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 also would like to thank you! I’ve been fly fishing for a little over a year now and I can’t even begin to explain how helpful your blog has been to me. I’ve checked it daily since April and it’s helped me put countless fish in the net! Seriously thank you! -Reader Zack
This was the kind of day that I wrote about on Sunday- gray, overcast with a slight hint of drizzle. Perfect BWO weather on my favorite BWO river- the EB. Except I only saw one of the above insects in the few hours that I was there. That's ok because I wanted to play a different game. It's been tiny flies for a while and I wanted to pitch something meatier. What would friend Gary, the Admiral of the Westfield, do in a case like this? Maybe Pats Rubber Legs. It's worth a try. The river was last stocked three weeks ago and we had two rain events to scatter the trout so things would not be too easy. They would certainly be able to see this fly!!
They certainly did!! All eleven smashed this deep drifting bug and on one cast a bow hit the offering as soon as it hit the surface. All casts were within 20 feet and ALL trout hit on the drift. It's the only way to fish this fly.
The lucky spot was the Bliss Pool from the fast water above the main pool down to the mid section.
I decided to head downstream to the next good spot, The Chronicle Pool, and switched flies to a hellgramop (yup, you guessed it. That took another 5 before I called it an afternoon. It was a good 2 1/2 hours!!
This river is full of trout and if I had more time I would of caught more.
If I were you I would take the time to get up there. BTW, the bridge detour is history as is the 8 mile detour.
I've booked some dates since I posted the openings just yesterday. Don't wait too long. All of these rivers are fishable!!!!!!
Finally, clarity has arrived. It has been a mess of an Autumn. First, I smashed my knee up in mid September which forced me to cancel that month which forced me to double up at times for October. Finally I stopped booking and worked through the backlog. Now I'm ready to go on with what has always been a very good month. November has temperatures that are close to that of April - cool but not cold with some real balmy thrown in for good measure and there are a lot of trout out there!!!
My open dates are: 10/30, 10/31, 11/1, 11/2, 11/3, 11/9, 11/10, 11/20, 11/21, 11/22, 11/23, 11/24, 11/25
These are dates for 3 or 6 hour trips to the Swift, Millers, EB and the Ware rivers. All of these dates are first come, first served and the rates are on my blog.
'My fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power" - Robert Traver
Fall and Winter mean scuds to me. Now, I fish them during balmier weather but not with the conviction that I do when the sky is a steel gray sheet of overcast with a hint of drizzle and a temperature that is in the mid 40's and slowly sinking. Here's why I think they produce better in the above conditions.
1. They are a REAL exoskeleton insect with that shell that screams "nourishment" to any trout that is in the area. At this time of year they become one of the larger prey items on that watery buffet table. (there is a "shell" pattern out there that incorporates a human finger nail or toe nail as the shell back and it's supposed to catch trout. I wouldn't know but I may try to find out!!!)
2. You MUST fish this critter slowly and near the bottom. Mid current will kill the effectiveness. I stopped building weight into this fly and use micro shot 4 inches above the fly (tied onto a tippet tag so I don't loose too many of these guys) or no weight at all.
3. My favorite flow conditions are fairly shallow riffles such as the Bubbler Arm of the Swift, below the Pipe, below the Crib Dam and in the broad riffles below the Duck Pond. (There, you just got more information than you will find on any other blog!)
4. Size 14 and 16 do it all!
5. I don't like very bushy scuds because real scuds aren't that bushy.
6. Even in watery environments where scuds are rare the trout still take them.
Good luck with scuds!!!!!
A Lost Net
Reader Zack found a net on the Swift two days ago. Name the location and the Brand of net via email, not in the comments section, and let me know and we will try to get it back to you.
The State of the Rivers
Everything at this time (10 am on Sunday) is perfect but we will get an inch of rain today BUT it shouldn't harm any rivers except for the Millers but even there I think we will have good water to fish. The Swift will stay the same, The EB will shoot up and then in 48 hours will be normal and the Ware will weather (sorry for the pun) the storm.
