The 2 inch plus rainfall of last week was a shot in the arm for local rivers. The EB shot up like a rocket and then dropped like a rock in two days. The Millers is STILL dropping but is in prime shape for the next week at least. The "thin blue lines" got pumped up by that rainfall and now have good flows under a green canopy - perfect.
Believe it or not - I have not fished the Swift in over two weeks and I'm hearing some strange stories about the place especially above RT 9 as being "devoid" of fish. Maybe my spies will report in or maybe I'll tear myself away from the EB and check it out myself.
OPEN DATES - I have two open EVENING dates available. One for Wednesday June 24 and Thursday June 25 for the 5-8 pm slot. First to grab one by EMAIL gets it. No phone calls.
Go Fish!
Ken
6 comments:
EB temperatures seem to be high right now. Not sure if you can elaborate Ken but I ran into a guy who took the river temp Wednesday evening and said it was 70 degrees even after the rain Tuesday. I didn't have a thermometer on me so I can't confirm that reading but I would say the water felt warm. What have you been seeing?
Anonymous,
My temperature reading at 9am on The EB was 62 degrees. At 1 pm it was 66 degrees. We caught fish.
Same for Wednesday.
My thermometer is on a 3 ft leash which lets me check the water temperature DOWN where the trout are. Most hand held Thermometers are hand held which so the temperature at the surface where it's highest.
70 degrees - Don't get scared by this. If you see activity rising trout then you are seeing trout that have acclimated to the slow rising temperature on a New England freestone river. Maximum temperature for PERFECT trout feeding is around 65 degrees. It doesn't mean that trout go belly up at 66 degrees. They just slow down with feeding. I have had many Millers and EB evenings with 70 degree water and GREAT fishing with strong trout.
As long as the flows stay up things will be ok. 45 years of fly fishing backs me up on this.
Ken
"70 degrees - Don't get scared by this. If you see activity rising trout then you are seeing trout that have acclimated to the slow rising temperature on a New England freestone river."
Excuse me, what?
Ken, I have a lot of respect for you but your post above is absolutely ridiculous. Sure, fish can most certainly "tolerate" temps at or slightly above 70 degrees, but that's if they are NOT stressed and harassed by us fisherman. It really saddens me that someone with such respect for trout would even consider pursuing them in temperatures like that.
Also, please review your theory on stream temp reading being cooler 3 feet below the surface. For our purposes, that's absolutely false. Think about it, just 20 yards upstream from where you just took that temp is a stretch of rifles less than 2 feet deep. You're telling me that water cooled down by the time it got to your thermometer 3 feet below the surface?
I"m not knocking your post (Ok i am). Please respect these fish. Perhaps you're the reason no bows exist in the Millers after June? LOL jk.
JK,
I stand by my the statement that you quoted.
Now your quote: "Sure, fish (I think you mean trout and not bass) can most certainly "tolerate" temps at or above 70 degrees, but that's if they are NOT stressed and harassed by us fishermen" (your quote).
STOP RIGHT THERE! So you admit that 70 degree temperatures are tolerated by trout who in my 40+ years will actively feed at that temperature. I have caught many hundreds of trout who were actively feeding at that temperature and they scooted away at release. I've played rising trout under those conditions where the leader/knot parted and have caught the same trout and recovered MY fly anywhere from 2 hours to 10 MINUTES latter. Where's the stress? Where's the harassment?
There was a study that I found online where the bottom temperature of a 4 foot deep pool was 3 to 4 degrees COOLER than the riffles and surface above. I ALWAYS put my thermometer on the BOTTOM of a pool instead of the useless habit of measuring the surface temperature with a hand held thermometer. Many think of a stream as nothing more than water flowing over a low point in the land. A stream is the TOP of an aquifer which constantly releases bottom water into the stream. That's why flows get LARGER as you go downstream. It's not just tributaries. These seeps are cooler and will stay on the bottom of the stream. Trout find these releases and will stay there during mid day and then begin to move around as the sun goes low. The fly fishing literature of the past hundred years talks about the evening rise. Much of the literature was based in the Catskills. The Beaverkill and the Willow have had high temperatures during the day but cooler waters in the evening and people caught trout!!
"Perhaps you're the reason no bows exist in the Millers after June LOL" (your quote)
In 1989 Pete Oatis, the head of fisheries for Massachusetts after a crazy PCB scare, stocked the Millers with only rainbow trout because they would either be caught out or succumb to the summer environment. Two years (1989-1990) of electro shocking in a pre-C&R section in September produced NO RAINBOWS, just browns. Few fished the river and less kept trout. Rainbows will only survive in the Millers if we have a cool, wet summer and they will be few. The Millers gets about 10,000 trout a year and 8,000 are bows. Are YOU saying that we fished those bows out?????
Laugh Out Loud on YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM is not your friend and neither it's it's cloven hoofed step brother COMMON SENSE.
Ken
Ken,
"STOP RIGHT THERE! So you admit that 70 degree temperatures are tolerated by trout who in my 40+ years will actively feed at that temperature. I have caught many hundreds of trout who were actively feeding at that temperature and they scooted away at release. I've played rising trout under those conditions where the leader/knot parted and have caught the same trout and recovered MY fly anywhere from 2 hours to 10 MINUTES latter. Where's the stress? Where's the harassment? " (YOUR STATEMENT)
Yes, of course I admit trout can survive in 70 degree temps, BUT NOT STRESSED OR HARASSED. Sure, the fish may hit again, but think about ALL the lactic acid it has built up. Who knows if it will EVER hit again?
Also, JK means JUST KIDDING. LOL I was being facetious claiming you killed all the bows.
I realize guide season may be a bit slow, Ken, but please, respect these fish. Its utterly comical you think any self respecting fly fisherman believes that trout "have acclimated to the slow rising temperature on a New England freestone river."
Tight Lines, Ken. Its time to keep you attention to the Swift or Deerfield. Leave the freestone streams alone.
JK,
It's always someone named "Anonymous", isn't it!
An, Now it's lactic acid build up. How much lactic acid are you talking about or is this just a conventional wisdom talking point? "Who knows if they will EVER hit again?" What did I just tell YOU? They DO!!!!
You were not being facetious about the bows. I believe it was a weak attempt to get your point across. Again, the facts bury your assumptions.
Sorry, but the guide season is going great. "Respect these fish"?? Why don't you respect science? The late Dr. Robert Behnke, considered to be the worlds foremost expert on trout caught sub species of rainbows that were rising to insects in 80 degree water. The world of trout isn't as cut and dried as you think. Trout feed actively and absorb the most nutrition in water temperatures that are between 55 and 65 degrees. 66 degrees doesn't mean they go belly up. They actively feed at 70 degrees and can be caught and released to survive.
Prove me otherwise.
Email me if you want to continue.
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