Tools Of The Trade, A Good Year And Happy New Year!

"Fly fishermen are born honest, but they get over it." - Ed Zern

Last week Dave P wrote in the  comment section wondering how I deal with snowshoe hare.  This stuff can be difficult for the novice fly tier.  First, how much do I use for a well proportioned fly?  Second, what part of the hares foot is best to use?

The little homemade tool on the left will show you how much to use.  The late Ray Holden of Athol, a superb tier (how about a size 28 quill wing Royal Coachman), showed me a trick years ago.  Pictured here is a size 16 hook whip finished to a tiny dowel. The size 16 hook will capture the right amount of feather to make a single quill wing(see photo below)

It can also be used for deer hair and SNOWSHOE too.

The third photo is rather poor but it gets the message across.  If I haven't used snowshoe in a while I'll break out the "hook" and I'll know exactly how much to cut.


Now, what part of the foot is best???

The bottom photo shows a hares foot right side up.  You want to be interested in the sole and heel of the foot AND around the toes of the foot. This is the fur that FLOATS!!!  The stuff on the top of the foot has little floating properties.

Good Bye 2019

2019 has been a good year.  From salmon in January to great dry fly fishing in the summer to the brookie run this Fall, everything just seemed to come together.  Guiding and fly tying was up over the previous year but most of all this blog just continued to grow.

Without a doubt, this blog has the most page views and the most/best reader comments of any owner operated blog in New England.  And what's very cool is that readers visit this blog EVERY DAY and if they discover this blog on the web THEY COME BACK.  They come back

because this site will give you up to date flow conditions on area rivers, will let you know what's hatching and WHERE it's hatching such as Hendricksons in early May, Sulphurs in June and Tricos in August.  I will continue to highlight sections of rivers just to make it easier for readers and with over 1000 square miles of watershed that I report on I will not be causing any overcrowding.


So have a Happy New Year and try to fish more and keep reading this blog!!!

Thinking Of Dries Already

There's an awful lot of water within day trip range of my house- many miles of it-and, although none of it is exactly unknown or un-fished, there's a lot of it that's overlooked and gets damned little pressure.  I try to remind myself of that whenever I get to complaining about our declining and overcrowded fisheries. After all, most are declining because they're crowded, and they're crowded because they're on the short list of places where everyone goes. You know, the spots they'll tell you about down at the fly shop even if you haven't just spent five hundred dollars. - John Gierach

Size 20 Snowshoe Emerger

It happens at this time every year and maybe it's happening sooner as I get older.  I fish the tailwaters through the winter BUT I, like most, am really are looking forward to this winter to get over quickly so I can ply the waters of SPRING when winter disappears and insects begin to hatch and I can cast a dry fly.  That dry fly has become the EMERGER, half floating and half submerged and it works.  Here's my favorite emerger:

Hook - size 14 through 26 curved hook

Thread - size 12/0 olive (I like thin thread on dries)  The thread forms the body.

Thorax - brown or olive fuzzy  rabbit

Wing - Snowshoe hare OR very fine post wing material tied slanting backwards

Head - olive or brown fuzzy dubbing tied in just behind the hook eye

NOTE - The thorax and wing are tied in towards the middle of the hook to leave room for the head of the fly.  The head gives this fly the perfect insect profile.

This fly was born to float with little of no floatant outside of fumed silica.  Use any colors that you like to represent whatever insect is on the water.  In fact, you can color the snowshoe wing with a gray sharpie without hurting its floating properties.  I color the wing gray and use gray post wing material BECAUSE many mayflies have grayish wings.  This pattern was perfect last summer during the sulphur hatch on the Swift.

Fishing The Swift

Yup, there are still a lot of trout in this river and I had a good few hours this past Monday.  There were few rising fish but they fell for pinheads in the size 22 range.  Wring out those few remaining hours left in that 2019 license and don't forget to get that 2020 license soon.

Hope that you Christmas was a good one!!!


Ken

Sawyer's Pheasant Tail And My Millers Christmas Present

General shape and coloration, together with the right size, is of greater importance than an exact copy. My two favorite patterns, as I call them, are the Pheasant Tail and the Grey Goose.  The Pheasant Tail serves for the darker colored nymphs and the Grey Goose for the lighter ones." - Frank Sawyer


SAWYERS PTN

Everybody knows of this great generalist mayfly nymph and I use the "generalist"tag  because with just a tweaking of the general shape and coloration (read the Sawyer quote above) this little nymph will represent just about every mayfly in a river.

