The Rivers, The Flies, Poaching And Booking August

You certainly nailed that one Ken. I do a lot of small midge nymphing using Gamakatsu C12BM barbless midge large eye hooks. I fish them in sizes 26 to 30 and always use 5X tippet because I can with the large eye. It has never seemed to affect the amount of takes I get plus I can quickly bring the fish to net and get them released without exhausting them. Comment by reader regarding tippet size, July 2015

The Rivers

Let's start with the freestones. The Millers got a shot in the arm last week and is now running at 345 cfs. It's still an evening stream for the next month although Bill from Tully found eager browns feeding in high water (700+ cfs) last week. The EB is still producing at 70 cfs (read Gary's comments from the previous post. Some of the best dry fly action I have had has been on this river in late Summer and early Fall with a low flow. This is a great morning river!!! The Swift is down to below 40 cfs AND will be electro sampled AGAIN this week Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. There's some talk about doing this on a monthly basis which I think
is overkill ESPECIALLY if they sample during brookie spawning!!!!!!

I'm getting tired of people telling me that they see poaching but do not call the environmental police.  The EP responds but they need something to respond to and that is a phone call!!!  The number is: 800-632-8075.  Now, put it in your phone.  Take your time, I'll wait!!!

The WD 40 (I think)

Who knows what this fly is after a hundred variations have shot out of vises. There's even a WD 50 that someone is laying claim to but anyway you look at it there's only one WD 40 and it is a wonderfully basic mayfly nymph that gets better as it gets smaller (up to a point).

Hook - 18 to 24 emerger or scud

Tail (shuck)- short tag of olive thread or floss combed out with a dubbing brush

Body - Olive thread or floss

Thorax - grey or olive rabbit

Wing case - Olive or black thread

(no wood duck tail or wingcase. The thread or floss works fine.)

Keep this fly slim  It is a great early hatch BWO fly!!

Booking August

We have lost about 2 minutes of sunlight per day since June 21, the longest day of the year and that means one thing: cooler weather is on its way. Things will begin to change in subtle ways: morning lawns will have a heavier dew and that old work shirt will begin to feel good early in the day. Soon we might not mind a bit of heat in the kitchen as we transition to REAL food (just my opinion). But the thing I look forward to is the earlier evening rise and the chill of an early morning river.

I am booking now for August and September.  Don't get left out!!!

Ken

Changes On The Swift

I barely ever use 7x...maybe on a few super tiny flies but I only buy a spool every year to keep it fresh not because its gone. I fished the highly technical South Platte in Co for the last 7 years...presentation is king. The really good fishermen never really use anything below 5x except on occasion for the tiny bugs. I used to use 6x and 7x on the Swift exclusively but realize after many years that I was probably casting from the wrong spot more often than not. You hit the nail on the head Ken..
to all readers here there is a lot of great information randomly dispersed throughout Kens blog...well worth the time to go through it-you will be a better angler. Thank Ken for his great blog. - Comment from Dan T on July 15 2016

The Swift - Back To Normal
Well, It had to happen sometime and that "happening" is that the Swift River has been "turned down" to its historic flow for this date. Yesterday at noon it was moving along at 100 cfs. Then it dropped to 38 cfs, the historical average for this date. Now, I know some that liked the higher flow but I really like the historical average - ultra skinny water and spooky trout!!!

LOST KEYS

A set of truck (?) keys were lost this past week at the Gauge parking lot.  If you find them notify me and I'll contact the owner.

The "New" Tree Pool

Another tree has fallen into the "Tree Pool" and this is pretty much dead center, about a 100 feet below the PIPE RUN. We can't blame the beavers for this one as it appears to be a random event. I guees now I'll have something to lean up against when I need to take a break!!!

Another Shocking Survey

That's right!! July 30, 31 and August 1. The question is what is to be learned from this exercise and when will we learn it? After all, this is our river!!!

Skinny Water

When the flow dropped on Wednesday on the Swift angler numbers dropped off.  I know the story:  "I could look down on 16 inch deep water and there was nothing there" as the story goes. My guys took bows, browns, yes browns, and brookies in that kind of water and none of those fish came from popular, heavily fished sections.  We fished slow and low with size 18 olive soft hackles and that did the trick!


A Good Swift River Brown

BTW, in that skinny, gin clear water we never went smaller that 5x and didn't have to!!!!


Ken

The "Damp" Soft Hackle Fly

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

As you know by now, I am sold on soft hackles. They are the perfect wet fly, the perfect emerging fly but could they be, at least, a very good dry fly? The problem is that the partridge or starling feathers would soak up water and that would be the end of it. Now, I've used lots of "dust" to keep them dry and employed ultra long leaders to keep the fly from slamming down on the water but I wanted something a bit better. Why not a tuft of CDC to keep it half in the film and half on the surface.

