The Ups And Downs Of Tailwaters

 

Kempfield Pool on the Millers

Tailwaters drive me crazy especially on a cold wet Spring such as we have had this year. The Swift turned into a freestone want-to-be with a 3 month flood with its flow overtaking rivers like the EB and the Ware. It is, as we know, an artificial river with it's flows mainly controlled by the guys who run Quabbin. Frankly, I like the Swift on days in the dead of Summer but I really love the freestones like the Millers, EB and the Ware on Summer evenings. They are not artificial rivers and are not crowded like the Swift or the Farmington. It is the way trout fishing used to be before tailwaters were invented in the mid 20th century.

Freestone Conditions

The Millers, Ware and the EB are perfect now!!  Try to hit them now in the evening which in the best time!!!

Ken

The Redhead Rabbit

 

This fly is another "old school fly" without any artificial material in it's construction. (I'll give myself a pass on the nylon thread and the metal hooks and wire). Other than that it could of been tied in 1900!

Hook - size 8, 10, or 12 standard wet or dry fly hook

Body - It's all rabbit including the tail and dubbed loosely then held in place with fine copper wire.

If you want  you can weigh it with lead free wire or just drop shot it.

Hackle - I like partridge but any soft hackle will do

Head - As I mentioned the body is rabbit (natural color) except for the head which is RED rabbit fur.

 

Try it!!

The Rivers

Swift - 401 cfs.  It's getting there

Millers - 765. Same shape as the Swift

The Ware - 179 cfs which is perfect  It's fishing well

The EB - 240 cfs

Don't forget Mom tomorrow!!!!!

Ken

Ken

The Worm hook Streamer

 

Make it simple and make it work.  That's what I was thinking when I worked up this fly. There is no body other than the hook shank ( 2/0 Eagle Claw worm hook), a  white  bucktail throat, a blue bucktail wing and a topping of peacock.  It took my first striper of the season on top of that.

I have to admit that this isn't the first time I used this style of fly.  I took some to Florida in a size 4/0 and took some outsized bluefish and then promptly forgot about it after I got back home. That will not happen again!  It's part of my saltwater game plan going forward.

There is no wind resistance with this fly which always seems to be a problem when I'm in the salt.

Ken

Old School Tying

 

"When your friend on the next pool tells you that he's just seen a few "Sulphurs" hatching he is really just suggesting a fly pattern, because the name might mean anything from a size 24 Baetid to a size 10 Anthopotamus Distinctus, two insects with very different behavior.- Thomas Ames Jr.

It was back in the mid 1990's when we had a good Spring flood, nothing like this year, but still epic.  It didn't keep me off the Millers but it kept me fishing from the shore and fishing from the shore sucks.  So did the tackle I concocted to get the distance and depth required: a 9 ft 8wt loaded with mono running line. At the business end of this mess was one of a few lead jig hooks  tied up to look and act like shad flies.

Long story short.  I caught a few clonebows and then went home realizing that there is more to fishing than catching fish and if I'm not casting a REAL fly line I'm not flyfishing and if my fly resembles a depth charge instead of an insect I'm also not flyfishing.

I would rather fish with the fly pictured above than with a day glow bead head any day. 

It's just me but probably not you!!

The Rivers - 

Millers - 779

Swift    - 615

EB       -688

Ware    - 242  The Ware is your best bet

Ken

Once Upon A Time........

 

"Give a man a fish and he has food for the day. Teach him how to fish and you can get rid of him for the entire weekend." - Zenna Schaffer

Red Quill

The dry fly was created in Jolly Olde England by a Mr. Frederic Halford. Samples were sent by mail to a Mr. Theodore Gordon in the USA who immediately began to modify them. This transaction changed the lives of both of these men and anyone who else who liked the idea of catching trout on a floating fly.

The first generation of transatlantic flies floated on stiff hackle tips and really didn't look much like the natural aquatic insects they were supposed to imitate. Improvements came quickly in the form of better floatants, thinner tippet material, better roosters and a million other things that has jacked up the price of our pastoral pastime into the thousands of dollars not counting travel and lodging expenses!

The mantra of many of us is: If I can afford it I'll do it. That is music to the ears of me, a former salesman. But my head still spins when I think of a guy I met who was into the sport for less than 10 years but had over 50 fly rods. I told him that they have treatments for that compulsion. 

He just laughed!

The rivers are dropping.

The Worst Spring

    " Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction"-Steve Mathewson

Yes, some of the rivers are receding and some are not.  The Millers dropped 690 cfs in the last two days. At 2550 cfs it's in tough shape but heading in the right direction.

The Ware has dropped 156 cfs over the same time span and as I write it sits at 345 cfs which is fishable if you are a good and careful wader.

The EB and the Swift are a mess!!!

The great news is that there is no real RAIN in the forecast for the next week.

Ken

In Praise Of Browns

 Backcast to the mid 1980s when the Deerfield/Millers Chapter of Trout Unlimited convinced the Ma DFW that the Millers was a BROWN TROUT river and should be managed as such. Our Chapter worked with the DFW to sample the river by electroshock back in the early Fall of 1990 and the results where predicted. We sampled the river and came up with ZERO rainbows (thousands were stocked that Spring) but we came up with a good number of browns even though very few were stocked that year.  We fin clipped the browns that Spring BUT we came up with a fair number with intact fins.  A few of the DFW guys said they looked like wild fish or maybe were survivors from a stocking two years before. In any event the browns seemed to do well in the Millers but the rainbows "not so much"!!!

Anyone who fishes the Millers knows that by Summer the bows pull a disappearing act but the browns continue to want to play.  This should show us that rainbows are a waste of a resource. Browns are the way to go!!!!

The Flood

We are still dealing with high waters but it will not last forever. 

Ken