Was Sawyer the first to use PT as a body material?? Not by a long shot.  G.E.M. Skues, the patron saint of nymph fishing, created a pheasant tail soft hackle a few years earlier but that creation must of bothered Sawyer.  His PTN was built to mimic the Baetis family of mayflies which tucked their legs up against their bodies when they were swimming. So, off goes any vestige of hackle to mimic legs and one has the killer, streamlined pattern that we have today.  (It's interesting to see how fly tiers just had to throw the legs back onto the PT over the years much as in the same way that tiers bastardized Carrie Stevens venerable Grey Ghost streamer which was  built to be streamlined with material on the sides  of the hook instead of the traditional (dumb) way of balancing material on the top of the hook shank.)

                                                                                   PTN With A Plastic Bead

I will sometimes include a plastic seed bead (found in craft stores) to mimic the head of the insect without adding too much weight to the fly. These beads come in a thousand colors and work well with hook sizes down to about 22.

You may also want to try this trick during hatch time.  Mayflies, when they are about to hatch, will send a lot of blood into their wing cases which will darken them considerably. You can imitate that by making your wing cases out of black duck quill or by making the pheasant tail wing case and then coloring it up with a trusty black sharpie.

Streamlined with legs tucked under

If you think that this is all too much to deal with then forget about the essence of this pastime (fooling trout with imitation insects) and just keep tossing your rainbow warriors, chartreuse mops and the rest of the junk flies.  But remember, it's not how many fish that you catch but how you catch them.

< Photo of Baetis Nymph from The History of Fly-fishing in fifty flies by Ian Whitlaw

Here's a gift for next year.  There is a spot on the Millers that is usually empty when the Kempfield, Occutt, Bridge Street and the Upper Trestle are being fished hard.  I know that last year I saw NOBODY there on some perfect June evenings and the fishing was great.

It is big, wide, of moderate depth and easily waded. Trout rise freely and are suckers for a soft hackle on the swing.

I'm going to divulge this spot but I have no fear of it being overrun. First, it's a big spot with lots of room for everyone.  Second, this gift may go the way of so many Christmas gift cards - thrown into a bureau and forgotten or maybe you're just too jaded by tailwaters to value it.  If you're smart you will not do that!!!!

Turn onto Arch Street in Erving, cross the bridge, bear right and keep going.

Good Luck and Merry Christmas!!!!!

Ken

Some Tying Suggestions

"Comparing the qualities of feathers from various birds we consider the feathers of the cock starling the most valuable of all to the angler. They have a rich glossy black, which no other feathers possess" - W.C. Stewart

The Dressed Up Ostrich 

I made up this fly a few years ago, probably to pass the time on a winter evening, and have fished it with success but it doesn't possess any soft hackle magic like the partridge and orange. Note: all SH work, some better than others.  This one just looks really good and is fun to tie.

Hook - size 12 to 14

Tag - orange floss

Body - olive floss

Thorax - fiery brown ostrich herl

Hackle - any shade of partridge

Starling 

The quote at the top of the post describes the bird skin on the right.  Starting is invaluable if you want soft hackles size 18 and smaller and starling is dirt cheap when compared to partridge.  Beware if you think that you need a gentle touch when using partridge wait to you use starling.  It's very fragile but worth it.

Now, the feathers in this photo don't look like the glossy black that Stewart describes but trust me, they are black!!

To the left are some size 18 Starling and Olive wet flies that get it done on the Swift when the BWO are getting ready to emerge. 

It's a good fly to have especially as the tail fly off of a larger fly.


Keep Fishing

The Swift flow is perfect right now so get out there and use up those last few hours on your 2019 license and don't forget to buy your 2020 licence!!!!!



Ken

Another Milestone And Fiberglass Rods.

"Hi Ken, No special message this time - just thanks again for your blog. I read every new post faithfully. Your sharing of your knowledge of streams, techniques, and patterns is much appreciated. Warmest holiday greetings to you and your readers. "John 

It blew right by me but this fragile experiment in  flyfishing journalism passed a milestone this past October. We met and crossed the 2 MILLION PAGE VIEW MARK.  And I use the editorial "WE" because it takes readership to accomplish this and readership to motivate me to continue with this blog.

Back in the early days (pre 2010) readership was slim but it grew organically by focusing on local rivers, fishing reports, stories and not falling into  the trap of bogus product reviews and bucket list dreaming.  There's enough of that out there.  Keep the flavor "local" and keep it coming!!!!!!

I thank everyone who has enjoyed reading this blog and for all of those readers who have made sincere, knowledgeable comments throughout the years on this blog's content. Again, thank you!!!!!  Rivers in this state such as the Ware, Swift, Millers, the EB and the WB of the Westfield will continue to be reported on throughout the year because of you!!!

