Millers River - an unexpected trip

I found myself with a few hours to kill (fly fish) on the Millers one very recent evening. A quick stop at the end of the lower C&R in Erving yielded two small rainbows to a caddis emerger. Browns were what I wanted to tangle with so I quickly made the short trip to the Kempfield Pool. There was only one other angler and we had a great evening fishing to rising fish. The caddis emerger was replaced with a #14 sulpher emerger and that fly took six browns all being between 14 and 18 inches. Lots of sulphurs were in the air but they were replaced with a BLIZZARD of large, brown caddis commonly called sedges along the river. They flew upstream in WAVES!!! I, of course, made a holy mess of my leader in the middle of this and in the failing light couldn't fix the problem. A lost opportunity!

Two things of note. I broke off a brown but within the hour caught the same fish. The proof was that it had my lost fly in its jaw. That's only the third time that that has happened in 30+ years of fly fishing. The second is the photo at the top of the page. It's of a rising brown just a few feet from me. Fish for it or take the photo? I only had to wait a minute! No, I didn't catch it. The other photo is of a 14-16 inch brown. You can see the sulphur emerger in its jaw.

Ken

Best Fly For The Millers River

The water levels are down so we can put away the dreaded WB's and really start fly fishing. This is the fly to use, in various sizes, for much of the season.

Olive Emerger -

size 12 - 16 hook (dry or wet style hook)

Body - olive/brown (Evening Sun Fly Shop sells this as Australian Possum - there's some "flash" to it).

Hackle - dark brown partridge. The hackle in the photo is darker than seen here. You can use a lighter shade if you like.

How to fish it - swing this wet fly through the current (no indicators please) and let it rise up at the end of the drift. The browns have been killing it!!!!!!

See you out there!

Ken

Fly Fish The Millers NOW

The last two weeks on the Millers have been dream like. Lots of very eager browns chasing caddis and mayflies (march browns and sulphur-very early for sulphurs) which has resulted in very good dry fly action. It's wonderful to shed the dreaded wooley bugger and that beadhead stuff to chase trout with soft hackles and dry flies. The water is low but still in the '50's. As I have said before- day time fishing will last through the first half of June and then it becomes the realm of the "evening hatch" which will last through the summer.
The browns will always be with us but they have to be catered to. Keep an eye open for the large stoneflies which should be entering center stage shortly. In short- get out there!!!! Large stonefly nymphs when nothing is working the surface, soft hackle flies (olive body and dark partridge hackle) when you see surface action and then the apporpriate dry when the surface action goes crazy.

Catch tout and enjoy it.

Ken

Brown Trout Heaven And The Fly Fishers Guide To The Millers River

Fly fish the Millers River NOW!!!!!!!!!! From a drizzly late Friday afternoon and a clear, sunny Saturday morning almost 20 browns were taken on two different sections of the Bears Den. Only one was taken on the dreaded WB. All the rest came to a soft hackled fly. Plenty of rising fish made it a great weekend. Remember, the Fly Fishers Guide to the Millers is yours for just $10.00. Send that and your email address and I'll email it to you. Ken Elmer, 121 Pleasant St, Athol Ma. 01331 will do it.

The Millers has lots of browns and lots of action which will last through the summer.

Ken

Fly Fishers Guide To The Millers River - It's Here!!

Do you want to know where to fly fish on the Millers River? Do you want over 20 years of experience and observations concerning locations, seasons, fly patterns and a boat load of practical advice dealing with this great trout fishery? If the answer is "YES" then let me sent you a copy of the "Fly Fishers Guide To The Millers River". This guide, which is over thirty pages long and has photos and maps of this river, will take the guess work out of planning a REAL trip on the Millers.

To receive the guide just send a check for $10.00 to: Ken Elmer, 121 Pleasant St, Athol, Ma. 01331 AND your email address. As soon as you send the request I'll email you the guide which you can print out. Many have already and they are enjoying fly fishing on the Millers River.

Ken

P.S. This river is HOT right now. Great hatches and great catches!!!!

Sunday Evening

Like everyone I had a lot of obligations for Mothers Day that had to be done. I didn't think that any time would be available to cast upon the Millers but as things turned out I got a slight window (1.75 hours) to visit this river. So I made my way down to a section that worked well for me two weeks ago. The water was high due to some crazy fluctuations from the dam operators but I still made it out to a few favorite runs. The first hour was spent fishing close to shore until I braved the current and made it out to a favorite run. Three good sized rainbows came to the net. The fly was a size 8 wb fished deep with a high stick technique. Time flew bye and I could of stayed much longer but one more visit remainded.

This section was not stocked with the browns that I crave. Next time they will be my objective. This one section is not fished by many anglers regardless of their equipment. It's the section just below the dam in Orange. It's a great section to teach a novice the basics about fly fishing. A great riffle that smoothes out to some nice fish holding areas! Watch out for the change in current. Check my link to the Millers-Erving area to see what I mean.

Next trip will be to the lower C&R to play with the browns!

Ken

Browns are in at the lower C&R

800 browns, some of them very large, were stocked in the Wendell Depot section (lower C&R) of the Millers today. They went in from Holtshire Bridge to Erving Center and were float stocked by the Harrison brothers and their crew. Many thanks to them.

These fish, along with the holdovers, will set us up nicely for this Spring and Summer. The water level is still high (750cfs) as of this post but the section is still very fishable. Let's hope that this rain event for Sunday night/Monday is a light one!!

I'll keep you posted.

Ken

Millers Report - Bears Den

Well, I had two hours to kill so I decided to check on the browns that were stocked yesterday. The water was still very high (1000cfs) and the people that were there didn't seem to be catching much. My rig was a bit different. A 5wt full sinking line was attached to 5 feet of 3x leader material. The fly was a WB in size 8. A small bit of sink putty was attached a foot above the fly. I "nymphed" this set up on a short line in the eddies and slack water along the shoreline and would then retrieve in short, quick strokes. I caught 19 browns and missed a few more in the 100 or so yards that I fished. This is a great rig for getting down DEEP which will cause me to spend some time later today replenishing my bugger supply.

The browns were all between 12 and 14 inches. Lots of fun in heavy water.

Ken

Browns in the Millers

Today we stocked, with the help of a lot of friends, about 800 good sized browns into the Bears Den section of the Millers River. The river was running about 1100cfs which made it great for our float stocking efforts which will insure good distribution of these fish. Six miles of remote river was stocked. With the holdover population we should have a great Spring and Summer on this great river.

Special thanks to Dan and Tom and their crew from Harrison Anglers which made the float stocking possible.

The river is beginning to drop after the heavy rains of earlier this week. Look for great fishing next week. Also, the lower C&R (Wendell Depot) will be float stocked next Friday. BTW, there are reliable reports of very heavy hendrickson hatches on the lower river. With the seasonal caddis blizzards we could be into heavy dry fly fishing over the next week.

Hopefully I'll brave the currents on Sunday and give you a report. If you head out to the Millers bring some heavy black WB's. They work in this high water.

Ken