Fly Fishing Information On The Millers, Swift, Middle, West and East Branches Of the Westfield River and the Ware, and Mill rivers. YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR MA. FLY FISHING INFORMATION, the top ranked fly fishing blog in Massachusetts! WHAT FLY FISHERS READ!!
"I fished a lot of water that I otherwise would have waded through in order to get to the faster water more suited to tight-line nymphing." - Confessions of a tight-line nympher
It's really official. It hit the 60 degree mark yesterday which means, to me, that IT IS SPRING!! Yes, we will have a cold day or three but tomorrow is April 1 which means winter is dead in Central Massachusetts. Long live Spring.
Now for the Swift - As you know it was reported that it was stocked this week but it appears that what happened the last two years has happened again. The C&R section above Rt 9 appears to have missed out. The reason, according to Bill R., is that the Quabbin folks don't want a heavy stocking truck mucking up the landscape. This is odd since they did a very good job of mucking up the landscape with their logging operations. A trip by a stocking truck would have done nothing harmful! I guess we will have to wait.
Now, there are plenty of trout in and around the Y Pool with the overflow arm loaded with salmon and bows BUT getting them to hit is a different story. These salmonids are veterans now, not like the dumb salmon of last November or the freshly recruited trout thrown in at stocking time.
At 345cfs I am not interested in working the Pipe or Cady Lane. It's far too dangerous for one and too unproductive for another. I heard that some hit the above mentioned area around Friday and got skunked.
This Blog
I'd like to thank everyone who reads this blog and who contributes comments to it. Readership has spiked in 2019 (again) and your comments fuel the discussion. Your comments are not the time worn "Wow, nice bow dude" variety but are backed up by careful research and reasoning and those are the ones we want!!! BTW, there is some blog rating service out there that, after the exchange of $$, will rate your fly fishing blog's popularity. Having to pay to be rated seems weird but to each his own. A close look at the top 100 fly fishing sites by not one but TWO rating services has this blog in the TOP 10!!! Thank you!!
It looks like we will be rain free until Friday. That's a good thing!!!
"In case you haven't noticed, flyfishing has become fashionable lately. This kind of crept up on me so I can't tell you exactly when it happened, but I knew it had happened when well-dressed, youngish demographically correct people began to appear on TV casting fly rods or looking over expensive tackle, not in insipid Saturday morning fishing shows, but in slick commercials hawking credit cards and painkillers." - John Gierach
My best hackle cape is not an eighty dollar grade A+ dry fly cape but a ratty little skin that I found in a discount barrel at a fly shop about twenty years ago. What make it my favorite cape is that it is the perfect webby cape with all hackles in the size 12 to 20 range AND it is the perfect shade of dark blue dun.
Hook - dry fly from size 12 to 20 (the fly in the photo is a size 20)
Body - olive floss or thread
Hackle - two turns of hackle
This fly, in it's smallest sizes, is a perfect imitation of those wonderful Autumn BWO that are found everywhere from the Swift to the Millers.
It's fished in the surface film or just below the surface.
So the next time you find yourself in your neighborhood fly shop check out the bargain barrel and maybe you'll find a nugget like this!!
River Update
Well, two rivers were stocked as of yesterday and those are the Swift and the Massachusetts side of the Farmington River (which is mostly an unknown gem) and the Deerfield . More should be stocked today and next week we could see the flood gates open, History indicates that rivers like the Millers will be stocked when the flows get down to the 500 cfs range. It's at 700cfs right now. The EB is at 322 as I write which is good BUT the Chesterfield Gorge road may still be unpassable due to snow and ice. I hope to check that out today.
Book a guided trip today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3/27 - The Swift has been stocked 3/27 - LOST by the Rt 9 C/R parking lot: an 8wt orvis recon rod and case and a 5wt white river rod w/case. Lost in early January. Contact me and I'll reunite everything - Ken
"The more things change the more they stay the same" - Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (He was not talking about tight line nymphing but could have")
As I've said many times before the surface disturbance caused by most rising trout is caused by the trout rising for an emerging insect and NOT to an adult insect. Having a good imitation of this life stage is critical. The Comparadun series does a very good job and Bob Wyatt's DHE emerger works even better. Hears another to try out.
I found this style while mindlessly drifting through the web. The key here is the shape of the hook which is bent downward in front. The hook style is available online but I made my own and it was easy.
Tying is simple -
Hook - standard dry fly from #14 through 20
Tail - very fine synthetic post wing material, I like grey
Body - dubbing of your choice
Hackle - Your choice of color BUT you want it one or two sizes SMALLER than the hook size
Wing - a small amount of synthetic post wing maerial
Head - Notice that the wing and hackle are mounted on at the "bend" in the hook (almost in the center.) Now dub your choice of body in front of the post and hackle.
