The Rain - We Prayed Too Hard And The River Report

"Or maybe one day you hit the cosmic hatch. If there are enough insects on the water, trout will sometimes feed so eagerly that they'll lose some of their caution. Not all of it by a long shot, but possibly just enough" - John Gierach

Welcome to the land of feast or famine. A week ago we hoping for rain and now we have it and more and maybe more on the way. Here's the river rundown at 5:00 am on 10/30:

Millers - 3330 CFS!!!!! Last week it was as 140. This river will not be fishable until after Thanksgiving if then. Don't ask for a trip until the flow is below 400 which could be next May!!!



Swift River Bow

The EB - "The river that was not stocked this Fall" is at 1870 cfs and I don't believe the accuracy of that figure because the sister branch, the West Branch, is flowing at 3360!!! In fact, all of the Western Ma. rivers are at official flood stage!!

The Swift - It hit 80 cfs overnight but is now down into the high 50's and dropping. That increase in the flow overnight was not from a dam release but from pure rainfall!!! It's very fishable.

The Ware - In the 300 range and will drop soon. It never got into flood stage!!

The Farmington - (Why am I writing about the Farmington?  That's easy! Someone has to. Unlike others, when I say that I "report on rivers" I mean it!!!)  The Still River, the tributary, is flowing at 3100 cfs and that says it all!!! The WB of the Farmie is around 360 BUT Massachusetts rain is flooding into the reservoir (1550 coming in but only 360 coming out.
Your BEST source for conditions on the Farmington is not this blog because I don't spend a lot of time down there.  The BEST SOURCE is from UPCOUNTRY FLY FISHING which is updated twice weekly with flow conditions, insect info and some good fish tales.

                                        Another Swift River Bow

Fall Flies

I love this time of year on the Swift.  The brookies are ganging up, the water is low and zillions of midges (diptera) make the flow below the Pipe an actual soup!!

I have my favorite flies (as do you) and my favorite flies are SMALL and are meant to represent insect larvae or small scuds or small eggs.

My Swift River Killer Bug made the grade but it will not replace some old staples.  One of the old staples is the RS2 Sparkle Wing.

This fly is dirt simple to tie.  I use scud hooks from size 18 - 24, brown, olive or black floss or thread for the body, some midge flash for the wing stubs and black thread for the head (using a black sharpie does the same thing).

Things didn't really seem to get going on the Swift yesterday morning until we threw this offering on!!!

I'll feature some Fall favorites in the next week!!!!


Ken