Is this a wet fly or a dry fly? It's both! If you want it to sink just give it a tug to send it under. Want it to float? Just throw some quick false casts. I've been fishing a size 18 SH sulphur this past week using the same fly as both wet and dry.

It works!!!

The Rain

I didn't think I'd be wanting rain this summer with all the rain over the past 10 months but we really needed it.  Give the Millers and the EB a day or two to settle down before you hit them.  Remember, it's still a very early morning/dusk fishery until after Labor Day.

The Swift - At about 120 cfs it's in very good shape. BTW, one commenter noticed that anglers are spread out on the Swift after I made the suggestion on the last post!!!

Go Fish!!

Ken

A Bamboo Morning - Summer At Its Best

"If I fished only to catch fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago" - Zane Grey

I needed a break. I had just finished a L O N G stretch of guiding and needed to practice what I preach, so to speak. It's time to go fishing and on a 90 degree day the frigid Swift would be would be perfect. It was also time to bend some bamboo. I chose my 7.5 foot Swift River Sierra made by bamboo craftsman Rick Taupier of New Salem. It was designed for a 4 weight line but on the skinny water of the Swift I match the rod with a 3 weight double taper and it is perfect. I loaded my soft hackle box with some freshly minted partridge and yellows (sulphurs) and packed two slices of cold pizza in the cooler. (Note: I love cold pizza especially in the morning and as a stream side lunch it certainly beats that noxious combination of peanut butter and jelly!!! It's ok to eat PB&J if you're eight years old and your mother made it for you!!)

There's one other thing. I wanted to fish alone. John Gierach was right when he stated that flyfishers can be solitary, contemplative and a tad misanthropic. This sport lends itself to the people who don't like crowds. That's what golf is for!!! So, the Y Pool and that area failed to make the cut. So did the Pipe. It is a safe assumption that 90% of the people fishing the Swift this morning were packed into those two areas and the rest of the river would be empty. I was right!!!

I chose a section that had ultra skinny water with a slow flow. It's the kind of water that makes most flyfishers, especially euro nymphers, pack up for somewhere else. It looked fishless. That's why I fished it!!

Things change once you are in the water. The tiny sipping rise that you thought was a tiny brookie ended up being a 13 inch brown that ripped line from your reel.(there were 2 of them) Rainbows seemed to just appear in the river and would just barely rise to my #18 Soft Hackle and then go screaming downstream when they felt the hook. I ended up fishing about 200 yards in four hours and took eleven.

Cedar Waxwings were flying in mass picking off the hatching sulphurs. (thank you Chuck for the bird identification) One came so close to my face I could feel the wing beat. The morning sun had that mid summer glow to it, much like a Monet painting and I didn't come within 200 yards of another fly fisher. I was really in my element and enjoying it all.

If getting away from the crowd and fishing out of the way places on the most popular Massachusetts river is to your liking then just contact me.  If you want to  bounce weighted flies you might best go elsewhere.  This will be long leaders, small flies and gentle casts.


Marked Bows

When fishing the Swift check to see if the fish has had an adipose fin clipped, if it has a punched hole in its tail or no markings at all.  I will assume the DFW would want that data.

The Other Rivers

They all got a shot in the arm with the heavy storms that came through the region on Wednesday and right now the Millers and the EB are right where they should be.  Of course, we will have three days in a row in the high 90's and that will not be good. Fish the Swift!!!!

Ken

Swift Sampling And Swift Angling

"It's not the arrow, it's the Archer" - The same can be said for fly casting problems


A shocking event on the Swift!

DFW crews sampled the fish population on the Swift from Monday through Wednesday basically covering everything from above route 9 to Cady Lane. Rainbow trout stocked on July 1 and 2 were marked by stocking location - above route 9 trout had clipped adipose fins and a punch hole in the tail. Below route 9 they had just the adipose clipped. There were also a number of unmarked trout stocked throughout the river.

In each location a barrier net was placed in the river to keep the trout from moving above the the shocking area. Trout actually were herded upstream ahead of the DWF crew. The photo doesn't show it but that spot, next to the "Hemlocks" had well over a hundred fish below the net.

Needless to say there are plenty of trout in this river. One thing to watch for is if any "marked" trout move out of the area that they were stocked in. Hopefully the DFW will publish their data!

A 21lb brown was sampled down in Cady Lane.(so much for the Farmington!)