This fly looks like a mayfly that's stuck in the surface film and that's what you want. BTW, I use my stout Regal Vise to bend the hook into shape!
BOOK IT Things are getting busy and my calendar is starting to tighten up. April, May and June are prime months and they are right around the corner so don't wait.
Connor Pond in Petersham was stocked last week. This pond was formed by damming the East Branch of the Swift River which is the closest the DFW has come to stocking moving water. It won't be long now!!!
"I would be inclined to issue a pass to Tenkara simply because it's aim is to simplify our sport which has a tendency to become overrun with equipment junkies and method madmen. It's good to take a Tenkara break every now and then and reset yourself. You can also catch a lot of trout this way!!!" - Me on Tenkara
It was maybe 30 years ago when I met my friend Rick for an evening on the Deerfield. I was doing well with a combination of dries and weighted nymphs but Rick was vacuuming the trout out of the river with one particular fly. Forward cast to 2016 when Lenny and I were working over some fat Swift river bows below the Duck Pond that were patrolling the brookie beds. I caught one on a Partridge and Orange but Lenny took close to a dozen on "that caddis of yours". I've highlighted that fly on occasion over the past 10 years and here it is again - The Simple Caddis!
I used to tie this fly using a body material of synthetic grey dubbing that had a metallic sheen to it. I lost that supply, tried other material that worked so-so but then actually found my material in the back of a long lost box of fly tying stuff. I'm back in business!!!!!
How To Tie The Simple Caddis
Hook - Standard wet or dry, 12 to 16. (I prefer dry because this fly is best in the film and not deep in the water column)
Body - That above mentioned stuff. The buggier the better
Wing - a few strands of brown partridge
Collar - black of dark brown ostrich
Ma. Trout
Over the last ten years I have had more and more flyfishers from out of state compliment our State for the SIZE of the rainbow trout that are being stocked. People from NH,Vt,and NY say they want to chase Ma trout instead of trout in their home waters. "You have BIG trout" is the steady refrain. I just did a presentation this past Wednesday for the Capital District Fly Fishers, a NY group and the story is the same - they love our trout!!! BTW, if you live in eastern NY or the Berkshires I would join this group. It appears that they are active all Summer long which is not like other groups.
Skinny Trout
I've seen some recent photos (past six months) of trout taken from the Farmington that looked awfully skinny and I'm not the only one to observe this. One fellow said that the trout that he saw looked more like an eel!!!! I wonder what the story is? I've seen Swift River browns that were the same length but had some fat on them unlike the Farmington browns and the Swift browns were either stream born or holdovers just like the Farmington. Any clues??
Ponds in Ma are being stocked with rivers coming soon. Do not pray for rain!!!!
"At the little jingle in the leader that was just a hair too intelligent looking to be nothing but current or a rock, you raise the rod to set the hook, and there's weight. And then there's movement - it's a fish!! - John Gierach
Ok, let's start with the Swift. The great salmon fishing of November through January has slowed down and the salmon have spread out. You will still see one or two in a river section but the days of seeing a dozen in one area are gone. Don't feel too bad because the trout have stepped up their game above route 9 with blood midges ruling the day. In fact, there has been some pellet hatch
activity at the Pipe and that's with 330 cfs for a flow!! There appears to be plenty of trout but the trick is to get the fly low and slow enough enough so they can get a shot at it.
The Bubbler Mess
Well, they started up logging again along the bubbler arm and have dumped numerous trees into the river which I'd like to see them remove. Naturally fallen trees are one thing but purposely dumping logs into the river is another!!!
The rivers are starting to come down (except for that Friday bounce in the flow) and the central Ma. snow pack is receding which is a good thing. It's time to check your calendars and book a date or two to fish our rivers. Many rivers will be stocked by April so don't wait too long.
I'm really getting hooked on blood midges. To the best of my knowledge it was the only fly that worked at the Y Pool on Friday. Sizes 16 -22 fill the bill. Email me if you want to place an order at $1.80 each.
BTW, trout stocking has begun on the Cape/south shore. Yeah, I know - big deal!!!
"Carp Diem does not mean "fish of the day"- Author Unknown
My client and I were about to take our first step into the Ware River that afternoon in early May when we saw/heard this other angler leaving the water. "Be careful. I'm covered with ticks" was the warning. Weird, I saw him in the river a half hour before so how could he be covered with ticks? The Answer: Those weren't ticks crawling on him but a few dozen Quill Gordon nymphs!!!
Welcome to the Ware River!
