A Reliable Fly And The State Of The Rivers

"Elmer's most favored flies are uncomplicated and impressionistic: a few turns of thread or dubbing can go a long way.  Hot Spot Nymphs in particular, whose colored thoraxes contrast with sharply dark bodies, have proven to be very effective".  Christophe Perez as seen in EASTERN FLY FISHING



The Hot Spot - A Proven Midge                                         

 

I first tied this fly up to fool those finicky bows on the Swift over 15 years ago.  First, I wanted something that was dirt simple, just some dark dubbing with an eye catching light color for contrast.  I like to work this fly about 4 to 6 inches under a micro shot (or larger depending on the flow) and high sticking places like the Bubbler, the Tree Pool and the Gauge run.

Also, and I don't know why, this fly works best in size 24 and that's how I offer it.  It doesn't work as well with any bright, flashy colors but just a dark and light contrast.

Available on this sight along with other great flies.

State Of The Rivers

Well, the Nissitissit River got stocked late this week so try not to stampede the place!  The other rivers are running extremely low and I heard through a semi-official grape line that some rivers MAY NOT get stocked this Fall.  The EB is running at 18 cfs, the Millers is at 59 cfs (they are even playing with this low flow) and the Ware is at 15 cfs.  It doesn't look good except for the Swift which is chugging along at 114cfs week after week.  This will be the spot this weekend.  From today (9/28) through Friday 10/4 there is a forecast of approximately .85 inches of rain.  That will help the EB and the Ware.  The Millers?? Not so much.

Just Asking
It would be nice to know when the Swift River Rainbow Study (I think that's what they call it) will be completed and will the general public get a chance to study it???  I was also told that more electro shocking is scheduled for this Fall.  Please stay away from the brookie spawning grounds or best yet postpone it until February or March to see where the bows go.

I Love Breakfast

Eggs scrambled with onions and peppers with a side of sweet Italian sausage does it for me.  Don't forget the black pepper, lots of black pepper!!

It's the way to start off the day!!!

Ken

Flies For Fall And Our Rivers

 

A trout is a moment of beauty known only to those who seek it. - Arnold Gingrich

Scuds

We have at least two good months of fly fishing left before winter sets in.  October and November are classic New England trout fishing months and having the right flies is important.

My must have flies are as follows:

Scuds - always a great Fall and Winter fly. Tied less bushy than the traditional scuds Sizes 12 and 14.

Pinheads
A great midge fly.  My top Midge fly below the Gauge.

One October afternoon a few years ago I took about 30 bows and brookies from the Pipe to the middle of the Tree Pool and it only took 2 hours to do it.  Like I said, a great fly.  Sizes 20, 22, 24

                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                       

Soft Hackles 

The Partridge and Orange and the Partridge and Olive will give you what you need.  Brookies love the Orange.  All sizes work!  Partridge and Orange are in sizes 12, 14 and 16. Same with the Partridge and Olive with the addition of a size 18 in olive.  This fly works on all rivers and has been my top Autumn fly for the EB.  Check out the video clip on my site called the EB and Me to see what I mean.

  

Swift Serendipity

Another great midge pattern that works the best in the Fall and Winter.  I tested this fly about 15 years ago and took a 16 inch brookie with it.  It's been with me ever since.  Sizes 18, 20 and 22

You can order these flies on this site using the convenient PayPal feature. Minimum order is $20.


The Rivers

It's beginning to look like 2017 all over again - a bone crushing drought that leaves only the tailwaters like the Swift and the Farmie actually looking like trout streams.  There are some local fish hawks who can still work their magic on this skinny water (that's Gary) but even they would like to see some rain to get us back to normal.  I would hate to see us enter early winter with low water because that's a recipe for winter kill!!!

The forecast calls for some rain today 9/26, Tuesday 10/1 and Thursday 10/3 for a grand total of .27 inches! That's not enough but maybe the weather folks will be wrong.  What a difference a year makes!!!

