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
13 comments:
How true my friend.
Sounds like a great fall day on the river. Awesome! Maybe next week you will get to fish with a blanket of snow...
Will
Ken,
Glad to hear. Whats more enjoyable than a quiet, peaceful fall day of fly fishing wrapped in solitude?
I had a good there Monday as well. Traffic was down below the bridge and had the pipe to myself with the exception of a blue heron. Saw one other angler as I worked my way up. Piked off a couple large ones between pipe and Rt 9 in the less traveled spots.
-BT
I went Friday for my 1st ever visit to the Swift. Wow! ...what beautiful water.
There were many cars so I ventered downstream from the bridge. I'm a rookie flyfisherman ..and those veteran bows kept giving me the Rasberry. A brook trout had sympathy for me.
I visited the East branch and found willing rainbows in the darker water.
Beautiful places out there.
-Greg
Ken ..thanks for the tip on fly selection.
Glad to hear you enjoyed your first trip to the Swift.Its a great place to fish especially when you can catch a day when there are not a lot of other anglers on the river,it happens.
Mike
Wet a line above the bridge for an hour and a half on the way back home from NJ today, picked up a 17" bow and had a long-distance release of a BIG brookie. The brookies were pairing up, getting ready to spawn - and I was surprised to see some HUGE fish in there - replete with bright orange belly and white-edged fins. Despite the one that was lost, they seemed more interested in reproduction than food. Please tread lightly when wading above the bridge and give these fish a chance to replenish the wild brook trout stocks.
Good to see that brookie action above the bridge. I've had mid Fall brookie action at the Pipe and above in years past. I've also heard that Bondsville has a good run of brookies in the Fall. There certainly are a lot of brookies there.
Ken
Went above Route 9 for afew hours yesterday. I also stumbled across a whole group of brookies, 2 of which were monsters, large even by rainbow standards for the swift. Didnt even cast to them, just watched. Trully a sight to behold. Abit of a relearning process above the bridge, at least a half dozen downed trees rerouting water and creating fresh "hang out spots"
Thank God for the "fresh hang outs" above RT9. That section could stand some variety as far as the flow is concerned.
Brookies - I'd like to see a study on the Swift brook trout. How many are stockers, holdovers or native fish? How long do the stockers/holdovers last in that stream? What is the density of these fish per river mile??
Hmm...interesting.
Ken
great idea and why in world would they stock them? I thought the Brookies were all wild. That doesn't make sense to me??
Took a day off of work and fished the swift. Brookies were hitting the line all day. However, what made this trip exciting was the walk I took in the afternoon up near Shutesbury along an access road for the Quabbin. I saw what appeared to be bear tracks in the snow but I was puzzled by the gate of the tracks and the fact I could only see 3-4 toes. I eventually saw scat that was also of a shape that I haven't seen before. I wish I had my camera handle to take a pic, but memory had to suffice. I looked it up when I got home. The only thing that looked like it came close was a Mountain Lion!!!! How cool is that!?!?! It very well could still be a bear track given that it appeared to be a day or two old and the snow has melted some. I once thought Mountain lions were extinct in this part of the country, until I started doing this research and found reports of people spotting them near the Quabbin (and a guy in CT who hit one with his car). It was a nice finish to a productive fishing trip nonetheless.
Kozman,
Bear evidence has been seen on the W. Branch of the Swift early in the salmon run (tracks/salmon remains). Quabbin was the site of cougar DNA found 20 or so years ago. Are there cougars in Ma. Maybe, but they are probably illegal pets that were released by their owners. The Connecticut one certainly was.
Ken
Could it have been a Bobcat?
I visited the Swift today ..early morn and I heard a walker say he saw a large Bobcat.
Google Bobcat scat or tracks and check out images ...any match?
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