Thought you (and your blog readers) might be interested in seeing this big brown that I got at "the Pipe" yesterday evening. Fished up around the duck pond most of the day, headed down to the gauge parking area late afternoon. As is usual this time of year, the pipe cleared out by 3:30 and I had the place to myself. After getting some beautifully colored up brookies in the 10" class, and missing a couple bows, I saw a what looked like a submarine move from downstream into the feeding lane below the pipe. To make a long story short, after a dozen fly changes and probably close to 100 casts, I finally got the take (heart jumped into my throat). The fish made a good run - I tightened down on my drag to try to stop the fish before he got all the way down to the tree - risked breaking him off, but maybe better than getting too much line out and if the fish found the tree or another snag it would be game over anyway. He did stop and turn and I managed to slowly work him back and cornered and netted the fish in the slack water on the hatchery side below the pipe. No witnesses as I was the only one there - but I did get some pics (I almost never carry my Go Pro anymore, but I had some kind of premonition that I might need it yesterday - weird!). Got the fish on a #22 orange thread midge and 6x tippet. Probably in the top 2-3 trout I've ever caught - taped out at two-and-a-half hands, which would be close to 25" with my 10" span - I'm guessing maybe 6 lbs. Also got a 3 lb. chunkbow in the shallow riffle below the duck pond, and a boat load of brookies. All in all a banner day on one of the best rivers in New England!
Tight lines!
Mike from Andover
Mike, Thank you for sharing this awesome moment. And on a #22 orange thread midge w/6x to boot!!!! YOU DA MAN!!!
Where are the biggest browns in New England??? RIGHT HERE!!! The are more just like it on the Swift!!!
In case you haven't noticed, flyfishing has become fashionable lately. This kind of snuck up on me so I can't tell you exactly when it happened, but I knew it had happened when well dressed, youngish but middle-aged, demographically correct people began to appear on TV casting with fly rods or looking over expensive tackle, not in those insipid Saturday morning fishing shows, but in slick commercials hawking credit cards and painkillers. - John Gierach The Gnat - Size 20
I love Autumn flyfishing!! I get everything at once - unbelievable surface action with fine leaders and tiny flies. Then there is the streamer action which everyone believes in for all the wrong reasons. Conventional reasoning states that big trout, knowing that winter is a-coming, will put on the feed bag and chase streamers. But there is a glitch is this theory. Tom Rosenbauer of Orvis once stated that most of the calories that a trout consumes during the year are consumed in May and June. There's a lot of trout food then. A trout doesn't know what a calendar is and will eat when the water temperature is in that range that controls the trout's biological system. October is a good month for good trout temperature and so is November but December - not so much. The water is colder and the trouts metabolism is slower. One can have good fishing but the game is slowing down. I still fish small streamers in the Fall especially on the Swift with all of it's pint-sized brookies that serve up a buffet table for the browns and bows. And I fish streamers much like I fish nymphs - a short line high-sticked through likely looking holding areas. Don't fish streamers quickly. Small baitfish don't move through a stream with the agility of an otter. They may dart from one spot to another but it's usually to seek cover or be eaten. High sticking a streamer mimics an injured baitfish as it drifts downstream. It's an easy meal!!!! Blue Wing Black Body Dry - Size 24
As I said earlier I love Autumn and it's tiny flies. Last year, before the FLOOD, I had great dry fly action down in Cady Lane working size 22 and size 24 emergers and adult duns in the same sizes to very secretive browns and outsized brookies.
This action continued through the Winter at the Y Pool (where else!!) and worked in the Tree Pool for most of the Summer.
It also worked with a different color scheme of fly a year ago on the Farmie, home of that late July, early August Needhami hatch. That little fly is referred to as the tiny Hendrickson. The fly that you see on the right, in light brown, is perfect for it. Blue Wing Olive - Size 24
The BWO may be the most popular tiny fly being cast today. Now, some say that size 24 isn't small enough. But you can tie a size 26 fly on a size 24 hook and fool trout and get better hooking with the larger hook. The trout don't seem to care if the fly is presented correctly.