How's The Fishing And Book Me

Actually it's been good.  The flow is still higher than I like but low enough to swing wets, soft hackles and midge larvae around with good success. The Y Pool is still packed but the lower river is solitude city.  Lots of sulphurs and rising fish and it has been a pleasure to fish. 

All of this action will last through the Summer into the Fall. Book me in August!!!!!

The other rivers? Some places will get 3 inches of rain tonight.  Just what is needed!!


Ken

Sampling On The Swift

"I frankly don't make much of a living but I make a hell of a life" - Jack Gartside

The DFW will be sampling the Swift River from July 15 through July 17 to study the movements of recently stocked rainbows.  I know that they sampled (electroshock)  the Pipe section around mid day and it didn't harm the fishing trout because they zeroed in on a pellet hatch just a short while later.

This may be a short inconvenience but bear with it.  We could learn a lot from this.

BTW, The Swift has been great!!!

Ken

Fiberglass Vs. Graphite: A Short History

 

My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things-trout as well as eternal salvation-come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy. NORMAN MACLEAN 

I met a young guy on the Swift who said that he was interested in buying one of those NEW fiberglass rods that are being offered. I mentioned how more companies seem to be getting BACK into the fiberglass business and he seemed puzzled. That's because he wasn't even born when graphite swept fiberglass aside over 40 years ago. It was a new material to him. Here's a brief history and a personal opinion.

Bamboo ruled the fishing rod business until just after World War ll. Bamboo came in all grades and sizes. Some were junk and some were treasures but they all had a certain limitation - 8 ft was the maximum length for a easy casting trout fly rod and that rod topped out with a 6 wt.(sometimes a 5 wt) fly line. The "odd" length of 7 1/2 ft was an American invention to make the lightest long rod possible. It stopped there.

Then came fiberglass and the mass producers of bamboo rods were doomed. Fiberglass was cheap, very strong and lighter than bamboo in most cases. Now, some fiberglass rods were also junk but some companies really ran with this material and made very good rods. Fenwick was one of them. Up until the late 1960's glass rod makers used metal ferrules just like the bamboo boys. Then Fenwick invented the SLIP ON ferrule (feralite) and that was a real game changer. In my opinion it was the most significant improvement in the manufacturing of rods EVER!!! Less weight and no dead spots!! But fiberglass still had it's design limits. increased length = increased weight was the main one. The best fiberglass rods for fly fishing for trout topped out at 7 1/2 ft.

My first quality fly rod was a 7 ft Fenwick FF70 for a 5 wt line. I caught a ton of trout with it under ALL conditions and actually thought that I may never need another rod (HAHA). Then came GRAPHITE!

There are certain times in ones life where one experiences something that is far greater than anything experienced before. My first cast of a graphite rod did that. It was 8 1/2 ft 5 wt that was the same weight as the above mentioned Fenwick. IT WAS SOOO LIGHT!! It loaded like a dream and shot line like a cannon. An added feature of that rod length was that now I could back cast above tall bank side grass and shrubs, an act not done successfully with a shorter rod. In short order we were introduced to 9 ft and 10 ft rods and 4 wts and 3 wts. That's when things got crazy and that's for another post.

How does fiberglass stack up to graphite? It doesn't  and that's my humble opinion. Fiberglass rod makers still run up against the 8 ft/light weight barrier (even with rod design improvements) but will charge you more than 10 times what I paid for that Fenwick 40 years ago and that Fenwick still casts the same as newer models. Every rod maker will offer a 9.5 foot or LONGER graphite rod at a 4WT or less but you're NOT going to find that in fiberglass (or in bamboo either). "But isn't graphite really too stiff in the shorter sizes"?  Some are and some are not.  My graphite rods tend to be a bit slower  because that's what I want. I still occasionally take out that Fenwick for a few casts on the Swift but it's retired and replaced by better things.

Why the resurgence of fiberglass?  After graphite kicked fiberglass out to the fringes of the market there was nothing new in rod materials with the exception of a few brief forays into boron. "Newness" drives markets and there was nothing NEW. "So why don't we bring back fiberglass?  Half the rod buyers today weren't even born when fiberglass was king and we will charge a lot for it and they will pay it"!!

MARKETING rules the world and fly fishing is no exception. I bought a new, 5ft 9inch glass rod three years ago on a recommendation. It is a POS in my not-so-humble-opinion!!!!!

What about bamboo??  If you get a good one you will enter a spiritual world that is hard to explain. "But isn't bamboo heavy"?  Yes, and that's because the rod maker puts his whole soul into it.

Western Ma got zero rain and central New Hampshire got 3 inches. Go figure.  I'm praying for an inch of rain per week through Labor Day.  

