It's been a wonderful Spring which has been full of guiding and fishing and fishing and guiding. I've been tramping over 8 different watersheds, catching trout and introducing many to these great waters. It dawned on me this weekend that I can't remember the last time my wading boots were dry!! I'm getting blown away by the interest in the Millers! Maybe a thousand Fly Fishing Guides to the Millers River since the beginning have been sent out but I still get many requests to guide on this river. It's not as easy a river to fish as some may say (unless you fish the stocking spots) and people will recognize that quickly.
The Ware and the West Branch of the Westfield have been great AND unpopulated by anglers. If the water levels stay up they will be good all Summer. Maybe I'll tell you about a special section on the MB!!!
We are now swinging into mid Summer which means that the freestone season will be an early morning and evening fishery. Want to get up early?? I'll meet you on the river at 6 or even 5am. Just request the starting time and we'll do it. 5 to 8ish pm is great also. I'm the only wading guide working these hours so contact me!!
Your Comments
As I've said many times before the health of a blog is in the page views and READER comments. This blog is far ahead in page views compared to other owner operated sites. Here's the count for the last 10 posts before this one.
164 comments - Blogspot, Wordpress and the others count ALL comments even the ones from the blog author(s). Many times the author(s) account for close to or even more than 50% of the total comments if they get any. This blog had 164 comments in the last 10 posts of which only 29% were from me (I have to answer questions sometimes). The other 71% were from READERS and they were not of the "pretty brookie, pretty bow" variety but hard core info on WHAT river trout were caught, WHERE on that river they were caught and what they were using. That's a REAL community and it's much appreciated. Keep writing and reading the comments!!!!!
It's been a very good two months. Adjust your hours and it will continue.
Ken
15 comments:
Fished bears den last week after you recommended Miller's conditions. Didn't see much surface activity, but went dry anyway and went stalking. Took two nice fish on biggish caddis and missed a couple more. Went extra body English for a long cast to near bank and lost my balance. Fought to stay upright and watched helplessly as big, fat fish sipped and spit before I regained my balance. I laughed at myself, glad there were no witnesses.
I still owe the Ware a return to the spots you showed me.
Ken -
The blog is appreciated! Keep up the good work.
Ill be in the BD within 2 hours... Psyched to play with a new terrestrial dry, and, certainly, to swing soft hackles and wets... maybe even have to "match the hatch"...
Your point on the Millers is good. It's a funky river at times. Shoot, my time on it is dwarfed by your experience (I started in High School and I'm 44 now). It's amazing how different sections can have different bite preferences going on... and even how different species seem to impact the fishing. It's sheer length is a factor too. I've been really wanting to fish Farley Flats and the deep sections after the rapids below bridge street for a few years. Love those areas, especially for smallies, but I just havent had the chance. When I finally get there, it wont be fishing as it did on my last trip, and the learning curve will start again...Makes for a lot of fun!
Will
Will,
Farley Flats was the 1st place on the Millers where I wet a line and that was in the mid 80's! I've walked and fished below Bridge St. down past Mormon Hollow Brook, Lyons Brook and down to the Funnel. Great smallie water and you will never see anyone.
DRL,
I slipped on a clay bank in the BD right below Rezendes house. Total comedy routine!!
Ken
Update... Fished BD last night.
I arrived with a buddy and his son at maybe 5:40. There were trout aggressively rising to emergers at the gulf brook mouth, sporadically... But we wanted to swing wets from the RR bridge down, so we hiked up and slowly worked down the faster water above Resendez. There were trout taking emergers occasionally, primarily lightly colored caddis, but man - getting them to eat was not a simple task.
Around sunset my buddy and his son headed home, and I went to go fish further down stream for a few minutes. Spoke to a friend who was on the sand bar at Resendez who caught one on a streamer but was anxiously awaiting dark to try the mouse bite out that I had mentioned to him a week ago or so... Not sure how that went, havent heard.
It was getting darkish and I left my headlamp where it worked best, in the closet at home (oops) so I just hit the first run vs that pool after the second run where I wanted to be.
Large Mayflies were coming off in a modest hatch, I never caught one to ID it... but them and the continuing sporadic caddis emergence had some decent and slashing rises going on. On went my Millers confidence fly (why didnt I start the day with this??) the Picket Pin. quickly caught two and then darkness and memories of the bear I saw last week motivated my departure.
I'd say, we are solidly in that phase where the Millers is shifting from "They are eating everything and anything at any time" to "You best play the game" Fun stuff!
does Farley flats hold trout? never see anyone fishing there...I have tried it a few times but no luck except for a baby bass or two
BobT,
I first fished it in the Spring of 1985 and a few years later. There's one big pool with a big rock in the middle which always produced trout. I think that the proximity to Route 2 just turned me off. Your backcast could hook a semi and get you seriously into your backing!
Will,
The large mayflies may have been March Browns. I have a picture of one on my hand from years ago on my blog and it was taken at Rezendes.
This is the FUN TIME!
