Ok, here we are a few days before Columbus Day Weekend and this is what we have:
The Millers at 60 cfs and scheduled to be stocked tomorrow the 6th in the usual places. Last year the flow was at 90 cfs which was low. Water temperature on Wednesday the 4th was 60 degrees at 8am and 65 degrees at 1pm. These are good temperatures.
The Ware - 22 cfs and received it's second stocking. You may thing the flow is too low but the temperature is the key and the temperature as I write is 58 degrees AND it's been below 60 since September 30. This is a "must fish" river for October.
The EB - At 43 cfs this river is a boneyard as is its sister branches. It needs rain and I would be totally surprised if it's stocked at this low flow.
The Swift - Humming along at 135 but not producing much in the usual areas. The brookies are on the march but not bedding down yet because of this flow. THEY CLAIM IT WAS STOCKED this week. We saw 4 trout caught all day Tuesday. Also, the temperature is still in the mid 60's due to lake turnover which may also effect the bite.
Low Water Tactics - Ditch the weight, period!!! High Stick your pheasant tails and soft hackles (especially soft hackles) and then lengthen your casts to swing your fly down and across the current. Your weighted offerings which worked well during higher flows will leave you picking weeds and slim off your fly most of time. This is the tactic we've used on the freshly stocked Ware and the not-stocked-since-May-Millers. It is working!! Always be on the lookout for surface action with the standard offerings of BWO, October caddis, ants and such.
So there you go, the update on the six trout rivers that I cover. I keep it at six because just adding rivers to my masthead but never mentioning them in a post is misleading to my readers. And notice that I said "trout rivers". If you want bluegills and pickerel (my first fly caught fish was a pickerel at 15 years old) then surf the net. Nothing wrong with those fish but you will not find them here! Also, read the comment section of each post for knowledge and insight from the readers. These are my "contributors"!
Go Fish
Ken
15 comments:
Yesterday I spent all afternoon at the tree pool on the Swift and caught some of the brookies on a Griffith's Gnat—lot's of fun! Around 6pm I made my way to the Y-pool expecting to find some stocked 'bows and saw none on the walk up, and nothing was happening at the pool. They say they stocked the Swift but I sure couldn't find them, either!
BrookTrout,
It reminds me of the Spring of 2015. Reports of stocked fish but fish were far and few between.
Ken
Ken,
Given all your interactions with Mass. fish & game, do you think that Mass F&G might limit the amount of stock trout in the Swift given the amount of trout already in the river?
I recall reading somewhere that for trout to winter (I know the swift is an exception due to the flow from the Quabbin) there is some calculation which indicates the survival rate of a healthy stream. Since at this time of year it is C&R.
Best,
Gerry S.
I spent my Wednesday morning extensively fishing the guage run and the many riffles above it. Other than a few small brookies...nothing. On my way out I decided to check out the pipe and tree pool just for kicks. I bumped into several anglers on my way in who had told me they had just stocked and the fish were taking streamers.
I spent the rest of my afternoon swinging a soft hackle bugger with a touch of shot through the tree pool. Man am I glad I did! In just a couple of hours I had landed 6 beefy bows. All were definitely freshly stocked fish, gullible enough to aggressively pumel my fly. This quickly made for one of the most fun afternoons I've ever enjoyed on the Swift.
It was shocking to me to see that people were having a hard time believing they had stocked, as I had quite the opposite experience. This was very sad and discouraging to me, so I just wanted to share my location and tactics, as they had worked very well for me that day. I promise they are in there, now go get em!
I also just wanted to take the time to say thank you Ken. The blog you have created here is an unsurpassable resource and community for all things fly fishing. I jumped head first into fly fishing several years ago after having grown up spin fishing my whole life. Upon educating myself on how to fish and tie, this blog was, and still is my number one resource for all things on the fly. If it weren't for this I would certainly have way more questions and be having way less fun. Thank you for that.
Cheers, and tight lines!!!
OK a tale of 2 rivers going into the weekend. On the Farmington at 11am yesterday flow was fishable 60 to 80 cfs. Third cast fooled a 13" fat brown with a #10 hi-float attractor he came up and bang, fun to fight on a 4wt. A little later downstream in a fast rip I brought up 2 more but there timing or mine was off. I fished on top the whole time off the river at 3:30. No fisherman on the section of river I picked to fish but 3 or 4 on my trip up and down the river roads. This morning on the EB at 7am a lot of rocks but fishable in places 40 to 60 cfs. The spot I picked no anglers but rising fish I fished on top and in the middle no luck they were rising the whole time I was there, a stiff wind started around 10 made it tough to control the 4wt off the river at 11am. The EB is still a target rich environment I will be back stocked or not. Oh local fly shop on farmington taking donations and asking for help to stock the river on the 10th, a sign of things to come in CT?
The swift was definitely stocked. Tons of stickies haNing around some calm water below the pipe, caught a dozen Monday evening. It's not as fun when it's too easy after they stock :/
Ross,
Were they bows or brookies??
Gary,
Well.... that's news about the Farmie! Looking for donations to stock a river that has plenty of fish. Maybe a lot of "easy fish" to fish over. Those low water conditions will make or break a lot of anglers. Not You
Gerrys,
I don't think so. They have their numbers and they stick by them. More trout will not hurt the brookies population. It hasn't in the past ten years and it will not now.
Anonymous 2:17
A very good comment and I hope to see more of them. I'm glad that you had the "opposite Experience"!!!
Ken
Ken, they were all bows! Caught a couple 6-8" brookies above the pipe as well.
They definitely stocked some good sized bows there! I caught all of mine on a sz 14 frenchie with hot pink thread as a hotspot.
Its the Farmington River Angler's Association that's stocking the Farmington. They do it every year.
I see rain in the forecast for Monday that looks to be substantial let's hope! Also is it worth using weight on the swift with the increased flow? Was planing on trying it tomorrow and was going to swing soft hackles... last time I struggled in the higher flow so was curious
I was on the Swift Monday morning when the stocking truck came. The rainbows are there and of good size. Fish were dropped at the pipe and in the runs below the tree pool. There were not great numbers (several net fulls), but all large rainbows.
The anglers there at the time all caught fish and all were quickly released. I had one of my best days on the Swift (30+ fish caught), obviously helped by the newbies, but also got brooks and holdovers in the tree pool. Two fly fisherman at the Pipe during stocking really did well, with one catching a very large brown in addition to numbers of rainbows and brookies. It seemed like the addition of the stocked fish got the holdovers competing for food. Lucky timing.
There was a small fly hatch on in the am that had the brookies and holdovers working and the flys were very small, likely BWOs in #24 or smaller. I used a #24 olive dry to catch my early fish - then after stocking, caught fish on #18 tan scud, #18 serendipity and #20 midge pupa. Similar story for the other anglers, particularly the midge pupa.
Lastly, 7x tippet made a difference. Although I'm not a fan of having to deal with thin leaders, it seemed necessary. Without it, things were slow. Pray for rain and see ya on the rivers.
MB
Dalton,
Use weight with the Swift high flow.
MB,
Good to hear your report. It has been hit or miss down by the pipe/tree pool. I don't think that 7x made the difference because we hit many bows on 5x today. I've taken many and others have on tiny flies with 5x. It's presentation that counts and your presentation worked!!
Ken
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