"An undisturbed river is as perfect as we will ever know, every refractive slide of cold water is a glimpse of eternity" Thomas McGuane "Midstream" (1990)
The Squannacook River is running high but clear and cold.Flows can be checked using the USGS site and following the baselines and info provided.Early season fishing on the Squann. can be very productive as the river holds over fish nicely due to its deep pools and extensive cover produced from the large and frequent downed tree structure which litter many parts of the river.Early season places to fish are everywhere but from the dam at Townsend Harbor downstream in the fast water provides a long stretch of fast pocket water to practice your nymphing skills.Also,behind the Dunkin Donuts on Rte.13 south is a nice early season place to find a secluded spot and work your way downstream to the deeper pools.Losing flies will happen on the Squannie but the river is a season long gem that deserves your attention.Stop in to the Evening Sun Fly Shop for a detailed map of the river that can be purchased if you desire.
Thank you for all your help.
Charlie
Charlie, with 40 plus years working these currents, knows it like nobody else. He gives special attention to TOWNSEND HARBOR and any Squannacook fly fisher above the casual angler level will know where he is talking about! I worked this stretch decades ago from the dam to two miles below and caught my first trout on a dry that I tied here. My favorite approach to the "Harbor" was to walk down the tracks 3/4 of a mile and take an old path down to the river and then fish upstream back to the dam.
My favorite start point off of Rt 13 is south of his mentioned spot at the bridge over the river. I always worked downstream. My best fishing was behind the Sterilite plant. Tough going but very rewarding! BTW, I don't get paid for this. Charlies a long time friend and we need him!!
THIS WEEKEND AND BEYOND
Play hooky NEXT WEEK!! Temperatures will be in the 60's (they say) and with no snow melt or rain we will have a jump start on smaller stream action. Don't start looking for stocking schedules and chasing trucks because that is weeks away. The Swift should have some surface action especially winter caddis at the Y Pool especially in the overflow arm. Action should start up Saturday and improve daily.
For "blue line" fans I recommend this: As many die hard wild trout fans know the DFW has been sampling and recording fish data in basically every stream that shows up on a map for YEARS. All of this is available online. Drive over an interesting unstocked brook and wonder what's in it? The DFW knows and you can too. Just Google: "water quality assessments Mass dep mass gov" and you will find the data for all watersheds in this state. Find your watershed, then find the name of the stream in that watershed and then start dreaming. It's all there: the number of species collected, the species collected and the numbers of each species collected. Most are unstocked streams that have native trout and sometimes in good numbers. I have the data downloaded for 5 watersheds and I've been studying it for years. Blue lines with good numbers get some of my fishing attention like the gem I found last August. Others I will let rest a year or two. Wild trout matter. To protect them you have to know where they are!!
6 comments:
Love those blue lines, one of which is not far from my house which feeds into a good sized river. Years ago in my younger days I tossed a worm underneath an undercut bank and a big brown took it and got taken home for supper that night.
I catch and release now, but back then that was a proud day bringing that big trout home.
Sam,
The same thing happened up the street from me on a small tributary. A kid with a grasshopper (not the fly but the real thing) caught a 23 inch brown. No urban legend because I saw the newspaper clipping!
Ken
Thin blue lines did I read correctly?
Love the photos.
Ken - I've known Charlie for years actually originally bumping into in the backwoods on the Squannie a long time ago. I fish these waters a lot as they are my "home" TU rivers. He's a great guy and runs a top notch fly shop in Pepperel. His reports will be a great addition.
Holy cow! That is a huge trout for a small stream. The one I caught in my youth was probably only a 15"er, but I never expected it, especially since all I caught previously out of this creek were 6-8" brookies.
Some one recently told me a story of a 20" fish caught out of this same creek that I caught my brown trout. They couldn't remember what kind of fish it was, but my guess would be a brown trout making its way upstream feeding. Maybe it was a salmon that spilled over out of Quabbin during high water, hard to say.
Brk Trt,
You read correctly. Every now and then they are a destination. Good for the mind!
Ken
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