Fiberglass

I know enough not to chance smashing one of my bamboo beauties in weather that will cause the tip to ice up and I won't fish any of the graphite "nymphing" rods in this cold season because of all the online evidence of smashed tips that one can easily find.  Regular graphite can get the job done (I've fished graphite in cold weather for 40 years and have only broken one and that was after 14 seasons of heavy use).

If you want a rod that is built to last try out a sturdy fiberglass rod in the 4 to 6wt range (I've also fished glass for years and have NEVER broken one in the act of fishing).  In my younger days I abused fiberglass in all kinds of silly ways but I never broke one.  The stuff is bullet proof!!  And it's not your "fathers fiberglass" but appears to have improved in feel and action while increasing the length to what we would never believe was possible just a few years ago.  I had the opportunity to cast one of the new generation of glass and it felt great.  Yup, I'm in the market for one!!!  I also have a 7.5 foot, 6wt Walt Powell blank that I built years ago and then stripped down because I didn't like the job that I did.  It may be a good winter project this year!

Fishing Right Now

The season is pretty much over as far as the freestones are concerned unless Gary is making some magic on the EB.  It's the Swift in central Ma right now and it's worth the trip especially if we get that winter day when temperatures creep into the 40's and midges and winter caddis start popping at the PIPE and the Y Pool.

I'll be there and so should you!!!

Ken

Polly Rosborough And His Fuzzy Nymphs

"Successful trout fishing isn't a matter of brute force or even persistence, but something more like infiltration" - John Gierach

If you started to tie flies in the 1960's OR if you like to study the trends concerning this wonderful past time of over the last half of the 20th century then you probably have heard of Polly.  His flies, such as the CASUAL DRESS and The FELDERMOUSE, have one technique in common - they are FUZZY and usually weighted. They also WORK as many anglers can attest.  They are buggy and that attracts trout as the great fly designer and trout magnet John Wyatt has proven with his creations which are very similar.






The above fly is NOT one of Polly's creations but incorporates his fly tying principles - make it fuzzy and buggy and drift it slowly!

Hook - Size 14 wet fly or nymph

Tail - pale grey partridge fibers (they move in the current

Body - it's all hares ear with olive making up the rear 2/3 of the fly and orange/red making up the thorax.  Use a dubbing loop to make it really fuzzy and then lash it down with fine (very fine) copper wire.

Hackle - grey partridge tied sparse

Now, Polly used lead wire a lot but I'm removing that material to keep it out of the environment. I don't use lead-free wire because it doesn't have the density to really make the fly sink and will just use lead free shot or a damn bead as seen above.

Fish this fly for an hour or so, catch some fish, and you will see that the fly looks like it's falling apart.  IT ISN'T!  It's just getting GOOD.

I don't have a name for this critter but will call it the BUGGY BUNNY (the bunny comes from the hares ear material and the buggy comes from the fact that it's BUGGY.

Polly tied great flies right up to his passing at age 95.  You can still get his books online and they are a great investment and great reading.

The Swift

Yup, it's still fishable although access to the PIPE, the Duck Pond and Cady Lane is still greatly limited. The Y Pool access via the parking area across from River Road is non existent. Use the main parking area but watch your footing on the hilly section because it will get icy.

I'm still guiding on this river!!!!

Ken

The State Of The Swift And Caddis Questions

"There are people in my life who sometimes worry about me when I go off into the fields and streams, not realizing that the country is a calm, gracious, forgiving place and that the real dangers are found in the civilization you have to pass through to get there." - John Gierach


I drove down to check out the Swift knowing that Belchertown received 21 inches of the white stuff. The question is has any of it been moved to accommodate parking for fly fishers?

Here's the rundown by parking area as of 9 am:

Route 9 Main Lot - It has been plowed as of Friday afternoon

Route 9 across the street - A small area that may accommodate three cars has been cleared

The lot across from River Road - It has not been plowed

All three pull offs of of River Road including the Gauge lot - They have not been plowed!

Enoch Sanford Rd (the cul de sac road the turnaround has been plowed but the fisherman parking area has not


As it stands the areas have very limited or no parking available. Now, here's where YOU come in. If you drive by these areas in the next three days and notice that snow has been cleared just email me at: ken.elmer9@gmail.com or text me at 978-790-4320. You would certainly be helping a lot of fellow anglers plan their weekend!!!

