will return to normal - everywhere!!

Last night I had a vivid dream of catching stripers with Jim off the mouth of the Merrimack. Some dream of other things but.....

Fall on the Millers and the Swift - I'm looking forward to it!!

Ken

The Millers - It Has Survived!!!

2010-09-14T18:31:00.000-04:00

This past week was hard. Sometimes personal things change everything and they did. Fly fishing was something far from my mind as my drive back home found me near Wendell Depot. I needed a break and the chance to check out the Kempfield, take some low water photos and the idea to just chill a bit seemed right. With only my camera a took the walk over the trestle, into the woods and down the hill to the top of the Run. The island at the top of this run is now connected by dry land. (see above photos) I've never seen that before. The big, slow pool at the end has a large rock breaking the surface. Never seen that before either. I've never seen such a low water condition on this river!! I hadn't been here since early July. I saw the low flow online, heard the stories of dieing trout and even began to believe that my brown trout would not make it. Like I said, I've never seen it this bad before. I sat down and spent a half hour just taking it in.

In a while the sun sank below on of the tall pines on the opposite shore, putting me in the shade. The air felt cool. It was 6pm with an hour till sundown and that's when I saw it - A RISE!!! Back to the car I went for waders and a 4wt (never leave home without it) and then back to the spot.

Here's what happened. The water felt cool and a quick temperature check registered 67 degrees - the same range as every 20+ years on this river on an early September evening. The air was filling with a small (#18) yellowish mayfly and rises were beginning to mark the surface in that beautiful glide above the large, slow pool. I fished for a half an hour and took three dark, beautiful browns on dries. I could of fished longer but after snapping the leader on the last release I called it a night. The browns fought hard with that bulldog "nose in the gravel" battle that browns are known for.

I've fished this river, this spot, for 26 seasons and have never seen such dry conditions. Even I, who have waved the pom-poms for browns for all these decades, began to lose faith in their survival. I STAND CORRECTED!!!!!

As I say on my home page - Browns are the ONLY trout that belong in the Millers!!

There's your proof!

Ken

Labor Day Weekend On The Swift - So Far..

2010-09-04T14:51:00.000-04:00

I was the first at the "Pipe" at 7:15am this Labor Day Saturday. What a difference a week makes!! The flow at the mid 40cfs range should not have mattered. It didn't a week or so ago when big, dark rainbows charged the fly. My hour alone produced one middle size 'bow. So I walked upstream just below the gauge and cast a few dry fly casts to those riffles. Above me was a young father, a dog and a young daughter. Dad had a fly rod and both he and the girl waded wet across the stream to fish that set of riffles. Dad hooks a trout, the girl is spellbound and the dog even seems interested. It reminded me of years ago when I would take my girls on trips such as this. That dad is doing the right thing!!

Upstream I go to the crib dam. A land a "triple" - 'bows, browns and a brookie!! All are on an olive parachute, size 16. All are small. The rainbows are between 5 and 7 inches, the browns run 7 to 8 inches and the brookie (so beautiful)made the 10 inch mark. For a while I forget that this is a tailwater where cold water means lots of trout, even big trout. For a while I was in a Northern New England state-of-mind!!! I'll take those small fish. They remind me that I am damn lucky to find rising trout at the tail end of a horridly hot and dry Summer here in the Baystate.

You will know when you get there that this water below the "dam" is best fished from the left side, looking upstream.

I've highlighted this section before. A number of you have commented on it (thank you) but I usually still have the place to myself. Then again, I fish during the early morning and in the evenings.

I posted a photo of the short section that is directly across from the hatchery intake. Last year it was the home of rainbows. This year it's the home of brookies!! Here's the catch - there are a lot of 5 inch fish here but if you work the water carefully and totally the 10-12 inch brookie will show. I fish size 18 CDC emergers on a short line. These fish are beautiful and a lot of fun.

I hope to be there tomorrow (or maybe Bondsville)

Ken

The Swift - 8/26 through 8/29

2010-08-29T15:04:00.000-04:00

The 122cfs flow fell like a rock on this Thursday afternoon. A 7:am check read 112cfs but at noon the flow was shut down to the 45cfs level and that was the story for the "pipe" section. Where were the trout?? They were there!! I took 13 below the pipe using scud patterns with and without a bead head. These fish were BIG, dark colored bows.

Sunday morning, 8/29 - I'm the only one there from 7am until 8:45am. I took 10 using a size 14 flashback scud with a micro-shot about a foot above the fly. It was heaven!! By 10AM I had 5 fly fishers working this area so I took a look upstream. Just across from the intake I saw rising trout. The place was alive with rising brookies, all small, but RISING!! I took 7 of these beautiful fish on size 18 dries. All of the brookies were between 6 and 9 inches but they made the morning for me!! My 4wt seemed heavy for these guys. The 3wt was in the car, the 2wt bamboo was back home. Go with what you have!!

The Swift is a special place. Cold water, an good flow (60CFS would be PERFECT) and lots of trout that are wise to us fly fishers!!!

The Swift - 8/21 Through Now

2010-08-25T18:08:00.000-04:00

It was strange to find myself at the "Pipe", at 10:30am on a weekend morning, and find NOBODY THERE!! The trout were there, maybe not in the numbers of seasons past, but they were there and the few souls who ventured there caught fish. The 'bows were old timers, nice and dark, as was the tiny five inch brown that also came to the net. I took five, two on hot spots and three on hoppers (yes!!).