Ken
I love fishing in traffic! you guys are no fun ...lol...I fished downtown Denver a few times thinking I'd get a carp...but only got a couple rainbows which was shocking. I'll try that pool ...I know the one you are talking about...I do think its kind of cool fishing for trout in strange places-in the middle of the outlet malls in Silverthorne, CO is one such place...you can get a cheering section if you hook one near one of the many foot bridges. Also the Big Thompson flows through downtown Loveland CO...some of the better fish are in the downtown area. I think because they are so out in the open many fly guys assume the worst ...I am as guilty as anyone but it seems when I try them they more often than not produce some nice results. Heck the dam in Orange has always had some great hatches and fishing.
BobT,
Didn't Robert Traver say that trout can only live in beautiful places? Guess he was wrong. I'd like to see a trout theme park or a flyfishing country club named Key Rainbow with instead of 18 holes you have 18 different streams to fish.
I'll stop before I begin to actually like the idea.
Ken
Ha ha ....well they do have pay to play trout ponds and rivers...some are tremendously beautiful but I'd rather catch a fish on public water, I won't pay to access fishing other than a license fee in the USA..something about it bothers the heck out of me and I find it fake, stocked trout in public water are a level higher in my opinion; if you do fish some private waters I have no problem with you but there is something about it that strikes me as phony and I'd rather not..trout adapt to some wierd places if the water quality is ok. Wouldn't you say if a trout lives in it, it is by default beautiful-even if you are getting honked at by an eighteen wheeler?
When I lived outside Atlanta I would fish the Chattahoochi river (tailwater) in downtown Atlanta. Bob T is right, it's different, cars, trucks, busses etc, but you do have the river to yourself. If I went upriver to the classic sections it was always crowded.
On another note, I fished th Swift again. Water was back up and very little surface activity. Struggled for about three hours hooking three and landing one. Finally dialed in with a size 18 short shanked scud hook tan caddis tied using ginger spanflex for the body, a fine gold wire rib and a small black bead for the head. Using my Sage 00 I cast straight upstream and let the fly drift back to me while drawing in th slack. I picked up seven rainbows and then it stopped. Switched to a sparkle scud, same hook, bead setup and got another six. Those last two hours made my day.
Bob T - There are trout in that whole section... But, it's very pockety so outside the big pool Ken noted and a few smaller poolish/runs, you are hitting pockets.
I think a lot of folks skip it for the reason Ken noted - being right on rt 2 and, it's tricky to wade. Always have the wading staff on the Millers - it's a tough wade every where. The casting can be funky given the bush and slope right between the highway and the river too. Note that the nice drivers often chuck stuff into the river. I hopped off a rock about 20 years ago and crushed a beer bottle I hadnt seen - had a 4" long shard of glass go through my wading boot, the waders and then stab up into my big toe joint. Not a fun experience.
The fish I've caught down there most, are smallies. Typical millers river smallies, 8-12", with 10-12 being really nice... Occasionally you catch a 2-4# fish, but not with a level of certainty that I'd say "you can expect that". It might be a 2-3 in a lifetime thing.
It feels some times, like the trout just hang below the RR tressel at the top, and in the bridge street pool. I used to fish the pockets with hellgramite or stone fly nymphs and catch trout, bass and some sunfish... And then I'd repeat the stretch with a streamer or popper/deer hair bug and catch more bass and perhaps a big sunny. The best streamers were always the classic wooly bugger (I really like brown and black on the millers, probably looks like a helgramite) and cray fish... Though the last few years, for the bass, a craft fur perch has gone to the #1 spot.
It's a fun section, but not the tranquility of the BD, that is for darn sure!
Bob, one of my favorite native brookie and wild brown streams flows through (literally through) several old factories, many of which used to dump effluent from various production systems they were using into the stream. When I say literally, that's not an exaggeration, some walls of the factories form the edge of the stream.
Fish like to live in all kinds of places - and that dam in orange, heck yeah. Great spot. Last fall I caught a gorgeous 15-16" smallie off the vent pipe from the orange waste water treatment plant. Literally. You can see the grayish cloud of water coming off the bottom of the millers right there, and the dang fish was sitting in the cloud! Another sneaky good spot, though hard to fly fish... Right below the Starett's dam in Athol. Been YEARS since I did that, but BAZINGA.
Fishermen, we like pretty places... Fish... They just like wet places :)
Speakin of the MB, fooled 2 bows there this morning with a #12 black spider. The 1st was a cow (maybe my largest bow this year) but the water in the river is getting skinny and it is still spring, 1st day of summer Thursday June 21. There was nobody on the 2 miles of river I worked.
The sections on the Ware I fish are looking weak. The Ware pond. Didnt have time to stay long. Saw zero rises. Need rain!
BobT,
Don't take my comment seriously. I love public water too.
Will,
Jerry Godin, the founder of Regal Vise, swears that he saw Atlantic Salmon in the same spot back in the 1990's and he fished for them a whole summer. (electronically tagged fish were recorded at Orcutt). We have to live, in most cases with our industrial past. It doesn't mean we have to like it.
Joe C,
The Catahoochi is a tailwater meaning it became a good trout fishery AFTER the place was urbanized. We made the best of an urban setting which is, I guess, a good thing.
Gary Cranson,
My client landed a big bow at the end of the river last Saturday. I took two this week in the early morning. All on dries. A nice place!
mattk,
Fished for very difficult fish tonight that were rising at Church Street. My client hooked a heavy brown and and then we spent two hours trying to tempt a few others. No dice! Difficult but fun.
Ken
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