The Rising Trout On The Swift

This was a strange day. It was supposed to be a day of family meeting family to address some issues. All of that is now on tomorrows plate.

I was stretched out, nowhere to go, the plans are all changed and I needed some time thing and relax - regroup!!! I now have the time so why not the Swift!!

I got there around 2pm and found only one angler who left within a half hour. I landed 8 and missed a few more while fishing dries. It's the last day of March but the dry fly action lives up to the Swift reputation.

Fly Fishing is not a game of how many fish that you catch. Last week I caught 1 trout in the same spot that I fished today. It was fun!! Today, with a few adjustments, was much better. I figured it out and that's the FUN in this wonderful pastime that we enjoy. There will be days in the months ahead where I will feel like a trout-god and other outings where I will be left scratching my head. That is this wonderful sport. I love it.

Flies today - Fished around the Y Pool area. Everything was caught/missed on a #22 dark caddis dry (clipped hackle)emerger. I went to a #18 in the same pattern - nothing doing!!!

Tomorrow we get get back to the things that have to be done.

Today was good!

Ken

I caught trout in tiny side flows. I could see them rise and take the fly!!!

Let's Here It For The Swift!

Check the photo above. This is why we had such great fly fishing on this river. The "overflow" started in November and with it came hundreds of LL salmon and Lakers which gave us great sport throughout the Winter. Rainbows, Salmon and Lakers!! Name another river that could provide that!

This week (including today) found 'bows hitting winter caddis (like in Ames book) and another fly, much smaller, that I couldn't identify. Today I had 8 takes but only landed one. I was without the flies needed and that was the problem.

It is still March after a mild Winter but dozens of rising trout in March are the norm for this river. Where else will you find them? The Farmington of course but this river is in Massachusetts.

I like surface fishing more than anything else. The Swift provides that!!

A New (Old) Pool On The Lower River

I first fished this spot in 1985. I caught trout. I didn't go back until the mid 1990's. I still caught trout. The last time there was in 2007 when I guided the outdoor editor for the Worcester Telegram and she caught trout.

Where is this place and how come I so seldom fish it?

I'll call it the rest area and It's 2 miles west of Bridge St. in Farley. Be careful when making the left hand exit into the rest area!!!!!

I seldom fish it because 1) it's too out of the way for me and 2) the rest area is closed from 8pm to 8:00 am. I like evening fly fishing so I end up going elsewhere.

Park in the lot, suit up and head into the pines and downhill to the river. You will find a long flat beautiful pool close to 200 yards long that can be waded.

Whitewater enthusiasts named this place "The Funnel" years ago because the head of this pool is the end of a very dangerous chute which has claimed at least one life. Ask a whitewater person about "The Funnel" and they will tell you of this place.

I like The Funnel. I will fish it this Spring!

Ken

Defending Myself - Here's My Millers Resume!

Last night I got a call from a friend who asked me to check out a website. "Make sure you're sitting down" he said. What I saw was humorous at first but then began to set me off. The unnamed writer(they're always unnamed) mentioned "a well known Millers River guide" who has a Millers River Online Fly Shop (guess that's me)and derives income from it. Well, he got that right. Now for the bullshit:

"A person that I personally never seen involved with any groups to make the Millers River better, help stock the Millers River, be part of cleaning up the Millers River or for any other productive activity involving the Millers River other than his selfish gain".

To the nameless writer who didn't bother to fact check. Here's my Millers River Resume:

President, Deerfield/Millers Chapter of TU 1987-1990.

Signed the original petition for C&R on the Millers.

Organized volunteers to work with the DFW in electro-shocking sampling on the Millers in 1989 and 1990.

Conducted a joint effort with the Millers River Watershed Council to sample the ENTIRE RIVER for oxygen content for two years running.

Conducted creel surveys to support brown trout stocking of the proposed C&R sections.



Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, Millers River Watershed Council 1993 to 1996.

