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Forget about having trout swim around your boots at the Y Pool. Forget about seeing dozens of trout all over the place below the Pipe. The trout are there BUT you have to FISH for them and you have to fish DEEP. If you are not fishing DEEP in this current (215 cfs) you will do nothing. My guys on Sunday landed 4 but hooked another 8 to 10 and my friend Brad, a true Tenkara disciple, skinned the section after we left. (Note: Tenkara lines fish DEEP, they work in this heavy current). Scuds and bead headed small flies seemed to work best.
The above RT 9 section will improve. The socking was sparse but it will get better, The trout are beginning to move around above and below the Pipe. Things will get better.
Now, what happened at 11:00 am on Saturday morning on the Swift? A milky gray plump of filthy charged out of the PIPE from the hatchery. It covered the right side of the flow from the Pipe through the Tree Pool to the extent that you couldn't see the bottom on the river. It went on for the 15 minutes that I saw it and who knows how look afterwards.
Now, over the years I have seen an occasional "tint" to the outflow especially during low flows but this was obscene! Now I know we are not talking about paper mill waste of waste from plastic industries. This was trout "poop" but the trout hatchery that I worked for a few years ago had it's discharge measured on a regular basis. A discharge like that would of gotten us into trouble.
To the Hatchery Manager: get smart, don't do things that don't look right and if you HAVE to do them EXPLAIN the event BEFORE you do it. Don't say that you do this all of the time because in thirty years I've never seen a mess like this.
Photo attached.
Ken
P.S. the Swift dropped like a rock Monday from 215 to 66 cfs. PERFECT!!
8 comments:
Maybe a call to the DEQE would make sure they don't do that again?
Al in Mansfield
I too saw the white milky water hugging the edge through the pipe section, was wondering what that was.
Hi Ken,
Good to be back in New England and to see the rivers doing well. I saw your recent advice on the Westfield, and while it may be true that things will improve in May, I wanted to note for you and your readers that I've been fishing the EB of late and doing very well with the usual bugger combos and heavily weighted nymphs in the soft water. The real trouble is clambering down to the river for those of us with old bones. Muggs
Extraordinary flow swing. A rock indeed!
Good advice Ken. Swift flow was way down last night and I had the pipe totally to myself from 5-7pm. For the first time ever I caught a trout on a fly I tied myself.
Well, in theory, trout poop is good for a stream...The ammonia breaks down into nitrates, which feed aquatic plants, which, in turn, the trout eat (such as duck weed). At least that's how my aquaponics setup works in my house. I'm shocked you have low flows after a brutal winter. Either way, I'll be back in MA soon visiting so you may catch me at the swift one of these days throwing a fly around on my Tenkara.
Tight lines all.
Kozman,
Good to hear from you.
A little trout poop I agree with (I've seen the "tint" before) but this was more like paint.
Actually the Swift has been running high this Spring like the Millers and EB.
Theo,
Now you're hooked!!!
Ken
Although it's certainly unsettling to have a cloud of trout poop covering half the river, I think the input of the nutrients from the hatchery outflow contributes to the dense hatches that occur in that section of the river. I think it was Tom Rosenbauer who noted that the decline of the hatches on the Battenkill coincided with the replacement of old sewage treatment plants in order to comply with the Clean Water Act. I agree that a little poop a little at a time can be a good thing.
Glad there are fish in the Swift again after the long winter. I hope to get out there soon!
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