Bondsville had me dualing with some very selective fish last Friday evening. Rainbows and brookies were working the surface but I could only manage three fish. The rest kept me puzzled. A rise here, a rise there but nothing chasing the sparse mayfly hatch that was in the air. In any event it was fun.

I'm still praying for rain to bring the Millers back to normal. September is approaching and that is my favorite month on that river.

Ken

Plum Island Strpers And Blues

2010-08-15T18:36:00.001-04:00

It was a much need break from the drought and heat that has blasted the trout fishing scene through much of New England. It had been two years since I took out the 8wt or tied up anything larger than a size 4 but I did just that to prep myself for a week at Plum Island. I had some good early morning tide changes to play with which would leave the rest of the day to spend with my other half. Not a bad deal!!

The first thing that I wanted to do was catch a blue for the grill. That was easy and it was delicious. The second thing was to break the 28 inch striped bass barrier, a feat that I hadn't accomplished in 15 years. That wasn't easy! This shore bound angler got as close as 24 inches with one of the two bass that I landed. That's when blog reader Jim Chase came to the rescue.

Jim, by the way, is a Plum Island resident and had read that I was staying there. He called me and extended an invitation to get "on the water". Invitation accepted!! At 5:15AM we were heading down to the mouth of the Merrimack in Jim's 21 footer. The next four hours were pretty good if you like catching striped bass!!

A few notes must be made:

1. Jim knows what he's doing. His 10wt and large flies resulted in 15+ fish in the 24 to 36 inch range.

2. My 8wt was not up to the task of throwing the large flies (rambos) or fighting the wind. Note to self: invest in a heavier option!!

3. I had forgotten that my backing was a goofy yellow color. I saw my backing on a number of runs. Thanks Jim!

4. I have no "sea legs".

5. I still managed to cast well enough to take 5 bass. The 28 inch barrier was broken!!! Thanks again Jim!!

I'm back home in Northampton where I plan to hit the lower Swift in a day or so. I've noticed that this Bondsville section is now being mentioned on various blogs and forums which I think is a good thing. I'm also scouring the internet for a 10wt set up which will not break the bank. That will be a good thing too!!

Ken

July - A Review

2010-08-01T16:36:00.001-04:00

It may have been the hottest and driest July on record or at least it was in my memory. I've always said that heat by itself is not the culprit in slamming trout streams but that drought is the main enemy. 2006 is a good example - very hot BUT very wet and the fishing held up on the Millers. This year is another story. The photo of the lone fly fisher was taken on July 31 from the bridge on Bridge St. looking downstream. Too much exposed stream bed for my taste. Pray for rain!!

The EB - I'm waiting for a good deluge here too.

And that leaves the Swift, especially the Bondsville section that has been a pleasant surprise. With the exception of today (8/1) I've caught trout on every outing. The dry fly fishing has been great. I don't know what's up with the flow on this river which has seen levels of 38cfs 115cfs, 55cfs, 38cfs, and now 110cfs over the past three weeks. I'm not complaining. It's COLD water and there's plenty of it.

On August 7th I head to Plum Island for a week of striper chasing. Maybe my week at the beach will end the drought!! I'll squeeze in a trip or two this week in the evening. Maybe the EB!!

Ken

The Lower Swift - Very Different And Very Cool!

2010-07-21T17:18:00.000-04:00

The Heat is on and has been on for three weeks. Add in a lack of rain over the last two months and you will a situation that we don't want to see. The Millers is too low to fish and the EB is right behind it. That leaves our little tailwater - the Swift.

Late afternoon on July 20th found me eyeing the 8-10 cars at the Y Pool lot. No way!! The "Pipe" section had almost as many. It was then that the old idea came back - what about the Lower Swift? Not Cady Lane but much further downstream, that Bondsville section. Why not.

Five miles later found me looking at a river that was totally different than its upstream section. Gone were the shallow, placid runs with their sand and gravel bottom. In their place was a shaded, turbulent (for the Swift) river with plenty of boulders but with plenty of deep pools mixed in with plenty of riffles. What was also missing from the lower river were the hordes of anglers (I was alone)and the kayaks and tubers! The water was clear but not the gin clear condition seen miles upstream. One thing that it had in common with the river around rt9 was the water temperature. It registered 62 degrees which was surprising when one thinks of the impoundments just upstream.

The fishing - it was all dry fly. First with a stimulator in the heavier water and ending with #16 sulphurs as the hatch began. I took ten rainbows on this trip and they ran from some pint sized 10 inch trout to a few that pushed the fifteen inch mark. BTW, this place is a nymph fishers dream. It's classic water is that respect.

So, in this horrid Summer I have found an intimate, shaded river that looks like a mountain stream that is running in the low 60 degree range. Will it now become crowded?? I doubt it. The "Y" and the "Pipe" will continue to draw their faithful but if you are looking for some solitude go WAY down river!!

A Millers Update

2010-07-16T17:04:00.001-04:00

Let's backcast a bit. 1993, 1995, 2002, 2007 and now 2010. These are the low water/drought seasons that I have witnessed on this river. One would think that after two high water blow out seasons in 2008 and 2009 we would have a "normal season". No such luck! The Millers is very low and warmer than we would like to see. What does this mean?? Are the trout dead and gone?? Is the season a waste??