Let's not forget the Gnat. With a peacock body and a palmered hackle it's a buoyant fly and can mimic the Winter Caddis that we find on the Swift and the Farmie.
These flies (with more to come) are offered on this site. You can find them, and others, at the bottom of my home page. P.S. All flies are tied by me and I ship quickly!!!
BTW - Thank you for all the comments that you send in. These are REAL comments about your fishing experiences, successful or not. And you're not afraid to let people know where you fish which is much appreciated. We get more than double the the comments of other blogs!!!
BTW AGAIN - We have double the page views of any other fly fishing site in central New England. THANK YOU AGAIN.
I don't fish the really famous Montana rivers much anymore and when I do I usually hit them at off times - between the major hatches when, as a guide once told me, "there are fewer rising trout but more rising trout per fisherman" - John Gierach
EVERYTHING IS FINE! The Millers was at 1100 cfs on Friday and is now down to 838. That's high but if you pick your spots (Bridge Street and the RT 2 rest area) you should do well with weighted ANYTHING. By mid week the flow should be down in the 400-500 range which is very good.
The EB went from 1500 cfs on Thursday to 162 as I write (early Sunday morning). It can't get any better than that!!! I've gotten good reports of great catches on this river with very little angling traffic. Now, the fish were ponded up two weeks ago during the low water and the deluge of last Thursday will scatter them but they are still there. Fish the EB!!!
The Ware
This river is producing and I heard one story of
someone with a 20 fish day. That can happen but it happened after the stocking and before the deluge which means we will now have to work for our fish. That's not a bad thing.
The Swift
Our Crown Jewell is living up to it's reputation and if you don't believe me just read the comments section of the last three posts. It seems we are "dancing with brook trout" again on New England's BEST brookie stream (stream born fish!!!). This river is producing from top to bottom. Sam, the "Boss of Bondsville", is getting it done on the lower end of the river. BTW, if your "Swift Experience" is confined to the Y Pool and the Pipe you are missing EVERYTHING. Again, don't do the same old routine. EXPLORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another fact about the Swift - many if not most of our "flowing waters" that are large enough to wear the label "river" are saddled with Wastewater Treatment Plants and sometimes bad things happen. Back in the 90's some company tried to "treat" an untreatable substance at a WWTP on the Millers. It was a stinking disaster!! In 2011 Hurricane Irene shut down every WWTP in the Deerfield Watershed. Where do you think the waste went??? Even the Farmington has had it's problems. BUT not the Swift!! There are no WWTP on the Swift and my guess is there never will be. The closest we come to a WWTP is the heavily monitored and mostly benign outflow from the Hatchery. WWTP work well only when everything works well.
Midges
I've had requests for some tiny dry flies suitable for the Swift for this Fall and Winter. Stay tuned this week for those!!!
One of the most common items that I post on the "lost and Found" part of this blog is the "lost rod section." Being old enough to remember when most fly rods were only two piece I can see that we have an epidemic on our hands. Thankfully it's easily remedied. Most lost sections are lost on the way back to the vehicle after fishing BECAUSE we take down the rod at streamside and then drop a section on the walk back. LEAVE THE ROD FULLY ASSEMBLED until you are at the vehicle. Problem solved!!! -Me DMS Caddis
Backcast 25 years or so ago to a June evening on the Deerfield where the Cold River joins in. I'm doing well with a few trout here and there but my friend Rick is killing them with a caddis creation of his. He gave me one, I liked it enough to tie some up and then promptly forgot about them for a few years until I had a good evening on the Millers with them. I even wrote about them in my blog and then forgot about them again.
Then my friend Lenny, the Patagonia Guide,. put on a clinic below the Duck Pond two Novembers ago. "What are you using I said after the sixth rainbow?" "YOUR CADDIS FLY" was the answer. That's all I needed to make this fly a staple in my arsenal.