Organized the above mentioned oxygen study.

Conducted two "clean up" days along the Millers.

The MRWC found the source of an illegal spill on the upper Millers. Our work was rewarded by a court ordered check for $7500 which was part of the penalty.

Worked on the MRWC DAM SURVEY - an inventory of every dam in the Millers Watershed.

Got the MRWC involved in the Atlantic Salmon Spring stocking of the Miller.


President and Vice President of the Millers River Chapter of Trout Unlimited 2003 2006.
Realized in 2002 that the DFW had stopped stocking browns in the Millers because of "pcb's". I told them that issue was addressed and resolved in 1991(I was there!) and that ending the brown stocking without public notice may have been an illegal act. They agreed to continue stocking browns in 2003.

Organized, with Ken Simmons of the DFW, the first TU/DFW brown trout stocking in the two C&R sections. Actively involved in this effort until 2008 when I moved out of the area.

So there you go, unnamed writer. That's 25 years of environmental activism in that watershed, which I'll measure against any other effort, and I'm still at it. And stop saying that the Millers was a polluted river "20 years ago". You know nothing about the Millers 20 years! Nothing!!! Your comment is insulting!! Why would TU volunteers and the DFW fight for C&R classification, let alone stock, a polluted river 20 years ago!!! What are you thinking??????

Unnamed writer - come out of the shadows and send me a private email. My address is on this site. Show me and my readers what you're made of. Maybe you'll be enlightened. If you don't "come out" then SHUT UP!!!

Enough of this. Time to scout the Millers!!

Ken

Spring Is Here - Late Afternoon On The Swift

It was a busy weekend with hitting the Swift put on the back burner. But moving the clock ahead opens up late afternoons/evenings which figured into my plans nicely. I would be on the Swift late Monday afternoon!

I passed the Y Pool lot at 4:30. 8 to 10 cars were there with another 6 or so parked across from River Road BUT the Pipe lot was EMPTY!!

I fished for 90 minutes from the Pipe downstream and took 5 'bows. Two were large fish (14 and 18 inches) and the others were around 10 inches. The big guys fell for a #12 scud with a green,glass bead head. A Swift Serendipity(#16) and a larvae pattern (#12) took the others.

The Swift flow is around 175 cfs with half of the Pipe showing. Still a little high but it's heading in the right direction.

Spring is here!! The "Dark Season" is over. Soon the freestone rivers will get their fish (look for holdovers after this Winter)and life will be fine.

Beating The Drum For The Lower Millers

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I seem to do this every year around this time and that is to beat the drum for the Lower Millers. Twenty years ago I had Wendell Depot and The Bears Den practically to myself. Now they are popular destinations and that is a very good thing but many fish nowhere else on this river. The Lower Millers is pretty much the same lonesome place that it was back in the 1980's. This is where I caught my first Millers trout in 1985. It's a great place!!!

Where is it?? I consider the Bridge Street Pool as the start of it because from here downstream there is no real road access until you arrive at Millers Falls. The railroad is the only real access which means that you have about 5 miles of hoofing it to work the entire area. The above photos are of three GOOD pools that are within .6 miles of each other.

Bridge Street Pool - This is a great place and is usually the first place that I show people below Wendell Depot. Classic riffles that lead into DEEP holding water. If I had one place to fish on a May or June morning this would be the place.

Cable Pool - About a 1/4 mile below the Bridge Street Pool is the Cable Pool. The few fly fishers back in the 1980's knew what was meant by the word "Cable". This place was crisscrossed by cables with sliding gates for kayak training. The cables are long gone but the pool/run is still there and it is perfect water.

Morman Hollow Brook - Morman Hollow Brook flows into the Millers about .6 of a mile below the gauge at Bridge St and the pools in this spot are beautiful. The trout are there along with the largest smallies that the Millers has to offer.

Take a break from the crowds and spend a few hours here. It's worth it!!

Ken