Two things of concern - This lingering drought and the scheduled Fall stocking. The forecasts are all over the map and predictions of rain just seem to evaporate. The rivers are low BUT the water temperatures are fine. Yesterday the Millers was running at 62 degrees at 1pm. Perfect for trout. The rivers are low but the bigger ones like the Millers and the EB have plenty of holding water left. We fished in knee to thigh deep water yesterday to rising trout and had some success. DFW - don't hold off. Stock as planned.
Managed to do something I hadn't done in 8 to 10 years and that is fall in!!! 5 ft. from the edge of the Kempfield and it was a face first swan dive. I just never saw the rock that I tripped over. Actually it probably looked pretty funny!!
Ken
12 comments:
Gosh, Ken, hope you dried out quickly. I've fallen quite a few times, and it's bearable unless water trickles down into your waders.
Still read your blog nearly every day. Enjoy it very much!
And, just bought the Ed Engle book mentioned in some of the comments. Tying Small Flies is a real gem thus far.
Hello Ken just my two cents on stocking...I've found that the best time to fish the fall is before the dfw stocks. One can beat the crowds of bait slingers and fair-weather fisherman. Also the fish tend to have that wild instinct from a summer on the stream
Paul Fay
Beautiful bow! I've had a couple spills into the river myself! Haha.
Some rain forecast scattered throughout the upcoming week, hope that will push things along.
I took your advice from your last post and bought some more flies.
I've bought Griffith Gnat's (#22, #24), midge (#24), parachute midge (#22), parachute BWO (#24) and parachute adams (#22) that will be coming in this Monday. I hope they will do well. Thoughts on these flies for the Swift (below rt. 9)?
Thanks
Thanks for the updates, Ken. Sorry you took a spill, but glad to hear you're OK. Hopefully we will get rain this week being we sure need it.
I fell in the Swift on Friday! Happened in slo-mo, seemed like it took three minutes to hit the water. Held my new Trela-made 00wt over my head though. It was fun trying to figure out how to get the water out of my waders before it all seeped past my belt.
Did well fishing from the duck pond to the pipe. I got a few nicely colored Brookies in the 7 -9 inch range. I also took some nice Bows, including a few "wild" Bows with remnants of parr marks on them. I am assuming these are hatchery escapees and not really wild, no?
All on an 22/24 Orange soft hackle.
On a different note: The Millie Turner Dam on the Nissitissit just got breached and will be fully removed. Who knows the effect on the brookies, but it can't be a bad thing. Can view it on a webcam here:
http://webapp.senserasystems.com/public/millieturner/M68567604012
Falsecast,
Thanks for the link on the Turner dam.
Theo,
Whatever you do SAVE THE TRELLA ROD!!!!!
Beginner,
They should work. How you'll have to start tying!!
Ken
Falsecast,
Probably not wild bows but escapees.
Dear Ken,
I have been fishing out in my native western rivers for the past month - such a dream. Glad to be back, though the garden and rivers seem to be in rougher than usual shape. I'm off to the Westfield now. Will send a report when I return. Hope you've been doing well and enjoying these first days of fall.
Muggs
With the expected rain called for, my guess is the EB and Millers will be up and the Swift will be back down. Should alleviate any low water concerns for fall stocking.
Muggs,
Good to hear from you.
Gardens are in rough shape unless they were watered. You can water the garden but not the rivers. 4 to 8 inches of rain predicted from now through Sunday. Lets see what happens.
Joe C.
You are totally right EXCEPT when the Swift will take the plunge. They don't do this over the weekend. Let's keep an eye on this.
Ken
Dear Ken,
I hadn't heard the good news about the rain until this afternoon. Surely, we need it. I had hoped to share a report of the Westfield for your collected audience, but I have little to report so no need to waste space on your website. For what it's worth: the water is low, but there are the plenty of fishable places. I fished my usual spots this morning, which I'll admit are a shorter walk than those that are often mentioned here. I saw one fellow arrive as I was leaving, but had the river to myself all morning. There was not much action despite my best efforts, a few hours led to only one fish in the net. I had luck drawing attention only in the plunge pockets at the heads of pools, but the takes were of the wary variety. Nothing in what is left of the runs.
Looking forward to meeting you one of these days.
With Regards,
Muggs
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