The answer is NO!! If this season is like the previously mentioned seasons we will know one thing - the browns will weather this condition and will begin to play with us once the rains come or the water temperatures drop. 2007 was a a good example. Heat and low water brought fishing to a stop in July but August and September, with it's lower temperatures, brought the river back to life with minimal rain. I helped land that 22 inch brown that took a dry in very skinny water in early September!

We need some rain. Enough rain to raise the Erving section to about 200cfs. That will get things going for the evening angler. With enough rain the September fly fisher will have some memorable morning outings. By late September we will all be able to fish over rising browns during most hours.

The rainbows - say "goodbye"!! In every one of the above mentioned years this breed of trout failed to make it through the Summer. Be it angler survey or electro shocking survey rainbows give up the ghost so to speak. THIS IS A BROWN TROUT RIVER, PURE AND SIMPLE!!

I love this river! After 25 years I have a good feel for how it works especially under these conditions. Every one of the previously mentioned "dry seasons" had very good Autumn season. The browns make it through this condition. They will be waiting. I'll be ready for them!!

I'll keep you posted.

Ken

P.S. There were rising browns below Whetstone Brook this week. That's their refuge under these conditions and I didn't have the mind or heart to go after them. Try a bugger for the smallmouth who will play with you. Try exploring the lower river below the Bridge Street Pool for these critters.

The Swift - Very Cool

2010-07-10T10:29:00.001-04:00

This long, hot, dry spell has made the Swift an oasis. Water temperatures at the Pipe section range from 55 to 58 degrees and now we have a recent stocking. Along with the hot weather/cool water come the kayaks, rafts, tubes (see above photo) which put things on hold for us. The fishing - it's been good. Not up to the best that this section serves up but good anyway. Serendipities seem to get the job done. So have beetles on the surface. I took the advice of one fly fisher and tied on the only one that I had. The result - caught one and then lost the beetle on another fish.

Check out the section above the pump house. There's always rising trout there.

Ken

EB And Millers Update

2010-07-01T17:51:00.000-04:00

What a difference a year makes. The water is LOW, everywhere!! But even with these conditions one can find decent fly fishing. The EB - Tuesday evening found low flows BUT rising trout. All the action started after 6pm, first in the shaded pools with rising fish. Size 16 sulphurs brought the 'bows up although I didn't see one brown joining in. Last night I hit the Kempfield Pool on the Millers where I saw the same odd surface action that I saw during the low water June of '07 - browns flying out of the water on the south bank of the long, slow pool at the end of this stretch. Their action was "odd". These fish were smashing the surface or jumping two feet into the air for SOMETHING!! The surface was littered with sulphur spinners but that's not what they wanted. I caught one on a spinner out of the dozen that playing around. After a while I quit that scene and managed two browns among the rocks upstream. The ROCKS - I've always said that dry fly action starts when you can see the rocks. Well, the rocks are now one to two feet above the surface. We need rain!!!

Hit these rivers in the early morning or in the evening. The water temperature is ok and with a morning air temperature today of 46 degrees and with 43 degrees predicted for Friday morning things will not heat up too badly.

Pray for rain, the exact opposite of the last two years.

Ken

The Swift Is Normal (?) Again

2010-06-28T16:44:00.001-04:00

It's been a busy week but not on the fly fishing scene. Work, family and thunderstorms canceled out my planned trips to the local waters. On the 21st I fished the "Pipe" section with the flow around 100cfs. By Thursday it had dropped to 38cfs which is about a bit below normal but ok. Sunday I guided on this section. We had great low flow, a 54 degree water temperature and ONE OTHER FLY FISHER!!! The reasons: High water for the last two months have scattered the trout(maybe)or the hardware guys fished them out (maybe again). The trout were certainly there but in less numbers than before. We had some on. The "one other fly fisher" floated the theory that with the end of the hardware season on 7/1 the DFW will bless us with a summertime stocking. Let's hope so.

Now, for a great story. The "one other fly fisher" hooked a large 'bow (20inch) about 30 feet below the pipe. The fish tore off downstream and then went flying upstream, dragging the fly fisher with him. Up PAST the pump house the bow went with his angler in tow. The last I saw of them was as they rounded the bend in the stream, at least 150 yards+ from the spot of the strike.

Maybe a foul hook but entertaining anyway!!

Ken

This Past Weekend On The EB

2010-06-22T17:26:00.000-04:00

The EB of the Westfield was my place this weekend. Summer is here and with it comes a change in tactics. You can fish during banking hours or you can fish in the evening or early morning if you want to catch trout. Both times worked for me. I was there on the evening of June 19th. A "new" spot just below the final gate yielded a good time but no trout. Upstream, at the Slant Rock Pool, brought one brown and a few misses to my dry fly offering. Then came the Bliss Pool . Browns and 'bows came to a #16 olive emmerger which made a nice end to the evening.

Sunday morning I set the alarm for 4:30am but managed to "sleep in" - a major error. I like being the first at the Swift! I goofed, pure and simple. So off to the EB I went to salvage a few hours. My two hours were well spent at Slant Rock and at the Bliss. Browns and 'Bows were working the surface between 8 and 10am. I caught a bunch!!!! Basically any olive dun/emmerger in size 16 did the trick. Water temperature was around 70 in the evening and around 55 in the morning. This was great fly fishing!!!