Lenny with another Swift bow
I call it the DSM Caddis. Born on the Deerfield, perfected on the Swift and it works on the Millers. It was the sunken fly most used this past year for me because it works with the soft hackle and peacock construction. It has a gray, somber tone to it just like a natural caddis. Size 16 is perfect for the Swift while the other sizes work everywhere else. Size 12 will crush it in the Spring and early Summer.
WORK THE RIFFLES with this fly. See that shin deep flow in the photo to the right? That's what you are looking for.
You guessed it! I have these flies for sale!!!!!
Rain is on the way
It will start by late afternoon and continue through a lot of Thursday with a good 2 inches of much need rain. It will not effect the swift but the Millers, Ware and the EB will benefit. It will certainly improve the fishing. Now, I mentioned the EB which hasn't gotten a Fall stocking. THERE ARE STILL FISH THERE so go get 'em!!!
"All a trout really needs to know is that anything that moves is either food or danger. If it's big and moving, it's probably dangerous, so flee. If it's moving and small enough to eat, chow down. They can learn from their mistakes to a certain extent, but to a trout, if something looks like a bug and acts like a bug, it's probably a bug. It's a good thing, too, or we'd never catch them".- John Wyatt
The seasonal show has begun. The Swift is center stage for the best run of brook trout in New England. Where else can you fish for and catch brook trout in the 6 to 20 inch range and have a shot at hooking, but not necessarily landing an 8lb+ brown? Oh, I almost forgot. There are some hefty bows stocked recently. (bows come in third on the list on a typical Swift Autumn)
Eggs work and the smaller the better. My Micro Eggs are tied on size 16 and 18 hooks and are drifted about 4 inches below a micro shot. It is the perfect egg pattern when going after egg robbing bows in very skinny water. Under these conditions the "take" is always visual and is such a fly fishing rush. We easily have another month of this action out there so don't delay. Note: Cady Lane drops off a bit as the spawning season continues because the mass of fish have moved upstream.
Midge Action October may be the best month on the Swift for midges in my-not-so-humble-opinion. My Pinhead was born in October years ago on a day when I could not keep the trout off of the fly. Any spot that was marked by fairly shallow riffles was ground zero especially below the Pipe. Note- the Pipe flushes in a constant stream of midges that originate at the tail end of the hatchery. Fish with a micro shot or a micro shot and a tiny indicator. It will work!!!
The Millers
A major traffic accident on Route 2 on Saturday cut down access to areas along the Millers but if you found the river you may have done well. flows are good and trout (browns) are hitting the surface. It's shaping up to be a very good Fall on this river.
In the comment section of the last post you will read of one angler knocking it out of the park up in the Bears Den with Partridge and Orange soft hackles. If you run low I have them.
"So with time on my hands I stopped for lunch at a roadhouse straight out of my idyllic youth, with deer and fish mounts on the walls and Formica booths with cracked plastic seats patched with duct tape. I ordered the regulation hot pork sandwich on white bread with a pound of mashed potatoes on the side (no vegetables), the whole thing slathered with industrial strength brown gravy. The waitress who delivered this feast was a cheerful three-hundred-pounder, in case there was any doubt about the dangers inherent in a steady diet of rural comfort food." John Gierach (don't laugh. We've all been there and probably liked it!!)
Columbus Day Weekend - the last hurrah for many who do not have the luxury of TIME on their hands to fish when they want. Many think that the fishing ends right about now but they are dead wrong. The rest of October and November have days that are as comfortable as April and even early May and the water levels are almost perfect.
All the rivers covered on this blog have gotten their Fall stocking EXCEPT THE EB which may get something today. (Note there are STILL fish to be caught in that river). The Ware, chugging along at 14 cfs, actually got stocked. The Millers is at a perfect Autumn flow of 160 cfs, exactly where it was two years ago when I had the best BWO action that I ever had on that river. Arch Street in Erving was ground zero for that action as it is every year at this time.
