Well, Early Saturday morning I headed to the Chesterfield Gorge section of the Westfield to be greeted by an influx of flyfishers most likely the result of the overflow from the TU Indian Hollow conclave of this weekend. I like this place less crowded so I took the 15 minute drive back home and spent the day putting in my tomatoes, peppers and beans with plans for the Westfield again or the Millers for early Sunday morning. I awaken in the dead of night by the sound of heavy rain. 6am found me checking the stream flows online. The Westfield went through the roof and I had a guess that the Millers would not be far behind. So early afternoon found me in the area of the Swift's Y Pool. A few risers were seen in that heavy water. One rainbow came to the net in a spot below this section . I licked my wounds and headed home to find a great sight on my glass patio door. First I saw a Pale Evening Dun on the glass. This is a beautiful mayfly with it's rusty tan body and those beautiful smokey wings. On another section I saw a March Bown, a large fly with that give-a-way deep backward slant to the wings. Following that was a Quill Gordon Spinner (had to reference the Ames book for that one). It was then that I thought that taking a picture would be a good idea. It was except that the camera's batteries were dead. So I through them in the charger. An hour later I had a camera ready but only the Q.G. ready for a photo. The others were gone. I took two Q.G. shots and then through in an old photo that I had of a March Brown.
It's been an odd Spring - high water just went you want to get out there. Sometimes just seeing mayflies up close can make for a better day.
Hopefully the Millers will get down to dry fly level this week.
Ken
10 comments:
Well, much to my surprise the Millers treated me well on Sunday in spite of the high water. Buggers did the trick downstream from the Holman bridge with 5 browns and three rainbows coming home.
Good news!!!! I'm thinking that it was Holtshire Bridge and not Holman but that's ok. Any surface action on that stretch? That stretch, because of it's wide expanse, is still fishasble while other sections may be unwadable.
Good to see the great report.
Ken
Yes, you're right. Holtshire it is.
I saw only one rising trout and nothing in the way of May flies. Anyway, its my pet spot when the river is high about a third of mile below the bridge.
for the past few weeks ive been seeing a mayfly that I thought was a march brown, now im not sure. Now im thinking maybe an olive? There are alot of them in the area's streams. Seen them on the Mill River and I saw ALOT of them coming off the swift on friday. They are dark colored and i see them with a small orb of orange, what i assume are eggs at the bottom of their abdomen. Do you know what this fly is? I know its a little bit of a vague description.
Hi Ken....good to see your blog. I hope to get out to the Millers soon, but when checking the stream flow data which of the 3 data points listed is the best to get a sense of what is happening around Wendell Depot?
Thanks..........Jan
Jackson - The Mayfly that you saw is most likely a female hendrickson spinner. The egg sack is a dead givaway this time of year. BWO's are usualyy not that large and the March Brown would be larger than what you saw.
Anonymous - When you use the links here go to the "cubic feet per second" graph. It will show the current flow in cfs and give the "median" historical flow. The median graph shows what the average flow is over decades. Hop that helps.
Ken
Hey Ken,
Beuatiful and super helpful site. Thank you for taking the time and effort to share your experiences. I just found it a few months ago, and have enjoyed reading your posts. I am new to flyfishing the rivers around here, and was going to try the miles south of the Chesterfield Gorge. Would you care to share any tips to a guy new to this river?
Anonymous,
Check out my blog entry for 11/26/2008. It's about the E. Branch of the Westfield starting with the Gorge and ending far down river. The should be some great flyfishing there this weekend.
Ken
Thanks a lot Ken. I understand there is a lot of caddis activity on that Westfield stretch. I am a beginning to tie my own flies, anything you would recommend I bring along?
Joseph
For the Westfield I would have black wooley buggers (of course), caddis dries and emergers, a few march brown dries and a few BWO's either hackled or comparadun style.
I tie my MB's in size 12 down to 16. MB's are not that small but I like the color of the fly in small sizes. Last year I caught some nice trout on a hornburg. Small muddlers should work too.
Ken
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