A Simple Caddis

The caddis fly has always bugged me (pun intended) and many other flyfishers.  I have been on the Millers, a great caddis river, in mid May and have seen a zillion adult caddis flies hopping around in the stream side bushes BUT see very little surface activity.  That's because a good number of immature caddis do not rise from the bottom of  the stream to the surface but crawl along the bottom and then emerge on the shore, dry their wings, and then fly to the bushes. It is a good strategy to fish any of the subsurface patterns available and save the dry versions for egg laying time.

                                                                                                                                     DSM Caddis

You guessed it! A soft hackle fly dressed a bit stouter such as my DSM Caddis will fill this bill nicely. Just change the body color to match the insect if you like although I really don't think it will make too much of a difference.

When To Fish The Dry

Most of the important (big numbers) caddis of Spring will hatch/lay eggs during mid day hours. By late Spring this activity takes place during the low light hours of  morning and evening, just like mayflies!

I don't like traditional dries that are supposed to imitate caddis because they look like a cartoon version of the insect and are too complicated for their own good.  I like things simple. The above Simple Caddis is a breathtakingly easy tie:

Hook - standard dry 12 to 16

Body - fine dubbing of grey, tan or olive

Wing - (here's the tough part) use very fine deer mask hair and not a lot of it.  Don't make the wing too long either.  The neat thing is that you can color the wing with a sharpie if you like to get that grey or brown color of some of these flies. It may not be necessary but it's fun to do!!!!


Ken

San Juan Worm Reviewed

They say you forget your troubles on a trout stream but that's not quite it. What happens is that you begin to see where your troubles fit into the grand scheme of things and suddenly they're not such a big deal anymore. - John Gierach

Yes, this fly does catch trout although most don't want to admit that they actually use it. I have used it with success BUT I have a problem with the way that it is tied. It's tied by lashing the chenille at the mid point to the hook. Some add a bead at this point because we just have to add a bead to anything that doesn't float. In any event this tying method causes the chenille to kink and fold over on itself. Aquatic and earthworms don't fold over on themselves but just wiggle around as the current moves them.

After looking at countless pictures of standard tied SJW's I found a photo of a length of chenille tied to the hook at the end. This made sense even if the tier had a bead attached. I ditched the beads and tied some up. The chenille moved in the current in a very natural way and the Swift Bows approved. I guess I was looking for something to do because I tied a few with tiny glass/plastic beads for eyes but I dumped that idea a while ago because the beads kept falling off after a fish or three. Now I just use black thread at the "head" to make it look like a head.  

I don't worry about "short strikes" just like a bass fisher doesn't worry about them with rubber worms. The trout just inhale them!

 I like the way it looks. BTW, I always use micro chenille.

This is what happens when you are forced by Winter to spend early evenings thinking about fly fishing instead of actually doing it!! Actually it was fun!

Yes, it snowed as it does every winter.  Is fly fishing done for the season??  Your answer is found in the last 12 years of this blog and that answer is NO!!!!  It's the perfect time to book a three hour trip to a spot on the Swift that you've been meaning to get to. The air may be chilly but the water is actually nice.  This past Saturday I guided a gent who had NEVER caught a trout on a fly.  He took three and one was a beautiful brookie closing in on a foot long.

Book Me!!!!!

Good Winter Flies

Fly-fishing is solitary, contemplative, misanthropic, scientific in some hands, poetic in others, and laced with conflicting aesthetic considerations. It's not even clear if catching fish is actually the point.John Gierach

Over the years I've narrowed down my fly selection to ONLY WHAT WORKS on a reasonable basis.  No, I don't carry a thousand flies (I know someone who does) every time I hit a river.  I have a tailwater bag with tailwater flies and a freestone bag with a freestone selection.  There is some crossover but not a lot.  Some #22 BWO are in the Freestone bag when they start popping up on the Millers and that lonely Wooley Bugger is in the tailwater bag in case I go head to head with a monster brown on the Swift.


Does this selection change with the seasons?  Of course it does.  No ants or beetles on the Swift in January and forget about a sulphur hatch for that matter.  My BEST flies are subsurface and they are small!



Swift River Serendipity

A good red color that the trout can see and the white wing tag makes it work.


BUZZERS - 
Black body, copper rib and that orange wing case make this a dependable fly from the Bubbler to the Pipe.

The Good Old Scud

Use it year round but especially in the late Fall and Winter.  It's the shell back that spells FOOD to a trout!!   

There are more but I have to have these flies with me when the snow begins to fly.

 

CDC vs Poly Wing Yarn

"There's more bullshit in flyfishing than in a Texas cattle yard" - Lefty Kreh

Fly fishers like one or the other.  I like one and that's poly wing yarn, the finer the better.  I once was a big time user of CDC feathers on small dries but I've changed my ways for what I think are good reasons.Let's talk about those reasons and the history of CDC usage.

