That's right. It's been a recent passion to fish tiny flies to sipping trout. Where does one go to do that here in central Massachusetts? It's the Swift of course. Now, I should be working the Millers or the EB BUT these are not tiny fly rivers. The Swift is! That's where I've been.
Last Sunday (7/7) found me at the Y pool at 6:30 am. I caught fish BUT I was the fifth one there. Today I got there at 5:30 am and I was only the third flyfisher. A week before I landed 10 and lost many on size 24-26 black bodied or olive cdc dries. The same flies brought many break offs and 4 to the net this time around.
The Upper Swift is loaded with trout. Maybe too many trout. Is there ample food for these fish? I don't know. All that I know is that others, not fishing dries, caught trout on everything from woolly buggers to grasshopper patterns to something that resembled a dark nymph with rubber legs. The difficult trout rose to small flies!!
This tiny fly obsession may be on the wane. Even after getting home at 1ish and after tying a dozen tiny flies and listening to the Sox I began to think about the other rivers. The rivers that are home to 14-16 size dries and 5x tippet. Maybe this week during the evening I'll visit these rivers or maybe I'm not cured yet!!!!!!!!
There are many fish below RT 9 especially in the Pipe section of the Swift.
Ken
6 comments:
Funny how the swift will do that to you Ken. I like to toss giant foam and rubber creations at fish on that river just to make the "purists" wince (and because they work for me - the combo is fun :))... but some times, there is just something, about a dinky RS2 or Al's Rat, or non descript cdc or other material little, dinky, fly that just dangles below the feather/material in the film. Some times, watching those selective fish investigate the fly 10X over many casts, before finaly they eat it... Ahhhh, that, is a lot of fun!
The seductive power of those fish in the Y pool... there always seems to be fish rising in those tricky currents and figuring them out is an addictive blend of fun and frustrating.
I had a nice day on Saturday above and below Route 9. Below the bridge in the morning I caught fish on a variety of nymphs and handful on dry flies. I enjoyed watching the rainbows play cat and mouse with a hopper pattern, but only a brown trout would actually eat it. I headed upstream for the evening hoping for a sulfur hatch, but it failed to come off. After a few hours of trying to tempt the fish with a variety of emerger patterns and other dries, I resorted to nymphing and hooked several fish before dark when the fish finally started to rise in earnest for sulfur spinners.
I was thinking about this while about to drift to sleep last night. Some times, you could fish many strategies and it would work... but man, it's just fun to pick that ONE fish and figure it out. The swift is the best local river I've fished to experience that.
Wow! Millers at 82 degrees today.
hj
Fished the pipe yesterday in the AM. Brought 5 to the net and lost 7, still getting used to barbless apparently. Parachute dries (BWO, Sulpher), emergers (deer hair & something I can't explain), and an olive zebra midge produced the most takes. All fished in two-fly sets. Yellow stonefly nymphs worked as well. Something close to the sulpher nymph is what I was thinking when tying it on.
Ventured down to Bondsville in the afternoon, nothing happening.
Returned to Cady Lane for the evening hatch; nothing doing hatch wise, but was able to rise three to black ants and sulpher quill duns.
Looking forward to a nice Sunday, on that tailwater oasis tomorrow, for sure.
~Pete
PCG,
I was just above the Pipe early Saturday morning playing with the 'bows that have not moved in 3 weeks. A size 16 sulphur parachute did the trick on that fog wrapped river.
Ken
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