This is a fly fishing river,period. To earn that label you must have great flows (dry fly and swinging soft hackles does it for me, bouncing heavy nymphs "not so much"), great great insect hatches and plenty of trout. The Ware is a fertile river by evidence of it's hatches and two hatches that you don't want to miss are the above mentioned Quill Gordon hatch and of course, the Hendricksons.
The Quill Gordon is similar to the Hendrickson but is a size smaller (think a size 12 compared to a size 14), doesn't swim to the surface before it sheds its skin and then flies away. It sheds its skin on the stream bottom and then rises to the surface as a mature insect. That may be why wet flies work so well during QG time!! It only has 2 tails instead of 3 tails as compared to the Hendrickson and most other mayflies and that's the true give-a-way.
The Hendrickson follows the rules for emergence. Prime time for these insects is dependent on water temperatures but look for low 50's for the QG and mid 50's for it's bigger cousin.
There are a million imitations for these insects which is almost a million too many. A Quill Gordon soft hackle may be all that you need for the QC and that would include the spinner fall. Take your pick for your Hendrickson flies. Remember, both insects get active in the morning, emerge by mid day or so and swarm by late afternoon and early evening.
photo by Thomas Ames Jr.
March Browns call the Ware home and you will see them by mid May right into early July. BWO say hello in September right through November especially on cloudy, cool days.
BTW, you will not run into any real crowds on this river and most of the time you will be fishing alone. That is because the Swift River is just down the road and that draws many away from the Ware. Maybe the river is too "rural" for some and they feel more comfortable and safe in a park-like setting such as the Swift or the Farmington. ( I say that because I was told that!!)
My experience is that the Ware will provide the first GOOD, reliable surface activity of any central/western Ma river!!! Go fish it!
Spring Is Here
Ok, well almost!! This week should really kick off severe cases of cabin fever as the temperatures kiss 50 degrees. The Swift is very fishable above route 9 at 343 cfs. That may change by Friday. Even the Millers is starting to behave at 452cfs. I bet those Fall stockers are really hungry by now!!!
"I look into my fly box and think about all of the elements I should consider in choosing the perfect fly: water temperature, what stage of development the bugs are in, what the fish are eating right now. Then I remember what a guide told me: "ninety percent of what a trout eats is brown and fuzzy and about five-eighths of an inch long." - Allison Moir
I'll go crazy if I tie another Partridge and Orange (or another Pheasant tail this long,long winter) so I decided to mix it up a bit. Did I invent a new fly? Of course not! I just tweaked an old one.
Hook - size 14 to 16 and it's a standard dry fly hook
Thread - Danville 70 denier that's a dark yellow (a weird color that I'm glad that I have)
Thorax - rusty red rabbit
Hackle - Partridge of course
I'm thinking that the red rabbit might be a "trigger" for the trout. We will see!
The Quinapoxet Again
It was about a year ago that the last news article about this dam removal project that I saw hit the newsstands. Now another year goes by and nothing. It seems that this is a project that the "powers" keep dangling out in front of us to prove that they have something to do. IT'S BEEN YEARS!!! Another thing that we hear of is that this dam removal will open up 30 miles of river to migrating trout and salmon. Right now they hang out at the aqueduct because of all that cold, clean Quabbin water and the occasional smelt that gets washed down. Will that change? Just Asking.......
We moved the clocks ahead!!!!! We are almost there!!
"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 just not such a big deal anymore" John Gierach
The Millers has been my "Home River" since 1984 when I moved into that watershed. I spent decades exploring all parts of that river from Birch Hill to Millers Falls and and picked the brains of local legends like Rodney Flagg and Bob Rollo as to the river's fly fishing history. That bit of work was necessary because there was a 20 or so year span where the Millers was not stocked because of pollution and therefore not fished. When I wrote my Millers Guide I used the old names of pools and runs whenever possible and didn't rename any. It just seemed right!!!
This is a big river which means that much of it will not receive angling pressure. The areas that do are: Orcutt Brook (easy access, easy wading, easy casting, lots of fish) and the Kempfield Section. Most other places such as the Upper Trestle Pool, The Bridge Street Pool, Erving Center, Rezendes Pool, the UTD Pool and most of the Bears Den go under fished for most of the season. Beware of any reports claiming knowledge of the Millers that start and end with fishing Orcutt or the Kempfield OR refuse to name the fishing locations. Chances are the reports are from those with very limited knowledge of the Millers and couldn't name the locations even if they wanted to!Also beware of statements that claim that this is a beginners river and it's easy fishing. If you like to hang out at stocking points right after a stocking then the fishing will be easy. If you like fishing for sipping browns at nightfall during the summer, well that's another story!!!
What Kind Of River
This is a classic big freestone River which means your Farmington and Swift River strategies should be left at home. Attempting to fish this river on an 85 degree day at midday between Memorial Day and Labor Day would not be a wise choice but fishing it at 5am or after 7pm, especially on an overcast day is a good decision. For over 35 years evenings in the Summer have produced the best.
