The Y Pool has trout. Not the epic amounts of the spring/early summers of the last decade but enough to keep you guessing and busy. My client missed 6 this morning, all on dries with the last 4 being "almost" fooled on ants and beetles.
The sad part is that the stretch from the Y Pool down to the bench by the stairway has nothing or nothing that I could see. The Pipe was the typical Pipe with a scattering of bows and brookies. I finally gave my 5ft 9 inch 3 wt glass rod it's maiden voyage working little 15-20 foot casts for an hour. I took 2 bows and two brookies on an 18 sulphur soft hackle. The verdict: Yes, you can cast into tight spots but it's still a novelty rod. I'll give it a second look when I get around to it.
July 1st marks the change in regulations below RT 9 with the traditional stocking. Maybe some of those fish will end up above the bridge!
The Millers and the EB have been doing well. My guys spent an hour and a half working the riffles at the head of the Orcutt Pool at 11am of all times and hooked up with about a half dozen trout with one large brown breaking free. Size 14 Australian Possum bead heads did the trick.
Water levels are great and you should be out there!!!!!!
Ken
14 comments:
Hello. EB question: When discharge from Knightsville Dam is 900 cfs, is the EB still manageable?
Thanks,
Jeff
Jeff,
Answer: With a spinning rod or a hi density sinking tip fly line. In 48 hours that 900 cfs will be a memory.
Ken
Thanks, Ken. Planning to go on Thursday. Sounds like all will be good.
Jeff
nhflyfisher...Lots of browns on the EB lately, it's been awesome. Good luck.
Ken,
This year I've seen numerous otters and beaver at the C and R areas on the Swift, EB, and Millers. Do you think these animals have a significant effect on the trout populations in these rivers? Do they ever remove them from the area?
Bill
Ken,
My experience fishing the Swift from the crib dam to the tree pool was similar to yours. Slim pickings. Surprisingly I landed a couple of browns as well as brookies (some were very small brook trout parr). I find interesting that there seem more brook trout present in the area of the Pipe and above than years past. Normally the brookies don't show till the fall. I hope it may be the resurgence of a native BT population in the Swift. It may be the brookies have been there all along, and, with the dearth of stock-bows, they have moved into the feeding lanes.
Tightlines,
Bob
Bob O,
I've seen more brookies this year too without the hatchery scares. The Swift may be turning into a brook trout river but remember that this has been happening with the presence of bows and browns. over the past few years. I'd like to know what the DFW say to say if anything.
Bill, I've seen otters the past few years on the Swift by the Y Pool during the winter. I saw one eating a fish on the EB two weeks ago and saw one on the Millers last year. They are there on the Mill River in Northampton where I live. I don't think they are a problem in reducing the fish population but may scatter the fish in places like the upper Swift. They will feed on the sucker population for sure. They will never remove them from the Millers or the Swift because the biomass of these rivers is made up of "other" fish like suckers and such which they will feed on.
In short, they are not a problem. They just add to the "wildness" of a place.
Josh,
You're doing well!!! Thanks for the input!
Ken
Ken
I was on the Millers lower C&R last week. Besides Browns, saw an otter, beaver and 2 lamprey eels. The lampreys were at the upper end of Kempfield. I was able to get really close for a positive ID.
nhflyfisher,
There are lots of eels in the Millers but no lampreys. These are American Eels.
Ken
I'll have to agree with nhflyfisher on this one...I saw a few sea lampreys hanging out on nests in Orcutt Pool this past weekend. They are anadramous and native to the CT river and its tributaries. They'll show up in late may to mid june to spawn and then die off. Unlike those found in the Great lakes which are invasive, these are actually native, and don't pose any problems. They are a bit scary looking, but overall good for the river.
Scott M.
These are not sea lampreys. They are american eels which are native. I've electroshocked the Millers with the DFW and they identified them as american eels. The river is full of them.
Sea lampreys are not even eels. They are more closely related to sharks.
The eels that you saw are not anadramous but catadromous which is the opposite of anadramous. They don't die off in fresh water but at sea. Look it up.
I'm concerned about seeing three dead ones. Maybe someone is night fishing for them as a few did back in the 1980's
Ken
Ken, nhflyfisher and Scott M. I did not see the lampreys/American eels mentioned in the previous thread so cannot verify which species it was. However, that said, there are lampreys in the Millers Rivers as well as American eels. I grew up on the East Branch of the Delaware River and have fished the East Branch, West Branch and Main Branch for many years. Growing up, my family had an eel weir on the Main Branch, so I am very familiar with both species. I have also worked for the Fisheries Research Co-op Unit at UMass on the Shad program at the Holyoke fish lift, where I saw plenty of both species. I have seen lampreys as well as their redds on the Millers River. Also, since American eels are catadramous, they do not spawn in fresh water. If you saw an eel like fish on a redd, it was not an American eel, but a Lamprey
I'm also going to have to agree with nhflyfisher and Scott. They are there I almost stepped on one my first time to the river last year. It scared me and I did a quick google search and found that it was a native lamprey that spawns in the Connecticut. But my main curiosity is with your electroshocking. Did you find any other interesting species? Maybe pike, walleye, or resident Smallmouth bass?
To everyone:
I was sent a picture of a critter that was found on the shore of the Millers which can ONLY be considered a LAMPREY and NOT an american eel. I stand corrected!
When I sampled the river with the DFW back in 1990 we shocked up many American Eels which the experts identified as such. But it was September and any adult lampreys were long dead by then. They die after spawning in late Spring/early Summer.
The great Rachael Carson wrote about the American Eel which will spend 30+ YEARS in rivers, streams and ponds before going back to sea to spawn and die to keep the cycle going.
Early colonists saw the American Eels and called them lamprey which confused the issue. This may continue but the lamprey is native to New England as is the American Eel.
Good discussion!
Ken
They both have a place in our watersheds here in New England.
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