From December to early April we dream of these evenings. These are the times of warm days that blend into sublime evenings that bring us to that magic moment: RISING TROUT!! We are at the high point of that season. There are many over lapping mayfly hatches to keep us on our toes. Let's look at two evenings.
The EB on June 16 - That crystal clear, blue bird sky didn't promise me a lot when I arrived on this river. Browns, my favorite game, are light sensitive and will wait until the sun is off the water most of the time. Sure, I could of fished nymphs BUT dry flies are my favorite on this river. I started working the fast water with a #10 stimulator and took two bows before I saw the telltale signs of browns beginning to work in the deeper runs. My olive snowshoe emerger rose five and I landed three. One brown, a freight train, took off and couldn't be turned. It is now a great memory!!
The PIPE on June 18 - Plenty of cars by the Y Pool lot AT 5PM but ZERO at the Pipe lot. Why?? I've caught plenty of trout here over the last two months and have published the results. Are we so hooked on "flyfishing only" that we ignore other areas? I like to fish above RT 9 BUT below RT 9 is so much more interesting.
Here's what happened. I got there at 5pm and had an hour and a half to fish. I caught two on a #22 pinhead before the hatch started. I'll call it that cream cahill that I mentioned last week. It's not a sulphur!!
A fellow was down at the Tree Pool working rising fish while I cast a #16 tan parachute into the fast water at and below the Pipe. I hooked five and landed three crazy bows. I can't see the dry while fishing upstream (too much glare at that time of day) so I got across from the Pipe and "checked" my downstream cast to give plenty on slack line to insure a drag free float. God only knows how many trout I could have caught if I didn't have to leave!
The official start of Summer is this week and it's my favorite time of year. The Swift runs cold and clear and now ants and beetles are in the mix for this little gem. The browns of the Millers and NOW the browns of the EB of the Westfield will work their twilight magic if the rivers stay somewhat full. I have spent 40 years working our rivers for twilight trout!! The memories of these rivers and those wonderful fish will sustain you on a cold, January evening!!
Don't miss this time. It is FLY FISHING!!
Ken
Autumn On The EB
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Dry Flies On June Evenings
From December to early April we dream of these evenings. These are the times of warm days that blend into sublime evenings that bring us to that magic moment: RISING TROUT!! We are at the high point of that season. There are many over lapping mayfly hatches to keep us on our toes. Let's look at two evenings.
The EB on June 16 - That crystal clear, blue bird sky didn't promise me a lot when I arrived on this river. Browns, my favorite game, are light sensitive and will wait until the sun is off the water most of the time. Sure, I could of fished nymphs BUT dry flies are my favorite on this river. I started working the fast water with a #10 stimulator and took two bows before I saw the telltale signs of browns beginning to work in the deeper runs. My olive snowshoe emerger rose five and I landed three. One brown, a freight train, took off and couldn't be turned. It is now a great memory!!
The PIPE on June 18 - Plenty of cars by the Y Pool lot AT 5PM but ZERO at the Pipe lot. Why?? I've caught plenty of trout here over the last two months and have published the results. Are we so hooked on "flyfishing only" that we ignore other areas? I like to fish above RT 9 BUT below RT 9 is so much more interesting.
Here's what happened. I got there at 5pm and had an hour and a half to fish. I caught two on a #22 pinhead before the hatch started. I'll call it that cream cahill that I mentioned last week. It's not a sulphur!!
A fellow was down at the Tree Pool working rising fish while I cast a #16 tan parachute into the fast water at and below the Pipe. I hooked five and landed three crazy bows. I can't see the dry while fishing upstream (too much glare at that time of day) so I got across from the Pipe and "checked" my downstream cast to give plenty on slack line to insure a drag free float. God only knows how many trout I could have caught if I didn't have to leave!
The official start of Summer is this week and it's my favorite time of year. The Swift runs cold and clear and now ants and beetles are in the mix for this little gem. The browns of the Millers and NOW the browns of the EB of the Westfield will work their twilight magic if the rivers stay somewhat full. I have spent 40 years working our rivers for twilight trout!! The memories of these rivers and those wonderful fish will sustain you on a cold, January evening!!
