I first wrote about this dreaded time of the year back in 2010 and that is when we turn the clocks back. Gone, until mid March, are the sublime evenings that I have spent on my favorite rivers when the sun begins to settle behind the hills to that witching hour from dusk to night. I am a devotee of the evening rise and will always be. I just can't understand why soooo many flyfishers just totally hang it up before dark. They must think like golfers or maybe they are afraid of the dark. I don't know but they are missing the BEST time to be on a river. Come to think of it I shouldn't complain. I seldom see crowds at dusk and that's a good thing!!
The Freestones In November
The banner photo at the top of this blog was taken in mid November on the EB. We caught trout that day and then followed it up a week later with another great day that included some BWO action. Many will limit their trips to tailwaters at this time of year and leave the freestones alone. Big mistake!!! The EB, Millers and the Ware provide very good action during November and the crowds are gone.
Don't fall into the conventional wisdom that the Fall means big flies. Most of the calories that a trout will consume in November will still be insects and young-of-the-year baitfish and they are small.
Open Dates
November 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. These are good for 3 hour or 6 hour trips on any of the rivers mentioned on this blog.
(Hint: book the EB - it's hot right now.
Ken
5 comments:
Ken,
Good to run into you briefly streamside yesterday and nice to say hello. Hope your clients did well.
As for me and my buddies, we did OK. One of them hadn't fished the Swift in 20 years and the other had never fished it, so I've been bragging to them about the Swift and this blog. They both enjoyed the river, the fish and scenery. We caught about 12-13 trout between us, all near or below the Cady Lane sign. We saw at least 2 dozen other sizeable rainbows/brookies but couldn't get them to take what we were offering. At about 5:00 in the USGS Shed parking lot we ran into two anglers from the Worcester area who showed us a photo of an enormous brown (looked like 6+ pounds) that had been caught yesterday by a fellow angler on a stone fly nymph, of all things.
Tom from Boston
Hi Ken, first of all thanks for your posts. I'm a new fly fisher, started this summer and caught my first few trout so far at the Quinapoxet & Nissitisst. This blog has been an extremely helpful resource, and fun read. Looking to make my first trip to the Swift this month - what do you mean by Freestones? I've seen you mention them a couple times, but could use a quick explanation.
Andy,
Glad that you like the blog and find it helpful!
Freestones - There are three kinds of rivers. One would be a Spring Creek where the water comes out of the ground and creates a full grown river right of the bat. These are fairly rare but are great trout streams because the water,coming from underground, is usually cool = good trout water. The next kind of river is a tailwater. The Swift is a tailwater because tailwaters flow out of the bottom of deep reservoirs. The water from a deep reservoir is always cool (sometimes cold) and trout love it. The other kind of river is a freestone which make up most of the rivers. These start as little streams and get larger as they flow along. They can be excellent trout rivers IF they stay cool enough AND have enough water. The Millers and the EB are freestones.
There you go!!
Tom,
There seems to be a bumper crop of 6 pounders in the Swift this year!!!
Ken
The EB continued to fish well over the weekend. I saw a handful of other anglers but with the thermometer hovering around 30 in the AM I think it kept most people off the river. I got a few bows swinging buggers but had tons of short strikes and lost fish. Was off the river by 1030 and the bite window had seemed to shut off or they wanted something else once the sun got over the trees.
Pat,
Maybe a small dropper nymph would help with those short takes.
Ken
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