I was thinking about this all week long - midging rainbows on the Swift. Let's face it, it's February and we have the chance for rising fish. I got a sniff of this two Saturdays ago with a few trout brought to the net but the fly selection was off the mark. I fine tuned that selection with some #22 through #26 in a simple recipe. Stripped peacock with a tiny tuft of CDC at the top. It worked.
First, I had to wait for the midges to start hatching. At 10:00am the trout seemed dormant. At noon they began to move around because that early afternoon hatch was beginning. At 2:00pm the trout were gently slurping the surface and I took a few. It isn't easy. My first offering brought fish up but they turned away. Reducing the size by one size brought success.
The above photo is of the Y Pool at 10:00am. It was EMPTY!!!!! You may never see that again on a sunny Saturday morning. The salmon are still there (caught one) but they are fewer and they seem a bit shopworn.
Ken
12 comments:
Sounds like the experience I wish I had a few weekends back. Nice post, would've loved to have been there.
Cliff
Not sure if my last attempt worked? your right, that image may never be seen again... that said, right about now I'd love to be about 100-120 yds behind you at the Hemlocks right now :)
Will
I witnessed the noon slurp start on Sunday. Remarkable to watch those big fish come up to eat something invisible (to me).
I had a great time fishing midge larvae at the spillway end of the Y pool during the mid day hours. One brookie and the balance bows - some chunkers. Lots of fun.
Saturday was a great day to be out there, tons of fish, weather was great. It really is incredible to see all those fish rising to what appears to be NOTHING. I had no luck at all, but a few guys I talked to did. I literally casted at one bow for what seemed like an hour and got nothing. Oh well, another win for the trout I guess, but I'll take the loss in stride...
I skipped work and hit the swift yesterday (wed). Thought it would be empty. There were more people there than 4th of July weekend! Seriously, maybe 20 people above rte 9. Crazy place up there, down below, nobody, not one car at the guage.
The fish should have stopped the 2 Staties and 1 EPO that were there and had the fisherman arrested for harassment. That said, I wrangled 3 nice Bows and tickled the noses of some very large Salmon. Size 26black midge with shuck did the trick.
Out at the park with my son this morning for a bit over an hour. Sun was out, just a T shirt, birds chirping, and a strong hatch in the air. Spring is here boys.
Figured I'd post an update on conditions on the Millers with all of the crowds on the Swift. First I fished Kempfied upstream to the Upper Trestle. With flows in the 300s range the water looked great. Easily wadable everywhere. Temps wise I didn't have a thermometer on me but it felt warmer than the Swift when I was there on Monday. Comfort in the water my only gauge. Was there from 10-2 and didn't see any activity up top (slurping). Was a very windy day though so fishing was tough, at least that's my excuse. I threw everything large and small out there to no avail. Also saw just one other fly fisherman as I was leaving. other than that I was alone. Maybe someone with some more fishing skill than me can't tempt the Browns. I would have thought with the temps as warm as they've been this Winter that what originally seemed a silly decision by the State to dump all the Fall Browns in the river would actually lead to a ton of holdover fish in the water now. They're likely there, I just couldn't tempt them.
John
Glad to see advantage being taken by all of the unseasonably warm weather. Fished the Quinnie (way upstream) on Saturday and again yesterday, with 8 wild brookies and 6 holdover rainbows to show for the effort. The fish were pretty specific in wanting a small #16-18 prince or black stonefly, and couldn't even get a hit on anything else.
Nice to hear about the quinnie. I want to search some of its feeders for Brookies soon.
Eric
John,
This Winter hasn't hurt the holdover potential of the Millers. The early Spring of 2006 and 2010 had rising browns long before the hatchery trucks did their thing. The problem is that the water temperatures are still too cold. 38-40 degree water slows down the metabolism of trout. They don't need as much food so they don't feed as often.
Ken
Ken,
I've freed up some time to sit down at the bench, and am working on filling a box for the Millers. How do Wulffs fish on that river? Specifically the Wendell/ Kempfield area, and down to Farley Flats?
Tony,
Wulffs fish well anywhere especially in riffles and pocket water and there's plenty of that in the Wendell Depot area. Ditch the calf tail wing and go with poly yarn. It's much easier to work with.
Ken
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