Went to the "pipe" on the Swift on Monday evening ( 6/21). STRUCK OUT in two hours. Took a water temperature and it read 64 degrees. So I ask: just a bad outing for me or are we in the doldrums for this spot?

I can honestly say that Summer Fly Fishing is may favorite time to cast a fly to eager trout. It's the most exciting form of fly fishing. On the Millers and the EB of the Westfield it lasts all Summer!!

Ken

Saturday Morning On The EB

2010-06-12T16:23:00.001-04:00

The rain was supposed to hold off until mid day but 10am found a light drizzle turning into a light rain turning into a ........ You get the message.

8:45am found me at slant rock pool only because I was too lazy to work the section below the gate a half mile or so into this section. There is a stretch below the gate that has entered my dreams - deep, smooth, classic, but I chickened out. I'll pay for that with "could of, should of" dreams for the next week. Anyway, slant rock forgave me. Five 'bows came to the dry. The tail end of this pool will keep you awake at night. Classic dry fly water!!!!

Next stop was the Bliss Pool. Three more surfaced to take a large stone fly. I made the mistake of tying this #10 stone to a 5x tippet. Talk about a messed up tippet!! 4X brought three 'bows up in the fast water at the head of this pool.

I thought about this river as I cut vines and other invasive growth away from my deck over looking the Mill River this early afternoon. Maybe tonight.......

The above photo is an old photo. I didn't have my camera today. Sorry!!

Ken

Light Cahill Evening On The Millers

2010-06-10T18:00:00.000-04:00

Thomas Ames would call them Cream Cahills or Light Cahills but for the fact that it was a spinner fall that I witnessed I'll call them Cream Cahills BECAUSE he said that light cahill spinners fall long after dusk and these were definitly spinners - dropping gently on the surface, a bounce or two, and then lying flat after that. I think that I'll just call them Light Cahills - close enough.

It was not a blizzard of flies but a steady fall which brought the browns up. The #14 cdc comparaduns fooled enough trout to make the two hours that I was there worthwhile. Where was I??? The Kempfield was the spot. The Upper Trestle Pool did well before "the fall" with a large dry stone fooling some bows and browns in the fast water at the head of this stretch. when was I there?? Monday night and I had the river all to myself.

It's Summer on the Millers and evenings will produce for the next few months. Enjoy it if you can!!

Ken

Home Waters

2010-06-05T12:34:00.001-04:00

Sometimes it's right in your back yard. I live in Northampton and the little Mill River flows right behind my house. I've heard of this stream - a seasonal catch and keep flow that serves the Spring time bait and hardware guys for two months before it's forgotten. I've never seen a fly fisher on this water and I have ignored it for better fare on the EB, Swift, Farmington and the Millers rivers. Three years ago I saw a rainbow rise right behind my house on Mothers Day. I thought "dumb 'bow, soon to be the victim of warm water" or something like that. No fly was cast.

But things began to change. On a muggy, hot afternoon last July I saw a bait fisher below one of the dams that cross this river. I threw out the "catch anything" question only to be answered with a stringer of two 14-18 inch rainbows. Hmm.......the fly fishing guide that I own states that the river warms up too much for trout survival during the Summer. I made note of it but didn't fish the river that Summer. This winter I thought that some effort should be made here but May found me on the big waters. Then came Memorial Day. I had some time on my hands at midday so I took a walk along the Mill River. This place is a favorite swimming spot for the locals so it took some time to find undisturbed water. I found it, at noon with the temperatures in the high 80's. I also found RISING TROUT throughout this section!!!

Forward cast to 8am this Saturday morning. Into the Mill River I went with boots, swim trunks and a pocket full of flies and leader material. The first thing that I noticed was that the water was COLD! I've waded wet before and know what Summertime water feels like. This was cold. This water also had a RISING TROUT mid way through the section that I was at. Three casts later the #16 sulphur was taken by a 'bow that ran up and down this this small pool. It was released and swam off like a rocket. Two more trout were seen rising at the head of this section. My first thoughts were "this will be easy" BUT I managed to put both of these guys down.

This was fun. A little 3wt, small flies, short casts and nobody around!!!! It was almost like having my own private trout stream!!!

I'll spend more time here this Summer. If we have normal rainfall this season this place will be very nice.

Ken

The Millers In Summer Mode

2010-06-01T20:28:00.001-04:00

Maybe it was the string of thunderstorms that rolled through the Millers valley on this Memorial Day Saturday because the parking spot at Wendell Depot was EMPTY at 4pm. The threat of lightning kept me car bound for a good half hour before I headed upstream to the Upper Trestle Pool. Conditions were perfect but the trout, with the exception of one rainbow, didn't want to play. Two fly rodding gents waved and headed upstream. I, in turn, headed for the Kempfield where I had the place to myself. Nothing was working the surface at the head or middle of the stretch BUT trout were making some splashy rises in the calm water of the big pool. The rises said "caddis" but there certainly was a lack of this insect in the air. Then I noticed that the shoreline on my side of the river was swarming with dark caddis. The logical choice was made and for an hour I threw adult and emerger imitations with no results. These fish were cruising around with no set positions which gave the game a "chuck and chance it" feel.

I was about to throw in the towel when I saw a rise in the current. One rise and then another = a trout in a feeding location. Off came the caddis and on went a dark tan cdc dun. It only took two casts before I set the hook. A few minutes later I was admiring the brute, a beautiful brown that ran about 18 inches. It was well worth the wait!!!

