It came down in buckets Sunday night and the Millers watershed hit the jackpot. Royalston got drenched with 3.69 inches of rain and Orange got over 2 inches. And the Millers went up and As I write this the Irving gauge is about 300 cfs with S. Royalston flowing at 100. This is more than enough of a flow for the DFW to stock this river in early October. I mention that because one of my commentor s (Tincup) had heard that only the Swift and the Deerfield would get a Fall stocking because of the drought. That was then but this is now. The Millers gives up it's water s-l-o-w-l-y and with low September evaporation and the leafy biomass going dormant the water will stay in the ground and in the river. Trust me, the flow will be fine.
The EB is running great now and if one more rain event hits that watershed it too will be stocked (or should be!!)
Ok, I have scuds on the brain. All Spring and Summer I forget about this pattern because it's always been a Fall and Winter fly for me. Now I've worked up a few dozen for October but I just don't want to tie anything else. Not a bad rut to be in.
I love September as I've mentioned on this blog many times. The water is low (sometimes too low) but cooler, the days are usually in the 70's, the mosquitoes are gone and I don't have to wait around until 9pm to hit the evening rise because it now occurs at 7pm. There are plenty of insects to keep the trout active AND it is the realm of the "fine and far off" school of fly fishing. The coarse methods of the earlier season are left in the truck and replaced with long fine tippets and light, sparsely dressed flies. It's an elegant style of fly fishing that lets you use that high priced rod the way it was meant to be used - CASTING
It's been a good September so far (on the Swift) except for this long drought.
13 comments:
Ken,
I hope you're right about the Fall stocking. I miss the Millers.
GW
Ken- can you say a bit about why you view scuds as fall and winter flies? I don't know when is the best season/color/size to use them, so an education would be great!
GW,
I do too!
Mark,
Great question! I think it's because I follow the life cycle of aquatic INSECTS which go from a nymph stage to the adult one species after another. When I see many sulphur nymphs in a trout's mouth I know the adults will be flying soon.
Not so with scuds. They reproduce a few times of the year but you will never see one fly away so they are never on my mind until the "Dark" season arrives. They will save the day!!
Ken
Ken,
I fished the millers - for smallies... and should one of the carp that some times poke around below the orange waste water plant show up, I'd have happily targeted them. Any way, I was surprised. The water temp was cool. I could be wrong - my thermometer is in my trout bag... But it had to be in the 60's. I caught a number of smallies, including a couple near 2#.. Spent a solid hour trying to get one that had to be 3# above the tracks. It was the same challenge as sight casting to a sipping giant brown :)... The bass won.
Fun fishing though - just a lot cooler water than anticipated. Must have been the rain from the prior night.
Will
Will,
Good to hear from you again. I NEED to get up there and will after a Swift guiding session this week. I KNOW that some browns survived, they always do. I saw a rainbow in the little Mill River in Northampton two weeks ago and if he made it the Millers browns did too. Smallies - there are plenty in that river around 2lb and they are a blast to catch. Hopefully I'll see you there.
Ken
I love this pattern. The only difference in the one I tie is I leave the tag end of the thread sticking off the butt of the fly a little bit. It may simulate antennae, may not. I use cut up sandwich bags for the scud back, then use a little UV resin over the top of that to give it a shell and to make the pattern a little hardier. Again, I love this blog!
Hi Ken,
Your guide is excellent. The specificity of your descriptions is what sets it apart from other guides for me.
I often have felt uncertain if I am in the right spot. This won’t be the case with your guide.
I hope the river recovers soon. The recent rain helped a little, I’m sure. But another dry spell now.
Thanks again.
Reggie.
Jeff,
I use sandwich bags for the shell too. I'll give the resin a try.
Reggie,
Thank you and yes, we need more rain.
Ken
Ken,
Just an FYI re scuds. They aren't insects, they are crustaceans--basically a freshwater shrimp. There is never a flying stage of their life cycle.
Best,
Rod W.
Rod W.
I'm aware that scuds are not insects. That's why I capitalized the word INSECTS to separate them.
Ken
Tough last few outings on the Swift for me, Ken. It's like I forgot how to catch trout all of a sudden. I was using dry flies again tonight, but got little interest. I will try a scud next time out.
Early on I had on a heavy hackled parachute dry with a dropper nymph underneath. The dace kept going after the parachute and I pulled back on one of the dace hits and the whole shooting match ended up in a tree behind me in a miserable series of knots and tangles. I went back to one fly after that and caught a small brook trout. It gets late early now so I headed for home around 7.
Regards, Sam
It sure is a blast to do Ken! It feels like an undervalued resource to fly fishers around here. It's super fun. They are willing to take a variety of presentations and put up a good fight. Especially when you manage to get into one of the rare 3~ # + ones :)
Will
Hello Ken and everybody, been some time since I have commented, but I want to stress that before the dfw stocks for the fall is the best chance to catch large trout that remain from spring and previous fall stockings...summer holdover trout that become wise and tricky to catch. Also hook and cook guys arent around so it truly is the BEST time to fish trout.
Paul Fay
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