A Fall Day On The Swift

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

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

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

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