The Millers has entered it's summer phase. Mornings and evenings will be the rule until September. I love Summer evenings on the Millers. So do the Browns!!

A Really Nicely Looking Hatch On The EB

2010-05-26T20:11:00.000-04:00

It was Tuesday evening and it was HOT as most of you know. I figured that it would be a good idea to hit the East Branch to tempt some trout to rise or at least just cool off. That's when I was fortunate to glimpse the rare EB hatch that I had only heard about. It's a hatch that only occurs in the hottest weather. As I drove down the dirt road by the first turnoff there she was. Twenty something, good looking and totally sans clothing!
Her and her friend (in swimwear) didn't seem to mind my rubber neck response or the fact that the Gorge had a good number of people in it. Sorry, no photos!

Now for the fly fishing. The Bliss Pool was occupied so down the road I went to the Slant Rock Pool. I made one pass upstream through this gem of a stretch with my dry offering but I knew that the blazing sun would have to set a bit and put this pool in an evening shadow before I'd see any surface action. The sun left the water and at 6:30 I saw my first rise. A second rise came a few minutes later. That's when I and a #16 olive cdc dry began to ply the water.

Forty minutes later I took my fifth trout. Four 'bows and a nice brown came to the net and then quickly swam away upon release.

The water dropped below the 100cfs mark today. The flow is still adequate for the fish but we need some rain. A good, local thunderstorm will bring this river up. A good day and a half of light rain would be better.

Ken

Another Millers/Westfield Update

2010-05-24T20:05:00.001-04:00

Things couldn't be much better on these two rivers. On the 19th I took two hours in the evening on the EB and had great dry fly fishing for rising rainbows using a hendrickson spinner. That hatch, which is over on this river, still produced. I guess the trout have good memories!

The Millers, with it's LOW WATER, is doing very nicely! Browns and rainbows are hitting the surface and March Browns are beginning to make their appearance and should be doing their thing for the next month. Times are good!!

Something to watch - we could use a little rain. Just a light, steady rain that would last for a day. Not the monster downpours of the last two years. That would be good!!

I'm starting to think of the Swift again. The flows have become reasonable which gives us a third option. I'd love to hit all three this week. That would be GREAT!!

kEN

The Millers And The Westfield - An Update

2010-05-17T19:56:00.000-04:00

It probably can't get any better on the Millers right now. The browns are in and with the holdover browns that we have been catching a great Spring and Summer are in store as long as the flow levels stay reasonable. The surface action has been great this month which is an added bonus since May has always been "average" on this river as far as dry fly fishing is concerned.

The Westfield - I know that the EB gets a big slug of 'bows a few days before TU's weekend jamboree but I decided to check the place out anyway Sunday morning. The Gorge seemed empty which leads one to believe that angling was not up to the usual standard. But I was on a mission to get those quill body drys that I tied up this winter off my brain. As it turned out I began to see the occasional rise from the Bliss Pool. Six trout came to the fly and I landed three in the two and a half hours that I fished. It was great watching those #16 drys gliding back towards me with the occasional 'bow rising from the depths to make contact!!

That's dry fly fishing!!!!!!

Ken

If A Tree Falls Into The Kempfield Pool.......

2010-05-11T17:41:00.000-04:00

Word had it that a giant pine blew down into the Kempfield a week or so ago. My first thoughts were that it had hopefully fallen into the quite water below the mouth of Whetestone Brook and NOT ABOVE IT. That would ruin the best spot on this stretch. Thankfully it landed below the mouth of the brook across from the large boulders marking the beginning of the slow water. In fact, it probably IMPROVED the flow by channeling floating (flies) material away from the south bank and closer to the north bank where the approach is ALWAYS best.

The browns are in at the bears den and folks are catching them. The lower section gets their browns on the 14th but we have been catching holdover browns and stocked rainbows regardless.

Hit the river. It's prime time for the Millers!!!

Millers Sunday

2010-05-03T16:01:00.001-04:00

I guided a fellow from New Hampshire on his first Millers trip on Sunday. We started at the Bridge Pool in Farley where he lost two good fish. After a while we headed upstream to Erving Center and fished below the end of the C&R. Again we had a good fish on but it throw the hook. Finally we made our way to the Kempfield Pool where we were greeted with a good number of rising browns. My client caught his first two trout on dry flies!! The first holdover brown was an easy 18 inches, the second just a bit shy of that. They both fell to a size 14 BWO dun. After the guiding session I went back and caught one of the two remaining browns that were still rising. They were all dark, beautiful fish!!

It was a good way to start the season.

One note: there's no such place as the Power Station or Power Pool on the Millers. The real name is the Kempfield Pool and it is a name that was used in the 1940's and that is documented. The "Power" label was thrown at this beautiful stretch about ten years ago by people who park near an electrical sub-station and fish from the WRONG side of the river.

Ken

The Millers - Now is the TIME!

2010-04-29T20:27:00.000-04:00

Hit this river NOW!! The last two years have been crazy with flows that broken records over the last two Summers. But this dry April has gotten this river down below 500cfs which is PRIME as far as flows are concerned. The browns go in on the first two Fridays in May but the bows have provided plenty of sport. Even the hendricksons are getting into the act on the lower river.