The Swift is at it's low flow (my favorite flow) which means that euro nymphers have retreated to more forgiving venues and the Swift is left for the TINY FLY GUYS and for those who slowly work streamers. We will have fishing well into late November when Winter says hello and tactics change.
BTW - get your tiny flies here!!!!! The Turkey Top
I've always liked flies that have that certain trigger to them which is one of the reasons I've fished the Hot Spot for 15 or so years. That contrasting color in the middle makes all the difference. This was a killer fly on the Squannacook River in the big pool above the Arched Bridge in West Townsend. That pool became history when the dam broke and drained it over 30 years ago but back in the day it was the best Springtime spot on the river and this fly beat all others. It was the light colored turkey wing pad that did it.
"There's no such thing as a "best fly" or a "guide fly". After the hatchery truck rolls away just about ANY fly will work and everyone is an expert. Give it a month and you will see that presentation is King. The well placed fly wins every time. Remember, there are some fish hawks out there who only fish a few patterns but they catch the most fish." -Me
The Painted Brookie
I have a love/hate relationship with streamers. Standards like the mickey finn, with it's body of yellow and red, just don't seem natural to me because they are not natural (it's an attractor). Also, the wing material be it bucktail, fixed hackle wing (becoming rare these days), or even craft fur is usually too stiff and lifeless for my taste. That is why my freshwater (trout) streamers went over to Marabou about 30 years ago. It's action in the water can't be beat, period!!! But there is a problem. Marabou comes in solid colors and not too many of them either. I wanted to blend colors and that's where the use of sharpies come in.
The fly above has an orange dubbed body with mylar for the rib. The wing is WHITE marabou that I colored in sections.
First, a thin bunch of white marabou is tied to the top of the hook.
Second, a thin strip of white marabou is cut and then colored with a reddish brown sharpie (hold the marabou in one hand placing the feathers on a piece of paper to color it). Then tie it to the fly.
Third, Do the same thing with a purple sharpie and then finish the fly. I think it has some important brookie colors. A size 10 or 12 standard streamer hook will work.
Did I mention that I don't like the traditional way of fishing a streamer? Well I don't. I like fishing streamers like a nymph - upstream and then a high stick drift downstream on a short line. Most streamers are fished too high in the water column and too fast in the water. Little bait fish don't swim that fast. The great Catskill legend Harry Darbee used to imitate large stonefly nymphs with a streamer called a Dark Edson Tiger.
Go figure!!!!
Rain
From today (10/7) through Friday (10/11) we can expect an inch of rain. That inch of rain goes a lot further than an inch of rain in July because evaporation is low, temperatures are low AND the biomass (trees and such) is not sucking up all the water because the biomass is going dormant. October and November are great months to fish. Days are pleasantly cool and the weather is historically dry.
Go fish!! Need some flies. Look no further than here.
Attention To Detail: Maybe I'm nit picking BUT something was amiss in EASTERN FLY FISHING Magazine's Sept/Oct article on the Farmington River this month. It talked about the barbless only regulations in the TMA, " There is no limit to the number of flies you can use, but within the permanent TMA, all hooks must be barbless". This statement is right next to a photo of a midge that is BARBED!!!!!! - Ken
Micro Eggs
As of 4:30 this morning the flow rates are as follows:
Millers River - 77 cfs
EB - 20 cfs
Ware - 16 cfs
Swift - 114 cfs
And there's no rain to speak of in the forecast. We need rain because it appears that the DFW will still stock the Millers but the idea of fishing over freshly stocked clonebows who
will snap at anything (circa Fall of 2016) doesn't seem too appealing). BTW, read the comments section on the previous post if you want to help the Millers stocking TODAY or just to witness it. Times and directions are in the comment by Bill/Tully.
Micro Eggs are size 16 and 18 and are close to the right size to represent brook trout eggs. Fish about 5 inches below a micro shot. Last Fall I used these to fool big landlocks in the Swift.