Ken

Things I'd Like To See Go Away

Then in the mid-70s my interests began to shift back to simpler, more impressionistic patterns; flies that suggested insects or baitfish in general, flies tied with soft fibers that would move in the current like a living insect or baitfish. It was at this time that I tied the first Sparrow and other flies utilizing the soft aftershaft feathers found on a pheasant; also the Soft Hackle Streamer which (when you look at it closely) is simply a traditional soft hackle wet fly tied with a much longer marabou hackle thus allowing it to suggest a baitfish. About this time that I became friends with Sylvester Nemes, whose book rekindled my interest in the traditional soft-hackle wet fly. Since then I always carry a selection of traditional (and some not-so-traditional) soft-hackle wet flies with me wherever I fish. The late, great Jack Gartside

 

When you've been writing a fly fishing blog for 12 years and fly fishing for going on a half century (yikes) you see a lot of things come and go. Some things earn a place in our arsenal of equipment and others pop back up every decade or so. Here's a sample:

Junk Flies Mops, worms, green Weenies, rainbow warriors, - Upcountry Fly Shop and others call them junk flies because that's what they are - a concoction to fool freshly stocked trout. They are attractor flies that represent NOTHING alive in a trout stream and are about one step above fishing an Al's Goldfish! If you're still at the level where a good day depends on the number of fish you catch then go for it. If a good day depends on HOW you caught those fish then you have successfully evolved as a fly fisher.
(Note - a Mop Fly makes a great hellgrammite fly if tied with a gray body with the back colored brown with a sharpie. Chartreuse makes it a junk fly.)


Competitive Fly Fishing

Is it my imagination or has this activity begun to fade away?  It should fade away because fly fishing is NOT a competitive exercise.  I would guess that a fly fisher would want to get away from the competitive world of making a living and enjoy  an activity where the "trophy" is a trout and NOT A Medal around your neck.  Is it true that they stock these rivers before the event???

Gastric Lavage (stomach pumping)

Imagine a 16 inch trout sipping size 28 emergers from the film and it's been doing that for an hour. This fish has to swallow a lot of tiny insects to get what is called his caloric ration which is the amount of calories needed to maintain growth or it dies (trout don't go on diets).  Now, Mr. Flyfisher puts on a size 28 and catches that trout and then goes and empties it's stomach to see what's there.  WHY? First, you probably already know what's there because you caught the trout. Second, you stole a good portion of that trout's calories for the day AND you risked injuring the fish.


Now for a thing I'm glad to see

No, I don't mean fishing "built wing" wets that dominated the scene a hundred years ago.  They are a good exercise to hone your tying skills but in truth they basically represent nothing.  What I'm happy to see is the surge in two things: simple wet flies as in soft hackles AND (more importantly) the growing popularity in WET FLY TECHNIQUES.  Swinging a soft hackle that flows and moves in the current is what Jack Gartside means in the quote at the top of the post.  It's what Sylvester Nemes preached in his groundbreaking book The Soft Hackle Fly.  It is the most effective method of fly fishing because it works under any conditions.  I've been beating the drum for this technique for years.  I think it's starting to catch on.

 

A Traditional Wet




Not a built up quill wing but just a few wisps of bronze mallard for the wing, a tan rabbit body with ultra fine copper wire and a soft blue dun hackle.  Not a crazy colored old brookie fly but a somber and subtle brown trout fly.  It will catch trout!

Fall Stocking

Nothing on Monday

Nothing on Tuesday

Pray for rain!!

Ken

State Of The Rivers And A Good Breakfast

"Soon after I embraced the sport of angling I became convinced that I should never be able to enjoy it if I had to rely on the cooperation of the fish". - Sparse Grey Hackle

Ok, we are approaching crunch time in central/western Massachusetts with Fall stocking while being in the teeth of a crushing drought. Here is where the Rivers stand:

The Swift - 114 cfs as usual and it is fishing well. Read my comments section for the past two weeks and you will be reading some success stories from this river.  This flow will not change unless we get a lot of rain that will pump up the Connecticut River flow which will bring the Swift down to its historical 60 cfs average.  BTW, if you are planning on catching salmon coming over the spillway this November as we did last Fall just forgetaboutit!!! Quabbin will not overflow this year unless we get a foot of rain this Fall.  The event is not yearly but close to twice a decade.