Temperatures will be in the '80's this weekend. It should be great!!!!! See you there!!

The photo is from the Cable Pool on the lower Millers.

Millers Update

2010-04-17T18:05:00.001-04:00

Saturday, April 17, and the Erving gauge reads 820cfs. The Bears Den comes in at 465cfs. It's hard to believe but April has been a bit on the dry side and the flow readings are showing that. In fact, the Millers is running BELOW normal. If the Bears Den reading is to be believed then we can safely say that it is very fishable right now. Once the Erving gauge hits 500cfs we will be out there regardless of the stocking reports. BTW, the DFW site says that the lower Millers has been stocked a few weeks ago. If it was then the trout (rainbows) will be scattered due to the high water at that time. It appears that the Bears Den will get it's browns on May 7th with the lower C&R getting it's browns on the 14th. That's when the season starts for me!!!

The above photo is of the pool at the mouth of Mormon Hollow Brook on the LOWER river. I love fishing this section starting at the Bridge Pool and working downstream. It's lonesome fishing for sure. Very few want to take the walk to get there but it is certainly worth the trip. An added bonus in this section is the awesome smallmouth fishing. I'm not talking about 8 to 10 inch bass but bass that are 15inches plus!! In May and June, I've been told, that smallies come up from the Connecticut River to spawn and these fish are BIG! They're measured in POUNDS, not inches. I can't say if the spawning theory is true but I've caught many big bass here that may be Millers River bass.

Here's a fishing trip for you: start in the late morning during June swinging buggers, muddlers or leeches through the big pools and runs of the lower Millers. Fish through the afternoon catching good size bass and some trout. Have a sandwich around 5pm and then head upstream to the Kempfield or the Upper Trestle for the evening rise. THAT would be a good day on the Millers!!

The Lady with the bass?? Caught on the lower Millers on a June afternoon.

April Update

2010-04-12T19:53:00.000-04:00

Elliot said that April was the cruelest month. He must have been a Massachusetts fly fisher!!! The Swift and the Millers are roaring along at flood stage. The EB and the other branches of the Westfield have been stocked (they say) but nobody is catching anything and it appears that very few are fishing. I made a dawn trip to the Middle Branch Saturday morning. Nothing - and no other fishermen. I took a walk through the EB in the early afternoon. The water looked good but I saw only two fly fishers. The road is still closed AND the "Bliss" sign was crushed by a falling tree over the winter!! My neighbor fished the main stem of the Westfield Sunday morning. No fish!!

Things will get better!!!!

Remembering Days Past - Opening Day

2010-04-02T17:44:00.000-04:00

If you are under 30 years old you will not remember this. If you are 40 years old you may have heard the stories. If you are over 50 years old then you just may have been part of a ritual that has long since disappeared and it is a benefit to you that it is gone. I'm talking about OPENING DAY OF FISHING IN MASSACHUSETTS!!!

It's February 28, any year before 1978, and as the sun sets on the last of the ice fishermen, the fishing season ENDS. Trout, perch, bass, horned pout, it doesn't matter. It's over!! And it will not resume until the third Saturday in April. Most of us fly fishers will not cry too much. It's WINTER, the streams and rivers have been chocked with snow and ice for months and our thoughts are somewhere else, not to be ignited with January fly fishing shows (they didn't exist back then) or internet forums (they didn't exist back then) or by a mailbox stuffed with fly fishing magazines (only Flyfisherman Magazine). We were ok, content to slumber the dark months away UNTIL that first WARM DAY in February!! Then it happens! It's a genetic predisposition. The days seemed warmer then they actually were, the streams, buried in late Winter snow and ice, actually begin to seem FISHABLE!! We begin to start sorting through fly rods and reels and lines and start tying flies, flies, flies!! And we then do the hardest thing - we check the calendar and count the days - to OPENING DAY!! It's two months away!!

It's the worst time of the year. Lunches are spent with brown bag trips to ANY tackle shop that has ANY fly fishing gear. We may actually go to a TU meeting for a quick fix and to be among the suffering. We devour Orvis catalogs and fill out orders for everything that we will never use. We make phone calls (no internet, remember) to buddies about stream conditions, hot flies, where they will stock and everything else. And then, just when all hope seems lost and that we will be victim to an early death or a transfer to Alabama, IT'S THE NIGHT BEFORE FISHING!

THE NIGHT BEFORE FISHING was a special time. It was handled in two different ways. The first way was to have a full nights sleep, wake at 5:30am, leisurely load the car with gear, meet your buddy at some fisherman's breakfast in some church basement and then hit the river around 8:00 am. These people do not deserve to fish, period! There is only one way to approach Opening Day and that is the SECOND WAY!! The second way resembled the Normandy Invasion. All gear was vehicle stored by 7:oo pm the night before against an inventory check off list! Lunch (peanut butter sandwich) was pre made and ready! Coffee makers with timers didn't exist back then. Instant coffee had to do. Breakfast was a hard boiled egg and a leftover donut. The alarm was set for 3:30am and you did not oversleep because you have been lying there half awake for hours like a loaded trigger. You ARE to be on the river at 5:am.

There were two weather conditions that you could count on for Opening Day. The first condition was that four or five days before the blessed event the temperatures would hit the 60's and the rivers would BE GREAT CONDITION! The second condition was that a front would roll through fortyeight hours before with two inches of rain (and snow) and the rivers would be blown out. 4:00am would find a cold rain or if you were lucky a cold drizzle. It didn't matter. It was Opening Day! A third condition was that you would be up to your shins in snow that had refused to melt.