The brookies are on the move and it may be almost impossible NOT to catch one in the 10 ich+ range and you don't really have to know where to go on the Swift. They are starting to show up everywhere. Be on the lookout for oversized browns as they are starting to make an appearance too. The browns will be chasing the brookies (I've seen this happen, it's wild) so bring along some streamers. The darker the streamer the better.
The brown in the net was taken about three years ago on the Swift. Notice the FAT body and what appears to be a tiny head. That's the sign of a well fed fish. You don't see eel-like big fish coming out of the Swift.
Here's another one below!!!
Stop reading and go fly fish!!!
More Flies For Sale
I'm adding more flies for sale on this blog. Many of the small ones (size 18 and smaller) are proven veterans of the Swift and the soft hackles work anywhere regardless of the size.
Ken, Based on your blog, I finally purchased a starling skin. What a difference tying the smaller soft hackles. Loving it, and I think the fish will too! Thank you for your advice. Truly appreciate this column. There's always a tidbit to be read that makes my fishing adventure enjoyable. - Bob O Scuds - to bead or not to bead
A funny thing happened over the last few years- I pretty much stopped using beadhead flies except for a small stash of bead head buggers that I seldom use. I moved over to using split shot, especially mico shot when I needed to get the required depth and velocity I wanted on that fly.
A new technique?? Hardly!! Let's explore some fly fishing history. Backcast to the 1970's into the 80's. There were basically two ways to get a fly down. One was to wrap lead around the the hook when tying the fly. It was effective in doing that and it was also effective in adding a real harmful toxin into the environment that also includes your tying bench. It also, because of its bulk, distorted the shape of some flies.
Lead stayed around until beads, of all sorts, stole the thunder. Lead is still out there but not like before. Split shot was in use for those of us who would HIGH STICK without knowing that we were high sticking. We were just fishing nymphs on a short line, with a split shot about 5 inches above an unweighted fly and we caught a lot of trout. Most of the time we were fishing at a 15 foot distance and many times even closer. In short, split shot worked great. Why was that?
An unweighted fly, 5 or so inches below the right amount of shot, is a very active critter, much more than a bead head which because of it's weight has only a jig like, up and down motion. The unweighted fly below a split shot darts, sinks, dips and glides around. Trout like that!!
Don't buy the story that it's harder to hook trout with split shot. It's not true. You will get subtle hits and vicious hits and you will feel them all and since you will be fishing a shorter line you will put more fish in the net.
The neat thing is that changing your strategy is a snap with split shot. Let's say that you are fishing a nymph under shot when you think that putting the fly higher in the water column would be good. Just dump the split shot and fish the fly unweighted. No changing flies AND you may not have the reason to carry so many flies any longer (you don't need as many bead heads)
Back in the 80's my buggers were unweighted but I had plenty of split shot.
Stocking Update
As of early this Tuesday morning (10/1) the only river stocked in the State has been the Squannacook River in Townsend, Groton and Shirley. The flow rate for the Squannacook is a whopping 8.6 cfs (just kidding, 8.6 is LOW) while the decades long average for today is about 20 cfs. There are other rivers with comparable numbers so maybe they will get fish too.
We have been hit with bone dry Autumns of three of the last four years. I've never seen this condition in so many back to back seasons as I have lately. Still denying climate change????
Your Comments
The quote at the top is from Bob O, a longtime reader of this blog. He, like many, will dispense timely advice and it is well appreciated. As I've said before the Comments Section of this blog is a "blog within a blog".
Not all comments are legitimate. I had one individual who would try to bury me in comments about the big fish he would catch in the Swift and how he would feel threatened by other fly fishers. He seemed phony so he got banned from this blog. Back he comes with a new alias and the same writing style that included some very strong words about some good Swift regulars. Banned again. Another alias with some strong words followed. He even tried to start his own blog (it sank without a trace), I don't know where he is because I haven't heard from him since late last winter. Maybe he's infected another blog.