Also in the comments section is the report from Tom from Boston on how he caught a mess of brookies and a 16 inch brown on a size 16 beadhead tied to two feet of 2X tippet.  You've got to love it.

The Millers - At 77 cfs it is critically low but the browns are still there.  Again, read the comments from the previous post.  As I've always said the Millers is a brown trout river because the browns hold over through the summer.  The bows are nice in the Spring but.......

The EB - This place is scary low (22 cfs) but my friend and frequent contributor and local fish hawk Gary is still successful. He knows where to go and has been successful almost every morning over the past two weeks (again, read the comments from the previous post).

The Farmington - I include this as a local option because it is in good flow at around 144 cfs, lots of bugs and lots of trout.  Remember, Upcountry Fly Shop is the REAL source for information and their website reports are updated twice a week. BTW, Upcountry reports that the trico hatch has just about petered out, about a month after another site reported its demise.  Go to Upcountry to get the real news on the Farmington.

The rivers are reported to be stocked starting the last week of September.  The 10 day forecast includes virtually NO RAIN.  The water temperatures are cool enough but it would be nice to have more water!!

A Real Breakfast                                                                             

Toss that bran muffin and get that yogurt out of here.  You deserve a real breakfast that gives you the good stuff like eggs and bacon but also gives you your serving of vegetables which clears your conscience of sin of bacon.

Toast up two pieces of wheat bread
Poach or fry two eggs
Top it off with some Ratatouille (9/2 blog post)

No Ratatouille? Top it off with some hash.  Live a little!!!!!

Ken

The Buzzer - A Good All-Around Midge Pattern

Flyfishing 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

Buzzers - The English term for gnats and such and they've become part of my arsenal over the last two seasons. Davie MacPhail ties a neat buzzer but I've reduced the fly down to basic elements because I am a minimalist by nature AND I like tying lots of flies FAST.

HOOK - Scud hooks from size 14 through 20

BODY - You can go with stripped peacock (slower to tie and more fragile) or some 140 denier thread in either dark olive, black or brown.

RIB - fine copper wire

WING PAD - Here is the secret sauce for this pattern. I use Orange kevlar which I also use on my Partridge and Orange Soft hackles. It has a nice shiny, waxy look to it and mimics the budding wing pads of many gnat species which seem to have a orange shade to them. Now, McPhail ties orange gills on the underside of the thorax which really isn't necessary IMO. This fly, like all subsurface flies, tumbles in the current and Mr. Trout probably doesn't care if the orange is on the top or the bottom.

Coating - I don't use the UV stuff which I believe catches more fishermen than fish. I will use Sally Hensen's Hard as Nails on the quill bodies if I remember. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

Where to fish it - The Swift, of course, from the Bubbler arm (great spot) and below the Pipe. The Pipe flow is loaded with these critters and this fly has worked for me. The Millers is full of this type of insect and there are times when they exhibit something called "behavioral drift" where the entire population will begin to drift downstream just under the surface with trout in pursuit. The smart money says they're rising to buzzers!!

Fly Fishing Only Regulations - The Massachusetts DFW page concerning the Swift River (above RT 9) and a portion of the Nissitissit River defines fly fishing as using a "conventional fly rod and fly line". This is good as it eliminates those who fish with a spinning rod, a bobber and a drifting nymph and still claim to be fly fishing but it also eliminates Tenkara fishing because that rod and line set up are not "conventional" fly fishing equipment in the spirit of the law. Now, what if you have a fly rod, a fly reel, fly line and 40 feet of mono and have no intention of putting that fly line into play? Technically you are legal because you have a "conventional" fly line in possession even if it never gets wet. This style of fishing seems very much like mid west "Noodle Rod" fishing: 12 ft soft rods attached to large capacity fly reels that are loaded with 20lb mono (no fly line) which are then used to toss out strike indicators fished over everything from bait to actual flies. Noodle rod fishing is never confused with fly fishing!!

