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.
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!!!
Ken
12 comments:
Hi Ken,first time commentor here love your blog been reading it for a couple years now.Ilive in Goshen,10 minutes from the EB. You my know already but in case you don't the bridge over West
Branch brook will be closed from the end of April until mid Oct . To get to the gorge you will have to go via Worthington,from Huntington no problem .
Ken,
Thanks for the informative reports on what is happening and what is not happening. Your site is the only one that does it for central Ma and it's rivers. Don't stop because that's why people read it.
GW
Anonymous 10:57,
Anonymous 10:57,
Thanks for the update which I didn't want to hear. Just got back from scouting the EB and saw the heavy equipment on Ireland Road. My 15 minute drive just got longer but it is worth it!! First that I've heard of it and it will screw up the plans of flyfishers, hikers, bikers and dog walkers!
Anonymous 11am,
Thank you!!!
Ken
Hi Ken,
Ever since stumbling upon your blog, I’ve visited your page daily waiting for the next post! Thank you for all you do for our fly fishing community.
I have a two part question about the Swift. First, when can we expect water levels to return to the 50-100 cfs range? Second, when should the dry fly action begin to pick up on the Swift?
Thanks,
John
Ken,
I hit Bondsville for a few hours yesterday, but nothing doing except for a couple of subtle tugs at the end of the drift that did not connect. Water at 41 degrees and infinitely more wadeable than what it was a month or two ago. Met a young angler named Joe who I talked to for a bit. He had fished for a good part of the day and had no action. I shared with him a couple of zones that I have connected in. He tried one zone that some might pass by, but it did not produce this time.
I trust action will improve as water temps warm up some. One good thing about this higher flow is it should scatter the stocked trout which is good!
Keep up the good work here, Ken. The fellow I met yesterday reads your site same as I do.
Best, Sam
Sam,
It's April (almost) so things should get better. As the water temperature goes up the flow will go down (hopefully). It has been slow along the river but we've seen this before.
Keep the Faith!
Ken
John,
Question #1 - the Swift should hit the 50 - 100 cfs range in May.
Question #2 - a tricky question. The Swift runs cold so Spring hatches are delayed. Hendricksons hatch a week after they do on other streams. The same with Quill Gordons. Look for the middle of May. The first REAL hatches are the Sulphurs and they start in early June and go through the middle of Summer.
Ken
This blog is a true gem for the fly fishing community in the Northeast. For 1-theres little bs or boasting. Ken and most of the posters hold little back which couples with #2-its honest. #3 its timely #4 its civil. I have lived and followed fishing blogs and message boards covering New England and the Rocky Mountain West. This is the best of them and I don't say it to pad anyone's ego..its the perfect blend of information and discourse without the flame throwing that sometimes accompanies fishing sites.
I also have some cool news...I will be moving back to Central MA in May. I will be able to take advantage of the blog a bit more and contribute more hopefully. I may have to get a personal re-introduction to the Ware. My dad and I fished it in the 80's off a hand drawn map from Paul Kukonen...it was ok but we probably did not give it a fair shake and fished it mostly in the middle of the day.
BobT,
Thank you for your very nice words. You've been commenting on this blog for years and each comment is smart and well crafted. Thank you!
Back in mid May? That's great. I think I'll run into you on one of our home rivers!!!
Ken
Welcome "home" BobT!
Ken, it's a good resource for "the readers" and you have fostered that - thank you!
Those of you who enjoy blue lines, get out. those in central MA I've hit thus far have been starting to turn from the winter doldrums to the spring "feed"... Even some risers in a few tiny waters.
Will (Hibernation),
Very good point! Many of the small, "wild" streams are very fishable right now.
Ken
This is a nice blog for sure. This blog helped me return some lost items to another angler. Keep it up and i always like reading about water that I've never been to ie the "lesser known tribs" out here in western and central MA.
mattk,
KEEP READING!!! More to come this Spring and Summer. And I'm glad you helped with returning lost items. It's another thing that we do!!!!
Ken
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