CDC is a loose translation for the French term Cul De Canard which basically means bottom of the duck.   It first hit the fly tying stage back in the early 1980's and it was treated as a wonder material. Yes, it could float but it had some drawbacks:

1. It was said that these feathers resided near the preen oil gland of ducks and geese and were saturated with the stuff.  One marketing genius tried to sell the preen oil as a floatant and totally failed because it was the structure of the feather that made it float, not the application of a floatant. That's why CDC flies sink if any liquid or gel comes in contact with it.

2. (Here's my favorite bogus reason for using CDC) - CDC works because it comes from harmless and benign waterfowl (ducks and geese) that pose no threat to a trout.  Now, if that were true trout would have been beaching themselves to get away from the nymphs I used to make with raw, untanned MINK fur. (I wish I still had some). Years ago feathers from blue herons and  kingfishers were tied into flies and they caught a lot of trout!!!

3. CDC is fragile stuff.  It gets chewed up quickly which means your flies will have to be replaced.

A Better Way

1.Use Poly Wing Yarn. It's nonabsorbent (CDC isn't),

2. You can buy miles of it for next to nothing (not with CDC)

3. It's dainty and fine but tough as hell (tougher than CDC)

4. It comes in a zillion colors but you only need three

I can tie dries and emergers down to size 28 with this stuff without making them too top heavy.  And after releasing a fish just wipe it with a paper towel (yes, a paper towel) and give it a shake with some silica powder and you're back on the battlefield.

A Word About Silica Powder

The stuff is great because it wicks away moisture and doesn't gum up the fly BUT the stuff that comes with a tiny applicator brush is a joke and here's why. 

Most of these products are the "shaker" variety: dump the fly in the bottle, close the bottle, shake 2 or 3 times, open the bottle and fish. This works because the manufacturers of this product threw in "silica gel" along with the silica powder. The gel (tiny rocks) "moves" the powder around to coat the fly. Because the bottle top is closed during the application you do not lose any powder. This is a good idea!

Now, the guys with the applicator brush need the brush to get the powder on the fly and on everything else from hands, sleeves, waders to the surface of the water. One writer says don't use it in Montana because Montana is too windy!!!  If silica gel was used you wouldn't need the brush.  It was a bad idea!!

Keep fishing!!!!!

Ken

Happy Thanksgiving

"I think I fish, in part, because it's an anti-social, bohemian business that, when gone about properly, puts you forever outside the mainstream culture without actually landing you in an institution" - John Gierach 

Happy Thanksgiving

The Season Continues.....And Book Me

"Angling is extremely time consuming.  That's sort of the whole point." -  Thomas McGuane

Upper Swift Brown

As I write this in the pre-dawn hours the first snow of the season has covered the neighborhood lawns. Years ago, before I discovered the Swift and the Farmie, my freestone season would grind to a halt with the first snow. That's not the case over the last 20+ years as the tailwaters provide the "fix" that we need to get us through this dark season.  It has been a GREAT year on the Swift with some notable changes.  Let's go over some of them.



First, I've seen more big browns this year than in the past. "Big" means in excess of 20 inches with many measured in pounds and not inches.

Second, the brookies have changed their habits. Some traditional spawning grounds were chock full of fish while others like across from the Gauge and the Duck Pond were empty.  The Gauge stretch, which runs along the opposite bank for a couple of hundred feet, used to attract a hundred brook trout.  Last year was a bust because of the high water but this year the flow was perfect but still nothing.

The riffles below the Duck Pond were prime spawning ground until 2017 when it was invaded with green algae which covered the spawning beds.  The brookies went elsewhere.  Then 2018 brought the flood but I expected a recovery this year.

There are still a lot of brook trout in the Swift and one season does not make a trend.  The DFW should spend some time studying this instead of electroshocking clonebows, a truly artificial fish!!!!

Let me echo the words of frequent contributor "Falsecast": Stay off the gravel beds especially above Route 9. Much of the spawning is winding down and because you may not see trout doesn't mean the eggs are not there.  Stay off the gravel until February.

                                                                                    A couple of bows

There are still plenty of fish in the Swift but you have to fish for them and that means trying out some "roads less traveled".  Yes, I know that I sound like a broken record but fishing the same old place with the same old characters gets old very quickly. Why not fish Cady Lane and I mean DEEP into Cady Lane?  Give Bondsville a try or maybe the 2nd pull off on River Road.  What have you got to lose, a spot at the Pipe or the Y Pool????


