The Millers - Finally!!!!

It was fun to finally throw something much larger than something in the size 20 range. The Swift served me well over the winter BUT it was time to cast something "normal" like a 5wt and a fly with some heft to it. The Millers has been dropping and on Sunday morning made it's way into the 500 cfs range. Good enough!!

This trip was more of a scouting expedition. I hit four sections on the lower river and managed four of the 'bows that the DFW gives us. The fishing pressure was light with Wendell Depot having about four other anglers. The trout that I caught seemed to be holed up in certain areas. You would fish a section hard and get nothing, move 15 feet and then start getting hits. that's early season fishing on this river!!

Tomorrow is May 1st. By mid May the browns will go in and the real fishing will start. The 'bows will keep you happy until then.

Ken

Tiny Dry Flies For The Swift

A week ago I fished the overflow arm of Y Pool on the Swift. This "dead" water was full of very spooky rainbows that were rising to something small. Most likely chironomidae or something like that. I tied on a fly for the occasion. Sorry for the less than good photo (I'm not a photographer) but this is what landed three bows and lost two others in that hour that I was there (it was late. If I was there earlier I would have risen more trout) This works in the overflow arm and the Y Pool proper and in the tree pool downstream when I need a tiny fly.

Hook - size 26 (I could use a smaller hook BUT I can ADJUST things without going smaller

Body - ultra fine synthetic dubbing in BLACK

Wing - grey cdc

Tie on the wing first, clip the butt ends and dub on a slim black body. Put a turn of dubbing in front of the cdc to make it stand up. That's it!

This fly works well all season when we fish to trout that are rising to something that we can't see on this river. Now, we can make this a size 28 fly by NOT dubbing the back end of the hook. The body is smaller and the trout are not bothered by this. Try using just black thread for the body. It also works. Leave a tiny strand of black thread hanging off the bend of the hook. That works too. Just use a black body and grey cdc (not too much) and you will have a great time fooling trout on this river. 7x tippet also does the trick.

As I write the Millers is dropping below 1000cfs. It will not be long before one can fish this river safely!

Ken

A Good Guiding Day On The Swift

It was a good day today! We hit the PIPE section at 8am and were the only ones there mainly because the fishing on the Swift has been a bit "off" from it's recent past. But the trout are there and one has to really fish for them. We hooked 7 fish which included a monster sucker which made short order of our 6x but 4 good size bows were brought to the net. Fly fishers began to show up and I saw them hook land three during that time. We fished and scouted around, took a lunch break and headed for the Y POOL. Again, every few anglers. We worked the bubbler run but didn't even see a fish. The wind began to pick up as we hit the fabled Y Pool just as the last solo angler left. Now, things get interesting. There are no rising trout EXCEPT one. The bows had no interest in investigating the choppy surface except one fish which "looked" like a brookie from our vantage point. He just kept cruising the pool sipping the surface. My "client" wanted to throw a dry at him. I thought differently but tied on a size 26 black emmerger under a cdc post. Here's what happened: the trout came up, gave a look and then went down. But he followed the fly again and repeated the same act as before. Now, with only three feet of drift left the fish came back up, followed the fly for a foot and then gave us the TAKE. It was a brown of about 12 inches. Not a monster BUT a difficult fish caught under difficult conditions.

That's what is all about!!

Ken

Finally, A Spring Day On The Swift

Finally, Spring came to the Swift. Last Saturday I froze from 6:30 am to 11ish. I caught some but the wind was biting and I still had ice on my guides by late morning. I fish all Winter long on this river but it's SPRING and I want to see and feel it.

Today was the day. The temperature nosed 70 degrees and when I made it to the Y Pool at 5pm the trout were still rising. I rose four, broke off two and didn't land any BUT that was ok!! It was a warm Spring day and I got to spend 90 minutes working rising trout. That's what we have waited for!!

We will have a few nippy days ahead but the best weeks and months are right around the corner!!

The Millers - wait until the end of April.

The EB - wait until early May (hopefully).

Ken

From SPRING to WINTER - 2 Hours On The Swift

Ok, it's 53 degrees at 3pm on Monday so I'm off to the Swift for a couple of hours. I get there at 4:30 and the car thermometer reads 45 degrees. When I leave it's 41 degrees with a full blown gale ripping across the water. My goal was to put in time at the Y Pool with the feeling that I might be able to squeeze into a spot. The last two anglers were leaving as I got there so the place was all mine.

It's been a while since I've had a forward cast fly back at me. That was courtesy of the wind that was whipping off the Quabbin. I fished for 45 minutes, caught one bow and froze to death!!! What happened to Spring??

A little Millers news - The River Rat Canoe Race, an event that floods the Millers for three days, is scheduled for Saturday, April 13th. Forget fishing that river on that weekend. Stocking usually starts after that "event". If one can't wait then test the river on Friday the 12th. That's because water is held back at Birch Hill (a bad thing!)in the days before the race with Friday flows being very low. You may have a chance at some holdovers.

Ken