Don't miss this time. It is FLY FISHING!!
Ken
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25 comments:
Ants beetles and hoppers. I love drifting hoppers and watching the fish come up, look, and either inhale, or turn away. Either way the visual is awesome. Won't be long now.
Thanks for the encouragement. Love your blog.
You got that right, Ken. The Millers browns were rising to march brown emergers this evening right around dusk. After a long high-water hiatus, tonight I outfished the Great Blue Heron I shared the pool with, although to be fair, I was putting a lot more effort into it. I also got a definitive answer to a question I've had for some time: does a beaver swimming right over a rising trout's head put it down? Tonight, the answer was: not for more than thirty seconds.
As I stumbled, hypothermic, back to my truck, I met a guy who showed me a photo of the fish he'd just caught: his first brown on a dry fly.
Ah, midsummer!
Interesting, because I saw no action at the Bears Den on the Millers Sunday (17th) at dusk. Plenty of Redfin Shiners and one 6" stocker Brownie on a #16 elk hair caddis, but not much else. Flows were around 480cf/s that day--I see they're now closer to the historic median.
Spent Saturday morning (6/16) from 6-11am fishing the section just below the tree pool to the pipe. Only one fish landed, but it was a decent 'bow, just average for that river though. I saw no one in that entire time, which kind of shocked me as it was a great morning. At 11 about 10 kayakers passed me, being very respectful and floating by in back of me, but the last one let me know that there were 40+ more coming down river in back of them. Needless to say that ended my day there.
On the way home I hit a fast section of the Ware, just above the Church street bridge, for about 30 mins quartering buggers and landed two small bows.
Great post Ken, I'm looking forward to hitting some evening spots very soon, and it's this type of enticing writing that makes it necessary.
Hit the Millers yesterday for a couple hours. The water levels are perfect and the water is still cold. When i got there, two other fisherman were working the Kempfield pool, so I turned the corner downstream and caught smallie after smallie all on caddis dries. Went up to the Upper Trestle and got into a few more small mouth on a stimulator and a small caddis, but was chased out by an angry beaver. Seemed the river turned on for trout right at 8pm when I set back into the Kempfield pool. As Wood Turtle pointed out, caught my first brown on a dry, a 15 inch chunky brown on a small caddis pattern that put up a great fight. Hit the Millers while its good.
I concur on the millers, its been a blast. Hit the upper stretches abunch of times last week. Had the browns pretty well dialed in for afew trips using nothing but a 14 olive caddis. 99 percent of the time they wouldn't touch it dead drifted but would demolish it if you skittered and twitched it against the current. Had acouple completely clear the water on the take. A lot of fun. When the water was higher I had lots of action as early as 430 with the sun high in the sky but went last night with lower flows and couldn't coax a thing until 7-730ish.
On another note....anyone have any info or fish the green?
So, my experience with kayaks and tubers is a little different on the Swift. I find that they tend to make the fish more active when they pass through most times rather than scare them off. I think this phenomenon is more common to waters with smart mature trout. I find the disturbance equivalent to stirring up sediment when I wade. I always end up with a couple pets for the day during the summers (which I'm sure we've all experienced on the Swift). Food for thought.
Kozman,
I don't know where the subject of kayaks and the Swift came up unless it was a rant of mine from 2008 or so.
The Swift, above the boat launch, is too small a river to accomadate fly fishers and boaters. Over the years I have seen kayaks and canoes and tubes put rising fish DOWN on this river. I have seen and casted to feeding fish who disappeared after the pleasure seekers had their way with our fly fishing runs.
We don't diminish their activities BUT they diminish ours. THEY don't belong in any C&R section of this river and that includes guides who think they have a birthright to drift the C&R sections of the Swift. This river has one regulation over its first few miles and that regulation deals with FISHING!!! We come FIRST!!!
kEN
Ken, I agree. There is so much water for kayaking, why do it in the swift?? I also cannot comprehend what the attraction is in kayaking on such a small stream!?
Ken,
Koz's statement, I think, was a response to my comment above.