You drove like a madman through the predawn darkness knowing that every set of headlights that you saw was driven by a madman with the same intentions: to get to the river before anyone else. You flew down the country roads with a silent prayer - please let me the first to get to the head of my favorite pool on my favorite river to cast my favorite fly to release the demons that have tortured me for two months.

NO WAY!

You are met with bundled warriors, packed shoulder to shoulder, slinging crawlers, mepps spinners, daredevils (yes, it's true), shiners and the occasional fly. Some of these warriors will be taking that one extra step that will put them over their waders. Some of these warriors will be 1/3 of the way to a brutal hangover. Your line will be tangled up with the above warrior's contraptions on many occasions BUT it will all seem to fall into a cosmic order when you feel the HIT.! Some shop worn rainbow will come to your net while a dozen flings by the unlucky are made to where you had just cast. All will seem worthwhile, some how.

Massachusetts put and end to this cruelty except for places like Quabbin and Wachusett. Those folk carry on the tradition under far less trying conditions. They can have it.

Sunday Morning On The Swift

2010-03-28T13:40:00.000-04:00

It was a bit strange to see only one car at the Y Pool lot at 7:30. It was Reed, a Swift River regular, who was just suiting up. We took a walk up to the "brook" which is the only spot that hasn't been flooded out as of yet. I'm not giving away any secret locations here. At 300cfs the "brook" is known by now as the only spot that gives the regulars the opportunity to do some "Swift River Fly Fishing" - fine tippets and tiny flies.

I went upstream as far as the law allows and fished with a size 20 red hot spot. I took seven in those two hours fishing directly upstream and letting that tiny fly drift back. It was worth it even with that slow leak in my waders that I thought that I had fixed. Note to self: get new waders!!

It would be nice to be able to get closer to the "bubbler". I saw some fish rising just beyond the "do not enter sign". Maybe in the future that will happen.

Spring is an odd time. Years ago I would ply the swollen rivers with HEAVY flies to fish for recently stocked trout and loved every minute of it. Now my dreams are centered on lower water and fish that have wised up. The Swift can still deliver on that account. Someday I will write about the era of OPENING DAY when three months of fishing angst would end with more angst (usually). I have many stories to tell!!!

Our favorite rivers will fall from their high, angry flows soon enough. Soon the Hendericksons, Quill Gordons and March Browns will appear and we will wonder why we even bothered to tie all those Wooley Buggers!!!

Spring On The Swift - Days 2, 3, and 4

2010-03-18T15:21:00.000-04:00

Four straight days of fly fishing the only water in Massachusetts (maybe New England) that's fit for fly fishing! The Swift has been spared the floods that have blown out every trout stream within a days drive. At 200cfs the section below rt 9 (the pipe) is still fishable if one fishes deep enough. I fished that section and above rt 9 and I have had four very good days. Size 18 through size 22 in hotspots and tiny jailbirds (maybe I should call them "jailbaits" at that size) worked very well on 6x early in the AM and 7x when the sun was out above rt 9. Most of the anglers that I saw were plying the Y Pool and I believe that they took some trout. Word has it that smelt patterns were taking, or showed some interest to, the Y Pool trout. I fished differently and had a ball!!!

The hotspot worked well today with a red middle section showing the most interest. Frankly, I now believe that "hot" patterns cool off quickly in the water that I was fishing. I think that the trout just see too much of one pattern and it will take another, of similar size, to continually fool them.

Soon our favorite rivers will recede and we will start dreaming of Hendricksons! Until then It's the Swift!!

Spring On The Swift - Day 1

2010-03-15T18:38:00.000-04:00

SPRING starts now, not in five days! At least that's my feeling as I head out for the Swift this week. The rains of the weekend continued into today. Even though the river has risen over the last forty eight hours from about 140 to 190cfs it is still fishable below rt9. I made it to the pipe at 10am and had the place to myself. I took six small 'bows, four on a weighted scud and two on a serendipity and would have been content to stay more than the 1 1/2 hours that I was there if it wasn't for the flush of debris that came flying through the pipe. Tons of pine needles and leaves made drifting a fly impossible. So off to the Y Pool I went. At the bubbler arm I met Ryan and Reed who were drifting that skinny water and catching fish. I got into the act with a hotspots and jailbirds in size 18 bringing in another six. The fish here are larger than what I've been catching at the pipe but a lot harder to fool. They know you are there!!

I caught the hatchery staff in the act of loading their stocking truck or at least that's what I think they were doing. It wouldn't be long now.

Sunday presentation at Charlie Shaden's Fly Shop was a blast. Lots of fly folks. At times it seemed like a Blog reunion!!

