Well, this may have been the greatest June ever and the Swift was never really a factor. The Millers, Ware and the EB kept us busy and now the Swift, at 189 cfs as of this morning, is fishable below route 9 and we are catching fish!! Count on the DFW to give us our July stocking soon which will hold us through the Summer. Please call the DFW hotline to report poachers.
The Millers, Ware And EB
All of these rivers are running higher than their average flow for this time of year and that bodes well for July. Just remember one thing and that's the quote from Upcountry Fly Shop at the top of this post. So being on the Millers, Ware and even the EB between 11am and 4pm is NOT what you want to do. Fish from 6am to 10am, then tie flies or take a nap and start fishing from 5pm til dark or beyond. All of that should give you success in July.
Is it just me or am I seeing far fewer insects on this river this Spring? The verdict = there are far fewer insects this Spring. The famous Sulphur hatch just isn't what we've seen in the past.
I'd appreciate your observations on this. The Millers still seems as buggy as ever so let's concentrate on the Swift.
Nymphers get Religion
Another reason June was good was because I converted two "nymphers" over to swinging wet flies, namely soft hackles, and catching fish!!!! They loved the slashing strike of a trout in the top third of the water column instead of that dull "thud" of a hit on a heavily weighted fly. Remember, the best fly fishing is weightless fly fishing!!! I fish soft hackles through a hatch casting to bulging trout that are picking emergers out of the surface film. It's not Dry Fly fishing but "Damp Fly Fishing"!!!
Book Me In July
Fishing the Evening Rise on a Summer evening is the epitome of the Northeast fly fishing experience. No blazing midday sun to deal with but just sunsets, hatching insects and rising trout. 5pm to 8pm works fine
Want to try mornings?? Let's give it a shot. We can start at 6 and fish til 9 if you like.
BOOK ME
Ken
6 comments:
Great points Ken. I've not been out enough to offer good observations on the bugs, regrettably... But, with the high water, it would make sense that there would be some differences in how the bug life operates on the river (swift) or other waters. Maybe things are pushed out, or just didnt happen the same way this year? This exceptionally wet weather since last spring is just funky to handle.
One point on the Millers. At least if you are fishing below the UTD dam all the way to the CT junction. If you want to target trout, go late... But if you have time to fish from 1-3 or something, go and fish gurglers, poppers, deer hair bugs, good sized streamers and have a blast catching smallies one after another. Heck, pack a few of those flys with your trout stuff, and fish smallies until you see the rises start then swap species :)
I fully agree on the trout focus - go late. Just adding the reference point for folks that... the best time to fish, is any time you can, just have to be adaptable to the situation!
June was a good month especially the first 2 weeks, and I couldn't agree more with the sun being high and hot, mid morning to late afternoon take a break especially on the EB 90% of that 6.6 miles is direct sun at that time, of course you can catch fish (singular) but you will work hard for that trout. Overcast days are like a holiday! Oh if your from NY there are plenty of places to park without getting right next to somebody? July back to the Swift??? 52cfs and brookies???? 3wt.?????
Ken - Funny you ask in this post for bug comments as I was just logging on with a few observations. I was above rate 9 today and had a good day on the Sulphurs. This is the best, and at times on of the most maddening hatches on the Swift. There was a solid hatch going all afternoon with a mix of Dorothea and Invaria from what it looked like. I don’t know, but I believe we are just getting into the hatch late this year. I felt like there were many more above rye 9 then down by the pipe when I saw you there 2 days ago. I didn’t have much luck swinging a yellow soft hackle so switched to Parachute Duns. The trick was finding rising fish which started very subtly later. I ended up taking 4 fish, 3 very large and powerful Bows and one Brown. All looked in very good condition. So is the hatch late? Is it just that it’s been going on, as all hatches do during high water, and now the water level is just low enough for dry fly action ? I expect it will get better, and later, each day. Very crowded today too.
Ken,
The soft hackle worked in the Yellow Breeches tonight taken at the end of the swing by a feisty 12" brown. After working in the area this week, my valued customer and I fished there for a few hours this evening.
The highlight for me was at 9 p.m. and getting pretty dark I drifted an elk hair caddis on top before we headed out. Nothing doing for a few drifts, then a slashing hit that missed. A couple of drifts later, probably the same fish connected and fought like crazy. A nice 15" brown. To me there is nothing like those top water hits.
A beautiful little stream that I hope to fish again this fall when I am next in the area.
Regards, Sam
Will,
I used to do that when I lived in Athol, take my daughter down to the Millers in the afternoon and catch a million smallies.
Sam,
Good to see that you did well down in PA
Falsecast,
It's good to see the sulphurs again down by the Pipe. Not many but they were there.
Gary,
When the Swift gets down to 60 cfs we are going brookie hunting!!!!
Ken
Hit the Millers Bearsden area at 7AM Friday. Worked my way up to trestle before hooking up with 1 large brown drifting a Pats rubber legs at 8. Upon removing my fly I found a #18 tan caddis that must have broken off another fly fisher. After unhooking both flys i looked up and a deer was standing in the water just upstream staring at me.
Nice summer morning!
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