Ok, back from Florida where the average temperature at 1:00 pm was 80 degrees for five straight days. No fishing but lots of beach combing, eating and drinking and looking for fly fishing areas. They are there and I'm looking for something a few years down the road that will get me away from these New England winters with guiding in mind. We will see!!
Made it to the Swift this morning and worked the Pipe and Tree Pool with two trout in three hours. Not so good! In fact I saw very few trout in all the likely places. I don't know how the previous week/weekend fished for all of you. I hope that it was better. Note: I was the only fly fisher in the three hours that I was there (left at 10:30am). Bad fishing all around OR maybe better fishing later in the day. Your thoughts....
Let's talk about the Millers and in particular the UPPER Bears Den section and more exactly the area ABOVE the C&R Bears Den section. Most who fish the Bears Den follow the line to Rezendes Pool, fish a few hundred yards up and down and the leave. I'm talking about the area around/below the village of South Royalston.
The center of South Royalston is Pete & Henrys Restaurant. The fishing is good across from this establishment through it's rocky chutes but I'm talking bout a half miles downstream.
Take the side road next to the restaurant to it's end. There are two things that you will see. First, there is an island in the middle of the river. The riffle/glide section closest to you is trout PERFECT!! This small flow in May and June can give you 6+ fish per outing. This section also has produced more 4 - 6 inch browns for me than any other section on the river! I like these fish because they are NATIVE BROWNS!
Now for the Pool!! It's just below the island and you can't miss it. Most who attempt to fish this pool don't bother to cross over to the OTHER side which gives you much better wading and casting room. You will see that it is a no-brainer. Cross over at the downstream tip of the island if conditions permit!
The photos on this post are from this section and were posted on this blob last May when I was writing mostly about the Swift (DUH). I'll post them now that I'm writing about this section.
If the Wendell Depot section seems crowded and Rezendes seems crowded GO HERE!!! Chances are you may be the only one there.
Think SPRING!!!
Ken
17 comments:
Ken
welcome back to the deep-freeze...lol
hope you and yours enjoyed a little R&R in florida..
guiding in florida.... salt of fresh water...it's all good
My son graduates in May...so i'll be going to florida as well...I cant wait... I take both my 8-wt and my 5-wt when I go down to see my kids...love the snook and red-fish... glad your back safely...
also....do you have a calendar that I can look at to see what free openings you still have left for this summer as my son will be spending the summer with me before he joins the Marines..
flyfisher1000,
Salt water in the winter but that's a few years down the road.
I don't publish a calendar so just shoot me some dates, via email, and we can go from there.
Ken
Welcome back Ken. I hit the Y pool and run below for two hours yesterday morning and got skunked. Lots of looks, no takes. Went to the pipe after lunch and netted two rainbows in 90 mins but that was it. Got there as 5 guys left, like you they said no fish. Still, a nice chance to fish with the temp. Near 40.
Dewey,
Drove by the Y Pool parking lot at 7am and saw no cars. I almost stopped but hit the PIPE instead.
I'll hit the Y Pool next week if the weather holds out.
Ken
I fished the Pipe in December a few times and it was pretty good. But it is my understanding that above the bridge is open to non-flyfishing after Jan. 1st and people can keep fish - that might account for the lack of fish. I fished the Y pool with moderate success a couple of times in January with moderate success. I wonder if there will be fresh blood around soon, i.e. a renewed stocking in March ...?
Fishmeister57,
Are you talking about the route 9 bridge? Above the route 9 bridge is catch and release, fly fishing only all year round. Below the bridge, trout can be kept for half the year, and spinning gear is allowed.
-Drew
From RT 9 downstream is fishing by all methods from Jan 1 to June 30. Artificial lures only and catch and release from July 1 to Dec 31.
I've seen stocking in March on the Swift.
Ken
Sorry, I meant to say BELOW (downstream) the bridge. My point being simply that unfortunately it seems a lot of fish are being kept after Jan. 31st ...
I was on the Swift in mid-January and saw 2 different fishermen with bait-chucking gear and dead trout on a string below the pipe. I don't see too many bait-chuckers releasing fish, in fact every spin fisherman I've seen catch a fish has killed it. My opinion is if Mass. would stop throwing such an absurd number of rainbows in that river, the pressure might lay off a bit. If you know where to find them and what time of year they appear, the wild brookie fishing can be spectacular, why put so many rainbows in?
I am grateful for the Mass. stocking program (NH pales by comparison). My concern is just with preserving the resource in a sensible manner. What is the limit on the Swift anyway?
Ron C.
Check my recipe for the jailbird. I've caught hundreds of trout on the Swift with this pattern.
Ron C Again,
I disagree with your view of C&R on the Swift. The VAST majority of people who fish the Swift from January to July are FLYFISHERS who practice C&R. The VAST majority of people who fish RUNNING water from March through June in this State are FLYFISHERS if my online survey two years ago has any weight to it. FLYFISHERS ALMOST ALWAYS PRACTICE C&R.
A Massachusetts fishing license allows you to fish all waters in this State. Bait and hardware guys spend most of their time elsewhere other than the Swift, much of the time for other species.
I would pay extra to flyfish the Swift(below RT 9) without trash dumping,fish keeping non flyfishers.
I will go as far to say that the future of trout stocking in this State relies on FLYFISHERS. We are the ones who fish the RIVERS that have trout!!
Ken
So Ron C, you're saying because people buy a license, they're entitled to get rainbows stocked in the Swift on top of wild fish? I live in NH, where the idiotic policies of Fish and Game lead to 86% of the total Inland Fisheries Budget going towards stocking, as opposed to habitat improvement, protection, or conservation. This is the problem with fishing in so many states, people feel a fishing license entitles people to catching fish. it's not called catching, and our stocking-heavy rivers in this part of the U.S. have supplanted the idea of fishing with catching. Let the bait chuckers go to another non-sustainable water body like they do on dozens of other rives and ponds in the state, the Swift should be left alone.
I would love to see the Swift be catch and release year round below the bridge also.
Mike
Ron C.
Sorry, but I still disagree with you.
"I am curious though, if buying a license isn't so we are allowed to catch fish, just why am I wasting my monies then?"
Those are your words. Are you in favor of catching trout on the Swift with bait? The vast amount of fishers of the Swift are flyfishers who disagree with you. Are you in favor of bait caught trout that are released that don't survive? Are you in favor of loading your truck up with caught fish that equal your days limit and then hitting the river again (it happens!) within the hour.
I'm not in favor of it!!!
Ken
I have to echo Mike, because I also think that the beautiful Swift should be C&R year-round. (Did I read the regs correctly, that below the bridge the creel limit is 3 fish?!)
I'm not an elitist flyfisherman - there are plenty of "put&take" waters that can't sustain trout year-round and where it doesn't bother me if an angler keeps a fish or two. But the Swift is a rare jewel and deserves special consideration all year. Here, as with some prime Atlantic salmon waters, I believe, as Lee Wulff said, "Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once."
Herm
Ron C, buying a license entitles someone to fishing, it doesn't entitle them to catching anything. Your quote:
"I am curious though, if buying a license isn't so we are allowed to catch fish, just why am I wasting my monies then?"
Allowed to, yes. Entitled to success, no.
Continued over-stocking is a result of our culture becoming one of immediate gratification, I'd personally rather go after wild fish myself. A 13" brookie on the Swift is worth ten stocked 18" rainbows to me. Also, I'm not an elitist, as your condescending post alluded to. I believe there are plenty of places where put-and-kill is fine, just leave that for places unable to sustain wild populations, unlike the Swift.
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