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!!!

A few yearsthe  or so ago I experimented with 30+ foot leaders and thought they were novelty that worked well when conditions were good and didn't work well when conditions sucked. I then realized that my Tenkara rod could do the same thing so I went back to conventional equipment and feel good about it. Now, if I could only attach a fly reel to a Tenkara rod.........

Ken

The RS2, Tiny Eggs And Pork Chops

For the moment at least, we fall into that class of fishermen who fancy themselves to be poet/philosophers, and from that vantage point we manage to pull off one of the neatest tricks in all of sport:: the fewer fish we catch the more superior we feel. - John Gierach

The RS2

You really can't seem to mess this fly up. The January/February issue of Eastern Fly Fishing Magazine, which includes a great write up on the Swift River, includes a version of this fly (their version is a bit too chunky for me). It's small (22 to 28) and represents all the tiny stuff.  Micro tails, olive body (I've used black) and cdc for the wing will do it.  I prefer snowshoe but practice with the stuff before you throw out your cdc.  It can be difficult to work with.

Fall is a prime time for this fly on the Swift as are all small flies.

                                                                                   Micro Egg




And another small Autumn fly is the micro egg. Imagine a spawning bed loaded with brookies and also loaded with rainbows ready to snatch up those stray eggs.  Now, those brookie eggs are not the size of marbles but are the size of, well, trout eggs.  So why use larger versions?  Size 16 and 18 work great.  Place them about 6 inches below a micro shot and get ready to drift.  No need to fish them under an indicator either.

My favorite "Egg" spot is the section from the Gauge downstream to just above the old pump house.




Grilled Chops

This may be my favorite summertime food - Grilled anything!!!  But pork chops seemed to lead the way this year.  Reduce some orange juice and paint some thick, bone in chops with it and douse them with black pepper and some crushed up rosemary.  Throw on the grill with some smokey wood on the side. (I don't bother with bagged wood chips but instead walk the back yard for maple twigs/branches that really do the trick.


I can hardly wait to "heat up the kitchen" with some oven aromas from some autumnal recipes that I've got.  I tried it 2 weeks ago with the temperature about 85 = not a good idea.


Can We Have Some Rain, Please???

So the Weather Lady on NECN stated, on Monday, that we may not get ANY rain until Monday the 23rd.  The Fall stocking season starts on the last week of September so we are cutting it close on the freestones.  With the exception of last year this has been the case for the past 4 or 5 years - low Fall flows.

Do a Rain Dance!!!

Ken

Tying Flies

You're supposed to go through a series of transitions. At first you just want a fish, and since this is a complicated sport requiring some skill, landing the first one isn't always a snap. Once you're past that, you'll want lots of fish, then big ones, and then you'll want something like the difficult or the interesting or the beautiful fish, or maybe the fish that swim on the other side of the world.

Finally, you're supposed to see that the goal of wanting is to STOP wanting altogether, so you just go to the water out of curiosity and gratefully take whatever it gives you. John Gierach

As I've told many clients over the years I if couldn't fish I'd still tie flies.  It's creative as is sculpture and painting and it's therapeutic as was Ganhdi and his spinning wheel.

One gets a real sense of satisfaction in creating something that fools a trout!!

 

There is only one time in the last 40 years where I purchased trout flies and that was on the Farmington two summers ago when I left my box of freshly minted Needhami's at home and I JUST HAD TO FISH THEM.  That necessitated a quick trip to UpCountry to fill that hole!!!