Ken

Soft Hackles Seize The Day And Trouble On The EB

 

"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

What type of fly would I use if I were expecting a hatch of any standard mayfly? It would be a soft hackle of course of the appropriate size. I could fish this fly deep early in the day under a micro shot and then ditch the shot and swing that fly across and downstream to imitate the emerging insect. Remember, most rise forms that we see are NOT trout taking mature insects but the taking of immature (emergers) in the surface film. The soft hackle imitates this perfectly. I've even dusted up a SH to fish it on the surface because I didn't want to take the time to change flies. IT WORKED!!!
What patterns work the best? THEY ALL DO!  Don't leave home for any river without the Partridges  (orange and olive) in sizes 12 through 16 and don't leave home without a few Starlings from size 16 through 20 with an olive body.  Above is client Joe with a Swift chunkbow that fell for a Partridge and Orange.
                                                                                                        Starling & Olive

Trouble On The EB

First it was someone ripping down the C&R signs and now we have some trout heads and guts littering  Les's Pool.  If you see anything like this on the EB call the Environmental  Police number that's found on this blog.

The Swift Gauge

The Swift stream gauge stopped working in the early afternoon on Saturday July 6 and as of this writing is stuck at 166 cfs. This may have had something to do with the T'Storms.  In any event the Swift flow is around 130cfs  and dropping and all spots are fishable. The fish are not in the usual places such as the Pipe but have scattered and that's a good thing.

The Millers

Plenty of water with a flow this morning of 388 BUT it is an evening stream until Labor Day.

Bill with a massive Y Pool bow

Ken

The Swift????

"Gag flies are the fly-tying equivalent of rubber vomit. Sooner or later most tiers break down and make one, realize it's nowhere near as funny as they thought it would be and never make another." John Gierach

The July 1st stocking of the Swift below Route 9 can be considered stingy at best. Now, I've been fishing this section for over 30 years and I just fail to see the normal number of "July 1st" trout. Looking down the embankment of the Tree Pool one would seem dozens of trout. Now it's a dozen, maybe. Granted, I don't like to see schools of trout all in one spot but instead like to see SOME trout. Maybe we have gotten used to ultra heavy numbers of fish instead of a number that fits the size of the stream. When you think about it the number of fish we have now is probably the normal amount for a stream of that size.

One thing that is nice is that crowds are GONE. 10 to 15 anglers from the Pipe to the end of the Tree Pool was a normal weekend occurrence in July. Today I saw a total of 4 from 8am to 11am. It made for a lot of elbow room which was refreshing. Cady Lane was empty and it was great. Now we have to work for our fish and that's ok with me.

We Need Rain

There, I said it. Right now we are (except for the Swift) about at the average flow for the rivers that I fish. That's ok but the last 2 weeks have been dry and I just hope that it's not the start of something BAD. One inch of rain every 7 to 10 days would be great!!!

P.S. There are a lot of brookies below Route 9

P.S. Again - Friend Gary saw and got the license plate for someone ripping up the C&R signs on the EB.  It's a blue pickup truck. Keep an eye out for this guy!!!

Ken

 

The Swift - The Fish Are In, The Other Rivers And Book Me

"Things flyfishers know about trout are not facts but articles of faith" - John Gierach

Bill At The Y Pool

It finally happened!  The Swift got it's Summer stocking yesterday, July 1st in the early afternoon.  This will be interesting.  The flow is still up (171 cfs) but dropping. Last year at this time the stocking crew had to actually walk through schools of freshly stocked trout to scatter them in that skinny water.  Not this year. Hopefully they will spread out by themselves.

BTW, rainbows were the species stocked that were stocked.

BTW again, turn in poachers!!!  The environmental police number is 800-632-8072. The bandits will be out in force this holiday week.  Don't let the get away with it.


                                                   The Tree Pool

The Other Rivers

The Millers is at 331 cfs and that is close to perfect.

The Ware is at 97 and it's been flirting with that flow for 2 weeks.  Very fishable!!

The EB is at 116 cfs which is just a tick above it's 99 year average of 99 cfs.

The above rivers are now EARLY MORNING and EVENING RIVERS and will stay that way except for the overcast and cool days that we occasionally get.  Actually we could stand some rain out in the Westfield watershed.


My Bomber

Want a high riding fly to ride those Summer riffles? Try a Bomber!! It's easy to tie:

Hook - size 12 through 16 standard dry fly hook

Tail - hackle barbs

Body - synthetic dubbing of your color

Wing - fine deer hair or synthetic post yarn (skip the calf's tail- it's inferior stuff!!)

Hackle - your choice of color to match the hook size.

Have a Happy 4th of July!!!

Ken