Ken

Indicators - A Second Look

2010-03-07T14:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, I don't like indicators and seldom, if ever, use them but a little web browsing brought this to my attention. I've heard of using cdc feathers but I can say that I've never seen them used by anyone. Everyone on the Swift uses balsa, cork, foam and yarn (I hate yarn) and the trees are full of them. This web article talked about how trout in certain heavily fished streams are becoming shy of these day glow bobbers BUT are not wary of cdc. It's a feather and looks natural. Ok, I took the bait (sorry for using that term), deciding to put on the "training wheels" (sorry again, I saw the term and it sounded funny) and worked up a feather indicator to use today if I could force myself to do it. I took three WHITE (no bright colors, it had to be natural) cdc feathers and tied them to a six inch piece of 3x tippet. I cut off the tag end leaving about four inches of leader material. I then attached the remaining tippet end to my leader a few feet up from the #14 fly that I intended to use. The "indicator" was positioned about a 1/2 inch from my leader. Here's what happened. The cdc rig didn't hit the surface with the customary "plop" one sees with the usual materials but nestled gently onto the water surface like, well, a feather!! The fly and the micro-shot didn't pull the indicator under. Only the trout did!! These stupid feathers floated like hell and looked TOTALLY NATURAL. I was able to adjust the depth by moving the knot up or down. It worked very well. I took five in the pipe section under crowded conditions.

Now, does this mean that I've sold my soul to indicators? The answer is NO. I will continue to fish "commando style" going forward BUT on those certain days when the sun warms the early morning water and the trout start to move around in mid current I'll have a few of these "rigs" to possibily save the day.

Don't get any goofy ideas that cdc will work with a heavily weighted, size 6 stonefly. It's a "little" fly rig. Also, at the end of the day you can pull the feathers off the leader attachment and toss them into the air. You're not littering. They're only feathers!!!

Ken

Late Winter Or Early Spring On The Swift

2010-03-04T16:52:00.000-05:00

One has to make hay while the sun shines or at least when the temperature is in the lower 40's and it's not snowing. I had the pipe section pretty much to myself for about two hours except for the last hour when I fished with two regulars, Art and Dan. The place "seemed" pretty dead until we were graced with the "hatchery hatch", the flush of old pellets and other things that flowed via the pipe. The place came alive with dozens of trout working the surface. This "hatch" resulted in zero fish. I took three before this event. Two on a red serendipity and a dark brown on a quill bodied nymph tied on a scud hook. I've had quill bodies on the brain for a month so catching this fish was fun.

I tried a new (for me, anyway) approach to fishing the "tree pool". I went in from the pipe side and worked my way down against the steep bank. It gave the fly a nice drift and I think that the trout were not expecting that presentation. It worked!!

15 more days until SPRING!!

The EB at Charlie's Evening Sun Fly Shop!!

2010-03-02T19:26:00.001-05:00

So, what have I been doing for the last month? TYING FLIES!!!!! I've left the Swift River alone and not really by choice since I had some vacation time and some personal matters to deal with over the past month which have sucked up the weekend hours. If it were June I'd have hours of evening fishing to write about but February will put the damper on that. Anyway, I love the time at the vise and have a lot of patterns (dry, of course) to try out during those great months starting in May.

Now, if you would like to get to know the East Branch of the Westfield River then show up at the EVENING SUN FLY SHOP at 11:30 on Sunday, March 14th. I'll be doing a slide presentation that can be best labeled as a QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO THE BEST SPOTS on this river. If you've had limited experience on this stream this presentation will save you a lot of time. Locations, methods and flies will all be discussed. And if we have time (I'll make time) I'll do the Millers presentation again! I've really enjoyed these get togethers and I'm looking forward to this one.

Check the link on this blog for the EVENING SUN FLY SHOP for directions. Charlie Shaden runs the best fly shop in the Northeast!! I highly recommend it for all of your fly fishing needs! I bought my best rod from Charlie!!

The above fly is a cdc March Brown spinner. It floats like a cork!!! I'm working my comparaduns over from deerhair to cdc. It gives a nice profile, floats really well in all types of water and is easier to tie in smaller sizes.

The temperature hit 48 degrees today!!!! I've got the fever!!!!!!

A Reliable Caddis Emerger

2010-02-18T17:46:00.000-05:00

I have a few caddis emerger patterns that I've used throughout the years and they range from soft hackle styles to my wet fly version on the Moby Dick but this fly deserves some attention. Back cast 20 years ago to an evening on the Deerfield where the Cold River empties into the Deerfield. I'm fishing this pool with an old Millers friend, Rick Flamatti, and he is nailing one trout after another. He says he has a caddis emerger on and so do I BUT the results were night and day. My fly catches one, his fly catches many more. Finally he shows me the pattern and since that night I've kept a few, in different colors, with me. It looks very much like Tom Ames Caddis Emerger which it probably is but this fly predates his book and I thank Rick for it.

Tie it like this:

Hook - size 12-14 scud hook (wet or dry fly hooks work too)
Body - fuzzy gray or fuzzy tan depending on what's hatching
Hackle - dark partridge tied sparse behind the head
Head - I like ostrich either in in black or dark brown. Just two or three turns.

This fly works great just under the surface in choppy water.

It's a great fly and we should be using it in about three months which right now seems like years away!!

Ken

Sunday Morning On The Upper Swift

2010-02-15T18:24:00.001-05:00

Maybe that week in Jamaica has made me soft. I kind of liked the sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80's. Maybe that's why I slept in and then went out for a leisurely breakfast instead of hitting the Swift at 8am. I did hit the Swift at 10am to check out the Y Pool area. I didn't have the time to fish due to some obligations. Just enough time to take some photos. There were some fish caught in the 45 minutes that I was there above the Y and at the Y. I was asked what I was doing out of uniform. I had to ask myself that when I saw that repeat riser!!!

I hope to get out later this week. Until then.....