Late Season Hatches

The nymph shown above is an Isonychia and it is very common on many of our pocket water rivers. This fly will hatch throughout the Summer but it appears to like that late August  through September season.

And it's a weird one because it likes to act like a stonefly by  crawling up on exposed rocks and hatching mainly under the cover of darkness.  Thomas Ames has seen these critters hatching at noon in the Fall but I haven't. The photo below shows the spent casings for this fly.

Your standard size 14 pheasant tail nymph will do the trick. Also be aware that this nymph is a quick swimmer with short, darting moves.  Also be aware that there is no logical reason why trout will rise to a Isonychia dry but they do. I've seen it on the Millers - size 14 grey sailboats just barely visible at dark. A traditional Adams will work here.

We still have the general misconception out there that Fall is the time for tiny flies.  It is if you frequent tailwaters but that's not the case with freestones. The biggest stoneflies of the year are on the EB in September and October.

Buy Some Flies

Need some soft hackles for this Fall?  Look no further. I have what you need for the Swift and the other rivers that I write about.

Browns Of The Swift, Book Me And A Big Dead Brown

Note: this is the big brown found dead on the Swift within the last few hours this Sunday morning 9/8/19

I was up by the Duck Pond when it flew by, a large osprey with a brown of at least 16 inches stuck in its talons. Later on that day a regular spies a brown of at least 28 inches above Cady Lane. I've taken more browns this Summer from the Swift than in any other Summer. A DFW employee involved in this past Summer's electroshocking said what is now becoming obvious - the Swift is becoming a brown trout river!!

It wasn't always like this. We had some outsized browns years ago but not like today. A 21 lb brown (there are many in the 5 to 10lb range also) isn't an accident but the result of the stars being aligned just so. That alignment involves a stable cold water environment (thank you Quabbin) and an ample food supply in the form of a gazillion brook trout.

That ample food supply grows big brown trout quickly and they are fat, healthy fish. (Have you noticed that many photos of Farmington browns show a bunch of skinny, eel-like fish while Swift browns look like weight lifters?)


A BIG Swift Brown

You will begin to see more of these giants as we get into October. They will follow the brookie spawning run upstream picking off as many as they can. Two years ago I was about 20 yards downstream from the gauge watching a pod of brookies when a monster brown charged through the pack. I knew he wasn't interested in my #16 partridge and orange but wanted real calories. I think I may have a good brookie imitation worked up and ready to go but that's for the next post!!

I'm starting to book up for October and November.  The Millers, Swift, EB and the Ware can be yours at the best time of the year. Because the days are already shorter my evening trips will go from 4 to 7pm instead of the summertime 5 to 8 schedule.

BOOK ME!!!

Ken

Notes On The Dry Fly

"When I die I want to come back as a Montana fly fishing guide" - Jane Fonda

(The above quote would keep me from going back to Montana)

Much of my instruction time is devoted to explaining and demonstrating dry fly strategy. There are those in this sport who have turned dry fly fishing into a form of rocket science which it shouldn't be. Let's examine the basics:

1. We either cast a dry fly to a rising fish or to a spot where we believe a trout may be. Let's concern ourselves with that rising trout.

2. It is a rare occasion where we see a steady parade of newly hatched mayfly duns floating down a river and being picked off by a trout. Most of the rises that we see are rises to the emerging insect that is in or just under the surface film. That is why comparaduns (my favorite dry fly pattern) and parachutes do so well. The body is in the surface film looking just like an emerging insect. That is why the two above tying styles have somewhat replaced the classic hackled dry fly. More on that later.

3. Always try to position yourself downstream from a rising fish or a place that you want to cast to when fishing a dry. Imagine a large clock surface and a trout steadily rising at the 12 o'clock position. You want to be below him at the 4 or 8 o'clock position. Why not 6 o'clock? Actually that's the worst place to be. Your leader or your line will land on top of him. At the 4 or 8 position only the tippet will be in play.

