It gets too warm in the Summer - Freestones get warm but seldom get lethal. Trout find cool places to rest during the heat of the day and then start feeding at dusk, period. Your hand held thermometer will not find these sanctuaries but trout will. I regularly fish the Millers at 70 degrees on summer evenings and hook and land trout in seconds without ill effects. BTW, the freestones are not the only rivers that get warm in the summer. I saw, fished for and caught rising trout on the Deerfield this July when the temperature was 68 degrees at 6:45 in the morning. I fished the Farmie for three days this month and never saw the temperature below 66 degrees and saw it at 70 degrees in the evening. Fish were rising everywhere and
EVERYONE was fishing it and I caught trout as did a lot of anglers. Trout can and do acclimate to
changing conditions and if brought to the net quickly WILL RECOVER!!!!! That is a fact. In three decades of summer fishing on the Millers I have hooked three trout and briefly played them but then broke them off only to have the same fish rise again and get caught and I retrieved my fly. So much for stressed trout!
I ran into a guy that I guided two years ago on the Millers while fishing the Swift a week ago. He said that last August he was coming home from the Deerfield one evening and decided that he'd wet a line in the Millers. Even in low water conditions trout were rising and he took a half dozen on dries before darkness fell!
You don't need a guide on the Millers - If your experience is confined to popular stocking points then you don't need a guide but if you want the out-of-the-way places then you want a guide as dozens of anglers do when they contact me. Many have my "Guide to the Millers" BUT they want to know how to FISH it and not just how to find it. Much of the great Farmie is easy access but it's crawling with guides because folks want to know how to fish it. You can catch dozens of trout on the Millers after a stocking but then you need some arrows in your quiver when the trout spread out.
This Weekend
The EB has dropped from about 1900 cfs on Thursday to 486 as I write at 1:30 pm on Friday. FISH IT if we don't get rain overnight or tomorrow. As long as the flow is below 600 cfs you should do well. FISH THE SWIFT as a back up. A back up?? The flow will be fine but everyone will be there.
THE MILLERS still has to come down from 2000 cfs as I write. When it gets below 600 cfs all hell will break loose. No tailwater anglers allowed - only freestoners!! (hahaha) We have rain in the forecast but let's hope it misses us!
Update Saturday Morning 8/18
The EB is at 2100 cfs. The Millers is around 2600 cfs. All of this came overnight.
Ken
11 comments:
I'm sorry to say but the rain did not miss us in the Athol-Royalston Millers area. Some very heavy downpours this afternoon and evening. I am so jonesing to get back out on this wonderful river and put to use what I garnered from you as well as "The Soft-Hackled Fly" by Sylvester Nemes and "Wet Flies" by Dave Hughes(Two very good reads).
I have a feeling that late summer/early fall is going to be one to remember.
LOL
no tailwaters allowed.....that will teach em...lol
Todd,
I guess it didn't miss the North Quabbin area. It's at 2600 and rising. The EB went from 400 to 2100 overnight. Bummer!
Ken
The rain killed my weekend. Things looked good for the EB last night but this morning.......!!!!
GW
Thanks for all the tips this season, especially pertaining to Caddy Lane. Tried the extreme lower portion today, that older gentleman did call me an A..... En route back to my car. Luscious Native Brook Trout and nobody for miles. Learned not to live in fear anymore and feel more secure on the Swift River. FYI, I now know how he’s been so successful all season and why his attitude+guard are up. Watched at a distance, he snags rising Rainbow Trout with nymphs in their backs. Explains how on certain days at the Y-Pool he caught 10-15 big Rainbows continuously, saw him do just that to two Bows at the Tree-Pool today. Tight lines and thanks for you’re thought provoking blog🐠
Will
Will,
I think I know that guy. He's good!!!
Ken
I was fortunate enough to beat last night's deluge and to get out on the EB Friday about 1pm. It started raining lightly the minute I stepped in the river, literally. It rained off and on after that, but nothing too intense. I caught two browns in the first 30 minutes, but it was like somebody flipped a switch, with nary a bite the rest of the afternoon. i always attribute such fishless periods as being due to a low pressure system passing through, whether true or not. After all, it couldn't be me!!
Was at the Swift on Cady Lane for the first time in a month on Friday. The brookies were there but fairly unwilling cooperate. The rainbows just upstream of Cady Lane were the same. Not a lot of insert activity in these stretches. Speaking with another angler going closer to the pipe would have helped because the fast water was producing on nymphs.
We (there were three of us) shared Cady Lane with two other anglers. One gentlemen was working nymphs and seemed to be getting a few short strikes but nothing major. The other fellow was interesting. My 13 year old son and I were working a stretch and he was maybe 20 yards down stream. My son saw him move another 20+ yards down stream and worked his way down to that area. Ten minutes later this guy cones back and yells at my son for taking his spot. We ignore him. He then starts telling us we can have the spot because we waded too close and put the fish off. Very strange character. I guess ge eventually caught something because we heard him hollering about it an hour later. Not a great experience.
Mike C.,
There are some major A-Holes on crowded rivers. If you leave a place YOU HAVE LEFT IT!!! Sounds like a guy from last weekend!!!
Ken
Mike C
I was there Friday 5-7pm with my 16 yr old son. We enjoyed a couple hrs of hassle free fishing.
Managed a half dozen small brookies on #18 Syls midge SH.
Maybe well see you out there someday
Mike P
Hi Mike P,
Sounds like the fishing was better after the storm came through. Once school starts up it is hard to find time to go fishing with my son. This us his first real season fly fishing. He caught his first big rainbow on the Swift thus past July.
Mike
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