Autumn On The EB

Autumn On The EB

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Deep Into Brookies

"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.

Ken























11 comments:

Jared K. said...

Hi Ken,

Spent the weekend in Southern Vermont hitting a couple different spots, figured I'd give the Battenkill a visit as I haven't been up there in years. Man that river is tough. No luck but can't beat the fall foliage on a historic stream.

Glad to see the brookie run on the Swift is in full swing. My favorite time of the year to be out there!

Jared

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Jared,

Yes, a beautiful river but tough to fish. I've heard that the N side fishes better.

Ken

Rick said...

Hi Ken,
Ricky Bobby Jr and I had a nice day on the Millers yesterday with dry flies for browns and a stray rainbow.
For everyone's information, here's a link to a New York Times lifestyle article about troutfishing.
Yikes,
Rick
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/style/fly-fishing-returns.html?searchResultPosition=1

Sam said...

Columbus Day, kind of a half baked holiday as far as my job is concerned being we as employees get it off, but most of our customers are working so I did my fielding in the morning of what was needed, but headed out after lunch to Bondsville.

Wind was whipping more than I expected and when I got to the Swift, holy cow, what a leaf and pine needle hatch. The dropper I had tied on immediately came off knowing maintaining one fly would be enough. Nothing much doing amongst the leaves for me. A couple of treble hook slingers took part within my sight and I saw no connections except for gobs of leaves and needles on their spoons.

Sun getting lower I headed to a fast zone that I thought would be turbulated enough to help be avoid hooking leaves, I tied on a heavily weighted nymph to try and get below the vegetation. Sure enough first cast a nice brookie was connected with, and slack line on my part made for a quick release. A few drifts later high sticking the same zone with the same fly, I connected with what at first felt like another brookie. Not a brookie and whatever it was went off to the races and made the most of the fast current. Had it on for several minutes and could not budge it. Finally the barbless hook let go after I tried to get it to move. The whole shooting match ended up in an overhead branch. With that I called it a day and went home to pack up for my impending work trip.

Sam

Anonymous said...

Hi Ken,
I fished the Swift today (Columbus Day). It was low and slow, but the fishing was good. I fished well below the Kady Lane area (I don't know if it has a name) all day and took 20 fish, the biggest being a 13" beautiful native brookie with a bright red/orange belly, dark green body with blue spots. Just gorgeous. The five 'bows I caught were all about 6" though I hooked a large one that threw my fly. The rest were brookies, all in the 7" - 10" range.

I was told the Pipe and the Tree Pool were crowded, but where I fished I didn't see a single angler all day, just kayakers.
Tom from Boston

Anonymous said...

Went fishing today on the swift. Lots and lots and lots of brookies. Tried everything to get a bow but lots of brookies

Millers River Flyfisher said...

Look at all these comments!!!! Swift and Millers fly fishers openly sharing info and you find it all here!!! There is more information in this comment section than on ANY other fly fishing blog in New England. Thank you!! With the swarms of NATIVE BROOK TROUT and outsized browns the Swift has become the Jewel of central New England fly fishing!!!

Tom from Boston,

That's still Cady Lane all the way down to the boat launch as far as I'm concerned.

Ken

Anonymous said...

Thank for the clarification, Ken.
As this is only my second year fishing the Swift, in my mind I've always defined "Cady Lane" as that area about 50 yards north of, and 100 yards south of, the Cady Lane sign.

For what it's worth, I was in the area well below the sign, where there is a severe bend to the right (if you're wading downstream) in the River. I call it the "C Curve" (if you googlemaps 121 River Road, you'll see the curve/bend clearly).
Best regards,
Tom from Boston

Quinneyfish said...

Ken Forgive me but this is a lazy fishermans question. Went to the EB for second time. About a mile down from the gorge. First pull off. fished the pool there and downstream and saw nothing. After some exploration I found a pool with probably 25-30 fish. I threw everything I had at them with only one or two glancing looks. Any advice? The fish were not rising to the surface, they were down low mostly. They did not look like they were feeding. Frustrating!!

Thanks

Gary said...

The EB, waters low and clear, a challenge for a fly fisher, but mass wild life to the rescue another great job. Thursday the 10th 4 fish,Friday the 10th 1 fish, took the holiday w/e off, today 15 fish. Now let it pour tonite and spread those fish out to make a good November.

Millers River Flyfisher said...


Gary,

Read the comment just above yours from Quinneyfish. Sounds like they stocked it (EB) but it's not on the report.

Quinneyfish,

Read Gary's report. He uses things like Pat's Rubber Legs and wins!!!

Ken