4. Fishing a dry downstream or down and across will limit your presentation window because of leader drag. Remember, drag occurs when the leader is traveling faster than the fly. You avoid this with an upstream cast but there are times when you have to fish at a downward angle. This is where you lengthen your leader with extra tippet length and throw a Check Cast above the rise. A Check Cast is nothing more than suddenly stopping, or "checking" your fly in mid cast so the fly falls to the surface amid some loose, uncoiled leader. Your leader needs to be pretty straightened out for drag to set in. This will avoid it.

5. Manage your line when fishing upstream with a dry. The line is floating back to you and you must constantly strip in this slack or hook set will be impossible. Resist the urge to throw a mend into the line a second after it hits the water. You don't need the surface disturbance and you will sink your dry fly.

6. Forget nonsense like "parallel drag" or "diagonal drag". Drag is Drag and the remedy is the same.

7. 90% of your dry fly fishing will be done with size 14 through size 20 flies which means you will be using 5x and 6x tippet. Don't believe that you need 7x on a size 14 or 16 dry unless you like leader twist.

8. Hackled dries still have a home in riffles and pocket water where they float well and are visible.

In 2009 I fished the EB from Memorial Day through September with nothing but dries and I caught a lot of trout. It is my favorite style of fishing followed closely by the swing of a soft hackle. Both styles represent a stage of insect life and I believe is a higher stage of fly fishing. A Millers regular once described what we now call straight line nymphing as "bait fishing with artificial bait". To each his own.

Ken

12 Biggies And Summer Is Not Over Yet And A Lost Rod

"Never Leave fish to find fish" - Moses 1200 BC
                                                                                   

12 Biggies??? That means one thing and that this month marks the 12th anniversary of this blog. It was September of 2007 when the first post hit the electronic streets, so to speak, and it's been going strong ever since. It, at first, was designed to showcase the Millers River but has now expanded to also cover the Westfield system, the Swift River and the Ware River among others. It spawned a lot of knockoffs over the years, most of which have sunk without a trace. Meanwhile, the blog and I have made it onto regional TV and national flyfishing publications. This blog has the combination of an extremely high page view count AND an extremely high number of READER COMMENTS. Without READER COMMENTS you are talking to yourself!!!!

How long will this continue? As long as it is fun to do I will continue. I can do another 12 years easy!!!

End of Summer????
I hate it when people refer to Labor Day as the end of Summer. If anything it's the zenith of Summer for all these reasons:

1. Daytime temperatures will be mostly in the 70's instead of the 80's or more.

2. Cooler days and nights mean cooler water and less evaporation.

3. Dusk comes earlier and for those who live for the evening hatch this is a bonus.

4. Water levels lend themselves to angling that requires more finesse and "trout hunting skills" than launching weighted springtime depth charges at freshly stocked trout.  This is the time of year for light rods, L O N G leaders and small flies. (exception: hoppers, beetles and ants and the great stonefly and Isonchyia hatches on the EB).  There's a lot of trout food out there but you have to be able to present it!!

In short, some of my BEST days on the Millers, Swift, EB and Ware Rivers have been in September.  Last year the BWO action on the Swift was some of the best I've ever seen!!!  So, get out and fish.

A Lost Rod

Backcast to my previous post and you will see a comment by reader BobO on a rod that was left by Route 9.  Just go to the Quabbin Park Ranger office.  They have the rod.


Ratatouille

What to do with all of the zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant that you've grown or have been gifted by generous neighbors?  Add some garlic (lots of garlic), oregano, basil, salt and pepper and cook it all down to that great Italian vegetable stew - Ratatouille!!!!  Make a lot of it, put it in freezer bags and use it in the Fall and Winter as the base for stews, sauces or all by itself.

Don't have a garden or farmer friends?  Go to the store or a farm stand. They're giving it away.

Sometimes I  add sausage to it or large chucks of a white fish such as cod and I've been known to throw in chicken.

I'll be doing some more of this before I hit the Millers tonight!!!


Ken