Fished the Swift last night after work. Got to the gauge parking lot around 5:30, only one car, but three fishermen at the tree pool section so I went down to Cady Lane. Had another positive Kayak experience when a group of 4-5 were coming upstream, but turned around when the saw me. I was thankful for that as the fish were rising for those "cream cahills" very actively as the hatch was prolific and pretty enduring. Was able to coax a rare brown to take my offering, and I remembered that someone was mentioning browns in the Swift earlier this month in the comments here. Can't remember if I had ever caught one before in that river, but if so, they've been few a far between.
A great way to beat the heat, for sure.
Ken,
Is your Olive Snowshoe Emerger much like the Fran Betters "Usual"? Would love to see a pic of the pattern and a brief on tying it.
I've yaked on the Swift, putting in at the boat ramp and going up stream. Just below Cady Lane is quite the series of fallen trees creating strainers that prevent all but the most adventuresome from further upstream travel. There is nice water down there which is well fishable from a yak. Wooly buggers were the ticket last year when water was higher. Haven't been down there this year. There are much deeper holes down river from Cady Lane that probably hold some big browns that would be well fished for at night - that would be an adventure retrieving a mouse pattern and having it smashed by a monster in the dark.
I know this is a bit off topic but I am thinking of heading out to the Swift this coming Friday for a day trip. I will probably start above route 9. A couple of questions.
What is working for flies? In the fall I had great success with hot spots and serendipties. I hear about cream cahils is this a daytime or evening hatch? What size? 16?
Thanks,
Mike
Tony,
The snowshoe emerger is nothing like the Usual, a fly that is successful but a fly that looks like a pile of dryer lint lashed to a hook. The SH emerger will out fish it. There are plenty of tying videos on the web which show the fly very well.
Mike C,
The Cream Cahill is a late afternoon/evening hatch in the Summer and mid day in the early Fall. I've only seen them in interesting numbers below RT 9 especially around the PIPE section.
Ken
The further downstream you go, the more prevalent the cream cahills become.
Al
Thanks for the tips.
Ken. What patterns are working above rt 9? Any dries or is it all subsurface during the day?
Mike C, I was above route 9 last evening for a beautiful sulfur hatch, one of the heaviest I've seen on the Swift. Fish were rising everywhere from the Y pool down to the cable pool, and probably below that, but I wasn't down there to know. I managed to fool a few fish. I think there were only 5 people (including myself) in the whole FFO area.
Thanks Brendan,
I am hoping to spend most of Friday on the swift. It has been a while since I headed out that way.
It should be fun.
Mike
Brenden, One of those people was me. The Sulphurs have been great for a couple of weeks now. I landed a few fish, but found them much more finicky then the last time I was there. I only had luck on small foam emerger. They wouldn't touch my dun. Still great fun. Also, the Hoppers are around and I took a couple of fish on them downstream.
Falsecast, I also struggled to get fish to take and also got all my fish on emergers. I think with the strong hatch and plenty of flies to look at the fish were even more selective than usual.
I was on the Swift a couple of weeks ago when the sulphurs were starting. I watched rainbows in shallow clear water taking sulphurs--and I also clearly saw a couple of refusal rises to struggling sulphur duns. When the fish refuse naturals, that's pretty selective!
That 100cfs ramp up put the hatches down at the pipe last night. That 45cfs flow spoiled me!!
Ken
Ken, I was there last night again too. I fished above the bridge and had a similar experience with the Sulphurs. You know it's a tough hatch when you are excited for the fish to reject your fly.
Did take two on Hoppers. That should get better every day. Pretty soon the random ant hatch will happen too.
Don't bother with the EB , it is very low, very warm and the river bed covered in long strands up to 4' of green algae growth. Its amazing what can happen to that river in less than 2 weeks. Not worth a day trip, thats for sure. Its done until fall I'm afraid.
-BT
Took a ride up to Rezendes Pool this afternoon to check out the Millers. Air temp today is 92 degrees, and the water was low and very warm, I did spot at least a dozen browns hanging out at the mouth of Gulf brook trying to stay cool. Just a trickle coming in, but it seems to be enough to keep them swimming. As I was leaving, there were a few flyfishers gearing up at 3pm on a 92 degree day...Can we all try to be somewhat responsible and fish the Swift during this hot dry spell and leave the Miller browns alone to catch another day?
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