Book Me

I know that you have some unused hours on that 2019 licence and you don't want to let them go stale, do you?  Now's a chance to learn a new section of a river.  Contact me.

Good to see you Saturday on the Swift Alex B.  I wondered where you went!!!!!

Ken

Copper Grouse vs Partridge And Red, Rod Care And Book Me

"If I'm not going to catch anything then I'd rather not catch anything on flies". - Bob Lawless

It's that time of year when the weather is still fishable (much like early April) but it's been months with the same techniques and flies and I needed to shake things up. No, I'm not on the streamer bandwagon because I like small flies and light lines and light rods. So we change up the fly recipes and see what happens.

As I mentioned in the last two blog posts I worked up two flies - The Copper and Grouse and the Partridge and Red. I fished the P & R first through a 50 yard section twice and took 3 brook trout between 6 and 8 inches.  Then I switched over to the Copper and Grouse, fished the same water where I took 2 brookies between 11 and 14 inches.  All this took a bit over 2 hours.

What does all this mean????  Answer = NOTHING!!!  It's just me entertaining myself.  Both flies will work at any time.



Broken Rods Again

Yup, I read AGAIN where another angler broke ANOTHER nymph rod!!! Without a doubt this style of construction has not stood the test of time and we as rod owners practice some careless habits that hastens a rods death and that's why I think it's a good idea to reprint a post from a while ago on this subject.

It was May of 2017 when the end came. The rod broke in mid section while casting a soft hackle on the Bliss Pool. I will say that it was a memorable occasion BECAUSE I was into my 14th year with that 8 foot, 4wt graphite rod and it was the only time a rod of mine broke while in the act of fishing! The rod was built by a club member and I won it in a raffle and its sweet moderate action made it my "go to" Swift River rod or whenever I knew that I would not be casting bead heads and such. ( I leave that task to the stouter rods). I put lots of mileage on my rods, easily more than the average angler, but I am careful with what I do. That's why I'm still fishing 10 year old rods (and catching fish!!)

Operator Error or Material/Design Flaw??

It's almost always operator error and I'm not taking about car doors, trunk lids or ceiling fans but the careless things we do while in waders. (I'll discuss design failure later) Here's a good list:

Candy Cane Rod -

You've seen this and you may be guilty of it too. You are bringing in a trout with your rod held at the high NOON position so that the tip is horribly stressed.  It will break then or 200 casts later and we will blame the rod company but it's really our fault. Now, years ago in the age of bamboo and fiberglass rods were always shorter so netting a trout was much easier. Now we have 10 and 11 foot rods which makes it harder to reach the fish with a net. The result is to Candy Cane the rod. Instead, hold the rod behind you as you extend your net arm so that the rod forms a sloping arc. That way you are fishing a "shorter" rod putting the fish closer to you.

Ultra long rods  can present problems for the short armed, vertically challenged among us.  One solution is to hire a gillie!!!

Death By Beadhead

Before beadheads came around we added weight by wrapping lead wire on the hook shank and then cushioned it with dubbing and wraps of material.  Then we began to see (well, I think so) an increase in breakage especially in the tip section. I knew a saltwater guide whose clients broke four quality loaner rods one season learning to cast clousers!!!  The beadhead fly can hit speeds of 200 mph on the cast! All it needs is to just touch the rod tip and you will have a broken rod either then or later when it finally fails. That's why that special rod of mine lasted so long - no beadheads!!!!

Seating Ferrules 

Make it a habit to check the seating of your ferrules during the day on a river.  A loose ferrule will weaken the wall strength of a graphite or glass rod.  AND DON'T TWIST THEM ON!!! Push together, push apart and that's it. Twisting will also weaken the wall strength and you may have a devil of a time taking the rod apart.

Don't Walk With The Rod Tip Behind You

Two fly fishers were walking along a river, one behind the other. The first one had his rod pointing behind him.  He suddenly stopped walking but the guy behind him didn't and rear ended him breaking the guys rod tip. The rod tip is the most fragile part of the rod and I want to know where it is all of the times. So, rod tips first!!!

Or Material Design Flaws And The Problem With Warranties 

As I said most rod failures are due to operator error but one has to take a long look at the design of many rods, especially the nymph variety. They are stretched out to 10 feet and over 11 feet in some models. They are incredibly light with sensitive tips and if what I see on internet searches is to be believed they have a fairly high failure rate. It appears that they just don't stand up to fly fishing.  Here is my suggestion: If you want a new rod then search the web for everything about it for breakage (those forums are loaded with info.) and if you see more than two complaints about breakage then find another rod company.

