Old School Nymphing, All That Water And Book A Fall Trip

 

"I understand that to fit the profile of the modern fly fisherman I should be less the long-suffering sportsman-philosopher and more the conspicuous fanatic carpet bombing the river with the latest fly patterns, tackle and techniques: fishing from the same impulse that makes professional baseball players take steroids" - John Gierach

There he was at the head of a popular pool on the Farmie, about 20 feet out in the river and casting a 9 foot rod AND CATCHING TROUT! I was there to meet a fishing friend and with one eye on the road and one eye on the water I missed a few things but after a few moments I noticed the lightweight SPINNING reel attached to that limber road and that the casts were in the 20 foot range, always quartering upstream. The rod was held at a sight upward angle with his right hand and his left hand held the line out about 18 inches from the handle as his offering drifted downstream. No indicator was in sight. Bang, another fish, some quick work with forceps and the trout was released.

My curiosity got the best of me as he left the water. "What is that outfit" I asked. It was a 9 foot limber rod (not noodle rod limber), a lightweight reel spooled with 2lb flourocarbon, one tiny split shot about a foot or so above the business end which was a meal worm. All trout were hooked in the mouth and released unharmed.(Note: by holding onto the line with his left hand he was in constant contact with anything that grabbed that bug which would virtually eliminate anything swallowed).

This episode reminds me of the fellow on the Deerfield years ago who had a bobber (indicator), a large Montana nymph, a spinning rod and who also caught fish. That was crude indicator nymphing. The Farmie guy was more refined but still his technique was very simple as most nymphing is. He was doing what many "fly" fishers have done and that is to virtually eliminate the fly line and use a weighted fly to propel the long leader out into the river. I think he could of used a weighted fly and been successful too, even more successful than your average tight line fanatic.  Basically this is what we did years ago before we got bitten by the fly bug: we drifted bait with little weight with outfits that didn't come close to what that Farmie guy used. One thing I do know is that the Farmie guy didn't spend $600+ for that outfit and he can't really swing a soft hackle or present a dry with that outfit. That takes a fly rod and reel! (Neither can nymph fishers for that matter).

Turn Off The Water

Well, we asked for it. Two straight years of summertime drought left us praying for rain.  We prayed too hard!!!! As I write the Millers has leveled off at 3330 cfs!  This destroys the record for this date of 1920 cfs set in 1989 and it will not come down anytime soon. The EB is at 1890 cfs BUT if it doesn't pour in that watershed today or tonight it should drop enough (it usually drops about 300 cfs the next day after a big rain event) by the weekend to make a lot of it fishable. Tie up and use some Pat's Rubber legs with weight and when the water gets to 500 cfs go with big bushy dry flies.

The Swift

It's the only reliable game in town outside of some selected "thin blue lines". Now, the flow at the gauge says 53.7 cfs but Bondsville seems to have much more water. This makes sense since Bondsville is  4 to 5 miles downstream from the gauge and has more watershed to collect rainfall.  I know that the brookies like it!!!

One More Thing About The Swift

The Quabbin Watershed has received a lot of rain in the last few weeks and as of 8/1/18 was at about 94% capacity. Who knows where it is right now (measurements are published on the first of the month) and a lot of the recent rain still has to make it down to the "Pond". Now, in 2011 we had Hurricane Irene blow through and Quabbin overflowed just when the LL salmon began to search for spawning areas and followed the current right over the spillway into the Y Pool. We spent the Fall and Winter chasing salmon in excess of two feet long with the occasional Laker thrown in for good measure. Timing is everything for the overflow event. Too early or too late and you get nothing!!

It's hard to believe that the above salmon event was seven years ago. There is a whole new population of fly fishers who have yet to see something like that.  The photo on the left was from Nov. 28 2011 at the lower Y Pool and that big salmon was caught by a client.


Ken