What Kind Of Flies
Pick what you want for the recent stockers because like stockers everywhere they will hit anything. Buggers, beadheads, costume jewelry and any dayglo garbage flies but after the trout have wised up you need: Soft Hackles size 12-14, Hares Ears or my Possum Nymph in size 14-16, Comparaduns in size 14-18 and some stimulators and BWO in size 18-24, especially in October, will start you off.
What Kind Of Rod
Don't get silly and start flinging a 3wt here. Early season means a heavier rod for heavier flies. The wind on this river, because of it's east/west flow, means you will always have a breeze blowing up the river valley and light lines will not cut it (I rigged up a 3wt by mistake one evening and had the line blown back in my face. The Millers is made for a 5 or 6wt rod and leaders need not be finer than 4 or 5x for most occasions.
The greatest enemy of "good" is "better". -Voltaire
If you've been a reader of this blog for the last dozen years you will you know that I love the EB (also known as the East Branch of the Westfield) which may be why I fish and write about it so often. It's a great river but every so often we have to root out the half truths and conventional wisdom that seem to creep into the picture. Let's talk about what this river IS and what it isn't.
1. You can have 30, 40 and 50 fish days on the EB - Sure, as long as you can still see the stocking truck tire prints. It's just like every other river, freestone of not. The trout get thrown in, mill around in a group and snap at everything and then we get a rain event and they get scattered and you wonder where they are. A few Octobers ago Charlie Shadan of the Evening Sun Fly Shop called and asked if the EB had gotten it's Fall stocking yet. I said YES and that I had two clients with over 60 fish between them. Charlie said that a VERY good fisherman just spent all day there and caught one or two fish. I reminded Charlie that we had a 3 inch rainstorm between when my guys fished and when his guy fished. That changed everything!!! I love a big rain event on this river. It makes things very interesting. Double Digit Days are still common and they can be had if you follow a few rules.
2. Fish Early/Fish Late - Yes, you can do it, it just takes some planning and a shot of discipline. May, early to mid June and October will guarantee the correct air/water temperatures for good mid day fishing but Summer mornings (5 a.m. to 10 a.m.) and Summer evenings (5 p.m. through dark) give you plenty of surface chances. Summer is my favorite time on a good freestone. My best (fish count) on a Summer evening on the EB had me landing 20+ trout in about 3 hours on a large dry stonefly. It was very fast action. My best Summer morning occurred in late August with a flow around 80 cfs (low) and I took over 20, mostly browns, on a size 18 BWO emerger/dry. These were veteran trout that hadn't seen a stocking truck in months or many anglers for that matter either. My friend and local fish hawk Gary C. is devoted to early Summer mornings. He does well!!!
3. Favorite Flies To Look For - That juicy morsel on that rock is a damsel fly and it will appear en masse during the first week in June on any warm, very sunny morning. Don't start tying dry patterns for this one but tie up some size 12 olive or brown Wooley Buggers because it's the nymph stage we want to imitate. These nymphs act like stonflies by crawling to the shore or onto mid stream rocks to hatch by the thousands!! I've seen trout beach themselves by chasing the nymphs.
4. Big, bushy stoneflies work for me especially in the riffles. Any BWO in sizes 18 through 26 will cover the tiny mayfly game and my old pal the Olive Comparadun, size 14 to 16 is my go-to sundown fly. Thrown in a few Pheasant tail nymphs and you are armed and ready!!!
Some will say that there are large sections of "uninteresting/empty" water but that's because they are there at the wrong time of day, especially for browns!!! I've caught trout where trout should not be on this river!!
I've been to the EB on a late Summer afternoon 5-6pm) and worked a large stonefly but then saw that a smaller mayfly was beginning to come off. I changed the fly to that insect (a size 16 olive comparadun) seemed right and it was and it will always be if my experience is any indication. Experience counts!!!!
Trout Stocking-
Don'teventhinkaboutityet!!!!! It's way too early We have another 4 inches of snow coming tonight and the trucks will hold off on the rivers for a while. Tie flies and dream instead unless you chase LL salmon on the Swift!
Book Me- There are lots of dates open on rivers that NOBODY guides on but where we have good days catching trout
Think of the EB from the second week of May and through the Summer if the flows are ok (this site will tell you) and then fish it, SLOWLY. Drift a pheasant tail, beaded if required, through likely holding water and you should do well (20 fish days? How about 10 fish days if you're doing it well, that's good too).
Fish the EB!! If you want to learn this river and not the usual "hot spots" then book a trip with me. You will learn and be able to come back by yourself and know the river!