So what's wrong with warranties? Actually everything!  Let's say you buy a rod for $800 and it breaks in half on the first day out (this happens, check the web). You send the rod back with $50 and wait for the repair or replacement. In the meantime you are saying things like "$50, that's reasonable".  Did it ever dawn on you that part of that $800 price tag may have been made up by factoring in the cost of the warranty.  Maybe you are paying on it twice! Remember, the rod companies are NOT going to loose money on you!!!

I like an honest warranty that covers materials and workmanship only. The fly fishing industry sailed over the Falls when it offered  "no questions asked about the dumb ass way you mishandled the rod" kind of warranty. Maybe we would appreciate the craftsmanship more and take better care of rods if they were not so easily replaced!  

Book A Trip

RED

"I think, however, it should be the ideal of the sportsman angler to take his trout, where he can do so, by means of imitations, representations, or suggestions of its natural food presented in the conditions in which the trout is feeding on it". G.E.M. Skues

G.E.M. Skues, considered in many circles to be the best nymph and dry fly angler of a century ago floated the idea of the color RED as having properties that were best seen by trout under "normal" conditions and those conditions were fairly shallow and clear water. Red has the advantage of being seen at longer distances than the other primary colors, hence it's eye catching qualities.

That brings me back over 40 years ago to the early days of Flyfisherman Magazine and an article written by some long forgotten soul who, like all good fly dressers, used pinkish fur for the bodies of Hendrickson dries. But he went further!!  He began slowly change the color from pink to light red and then to a full red color.  He claimed that the trout couldn't resist  the RED fly  either as a dry imitation or as a sunken offering.  Then, like all good fly dressers, he abandoned the red fly because, well, it just wasn't done!!!!

I've never taken up the challenge of a red bodied fly until just within the past week when a Partridge and Red took some fish on the Swift.  Is it a game changer???  I want some more time with this fly to really find out.  That's the fun of this sport.  We get to experiment.

 The Rivers

The freestones are beginning to ice up (read Garys comment about the EB in the previous post) but if we get some days in the mid 40's that ice will melt and the trout are still there. 

EB - 333 cfs

Millers - 388 cfs

Ware - 109 cfs

Swift - 46 cfs (as usual)

Go Fish!!!

The Well Conditioned Trout

"It requires very little experience to tell whether or not a trout is in condition, the small head in proportion to the body, and the breadth and thickness of the body itself, at once indicate the well conditioned fish" - William Stewart from The Practical Angler.

It is important to pay mind to the quote at the top of this post.  There seems to be a trend in fly fishing to  put emphasis on the L-E-N-G-T-H of a trout and not on the BULK or Stoutness of the fish.

I first brought this up late last year/early this year in regards to the photos of Farmington River browns. They were skinny.  I called them "Brown Eels".  I knew that I wasn't alone on this because of the response that I got from a fly fishing club in Albany NY that I did a presentation for.  They fish the farmie and noticed the skinny fish over the last year or so.

At the same time the Swift has browns that can be considered "fatties".  Why the difference?

 Maybe the Swift has a better forage base, or more accurately, a better "hunter/prey" ratio.  Having lots of small brook trout  (food) will do that.

BTW, the gorgeous brown above was taken on the Swift within the last two weeks on a small Partridge and Orange.  Remember the 6lb brown taken on the Swift and posted on this blog a month ago? It was taken on a size 18 fly. Lesson: you don't need to fling gargantuan streamers to catch big trout!!!

                                                                                         Another Big Swift Brownie

Stay Off The Redds 

It appears that we have had a decent brookie spawn this year (except below the Gauge on the Swift, a real mystery) and to insure that the spawning is successful WATCH WHERE YOU WALK!!  Keep your feet off of the clean gravel and WALK ON THE WEEDS and leaves until late Winter.  By then the brookie eggs will have hatched instead of being scrambled by wading boots.

Your Comments

Keep them coming!!!!!!!  The true value of any blog is  how many READER COMMENTS it can generate plus your comments are the best.

NOVEMBER

The photo on the front page of this blog was taken on a November day on the EB.  November has always been a good month on this river.  Don't miss out on great scenery and big bows.  Book me!!!!!

Ken

The Copper Grouse

"Fly fishing is the most fun you can have standing up" -  Arnold Gingrich

I'm not one to wave the pom-poms for "hot, new flies" or that creature known a a "guide fly". Flies are flies and we have seen them all before but every so often one DOES seem to make a difference. I wrote about the DSM Caddis and now I'll throw another into the mix - The Copper Grouse.

Thursday morning I'm on the Swift swinging a partridge and orange (always a good choice) and I am having some success with the brookies with about 4 to the net in an hour and a half.  It seemed slow so I tied on a fly I had dreamed up that had a mess of subtle colors - orange, cooper and red made up the body with grouse or partridge on the hackles.

That's when all hell broke loose! 2 big bows slammed this fly followed by 6 brookies.  The funny thing was I was fishing the same spot that resulted in slow action earlier AND all of those trout were caught in about 20 minutes.  It had to be something with the fly that turned them on.

 

MOVE AROUND

The Fall results in more movement of fish in the Swift as the brookies are in search of spawning grounds and the bows and browns are in search of brookies yet it seems to be that the same old fishing haunts crowd up first and huge sections remain mostly empty. Yesterday I took a client, who was new to the Swift below Route 9, through the gauge run (caught a nice bow), went through the flats below (brookies), stopped at the Pipe for 10 minutes and then hooked and broke off a rising brown of about 18-20 inches on a size 22 olive emerger down by the horse farm. That brown will be stuck in his memory for a long time AND  the only place where we saw anyone in the water was at the Pipe.

BTW, you don't need to toss monster flies in the Fall for giant trout. That 6lb brown that graced this blog 2 weeks ago was caught on a size 18 fly.  Even bigger browns have taken even smaller flies than that.  The rage now is to toss monster streamers and this rage is fueled by the fly fishing industry which sees a opportunity to make a buck.  People fairly new to the sport need that "cool new thing" fix to keep the enthusiasm up while veteran anglers feel confident in what they use and their catch records prove it.


The Swift

It's been a good Fall and we have a month of it left.  Some BIG, FAT browns have been seen and are being caught.  Don't miss out!!!

Ken

Rating The Rivers, Favorite Flies And It's Not The Rods Fault

"Think of trout as predators (that’ll can be hard at first)" - Comment left on another blog (Of course they're predators! What the hell do you think they are, vegetarians???) - Me

Some years it's a horse race to pick a top river for the year.  2019 can be labeled a "no contest" because  the Swift lands it hands down.  To be fair Mother Nature dealt some bad cards to the freestones in the form of a six month flood that even effected a tailwater like the Swift.  The Swift responded by releasing, via the spillway, hundreds of BIG LL SALMON to play with during the winter followed by a late Spring and Summer of great surface action. (I hope you remember the Cedar Waxwings chasing the Sulphurs at mid day last July. I almost got hit in the face by one of those birds! Between the rising trout and the swooping birds the sulphurs didn't stand a chance.)  As I write we are watching the steady parade of brookies being followed by monster browns which should continue through November.  In my not-so-humble-opinion the Swift may be the best trout stream in New England!!!

Is there a "2nd Place"?  Yes, the Millers and the EB are a dead heat for that position. Late May and June were wonderful on the old Millers and the EB  made up for lost ground with a great Autumn which is still going on.  These rivers will still produce if the flows stay down.

 

Favorite Fly - The DMS Caddis

This became my favorite soft hackle of 2019.  It's somber hue is just right for imitating caddis flies and works all season long.  Hell, it does a good job when mayflies rule the water too. I wrote in depth about this fly on my October 16th post of this year.  It could be that it may be the ONLY unweighted insect imitation that you will need on ANY river, period. (As many readers know I like to carry just a few patterns - a minimalist I guess. This may be my super fly!!!)

The Perfect Trout Rod

I would think that the perfect river rod for trout would be 9 feet in length and geared for a 5wt line. This will take you anywhere that you want to go in Trout Land (Millers, EB, Ware, and the Farmington) and you will certainly not be over gunned in any situation.

8 feet to 8.5 feet is perfect for smaller streams like  the Swift, the West Branch of the Westfield and the Mill River with 3 or 4 wt lines leading the way.

Good bamboo, at 7 feet to 8 feet, gets a pass on length because it just does.  Too beautiful not to fish!!!

Rods below 7 feet leave much to be desired. They might work well on the tiniest of streams but ......  Yes, I know that Lee Wulff caught Atlantic Salmon on a 6 foot rod but I would not recommend it for you.

Many rods over 10 feet long have that weird "hinged" effect which I find unnerving.  I believe that the effect is caused by too much mass beyond the half way point.  Some companies then went to very light weight rods of long length (nymph rods) and we had a epidemic of broken rods.  Stay with a 9 footer!!!

I don't believe in having a rod for every situation. We are not golfers carrying a bag of clubs around.  Find a rod that will take care of most of your situations.  You don't need a nymph rod, a streamer rod, a dry fly rod or whatever.  Settle on "An All-Round Fly Rod" and make it work.

Ken