It is important to pay mind to the quote at the top of this post. There seems to be a trend in fly fishing to put emphasis on the L-E-N-G-T-H of a trout and not on the BULK or Stoutness of the fish.
I first brought this up late last year/early this year in regards to the photos of Farmington River browns. They were skinny. I called them "Brown Eels". I knew that I wasn't alone on this because of the response that I got from a fly fishing club in Albany NY that I did a presentation for. They fish the farmie and noticed the skinny fish over the last year or so.
At the same time the Swift has browns that can be considered "fatties". Why the difference?
Maybe the Swift has a better forage base, or more accurately, a better "hunter/prey" ratio. Having lots of small brook trout (food) will do that.
BTW, the gorgeous brown above was taken on the Swift within the last two weeks on a small Partridge and Orange. Remember the 6lb brown taken on the Swift and posted on this blog a month ago? It was taken on a size 18 fly. Lesson: you don't need to fling gargantuan streamers to catch big trout!!!
Another Big Swift Brownie
Stay Off The Redds
It appears that we have had a decent brookie spawn this year (except below the Gauge on the Swift, a real mystery) and to insure that the spawning is successful WATCH WHERE YOU WALK!! Keep your feet off of the clean gravel and WALK ON THE WEEDS and leaves until late Winter. By then the brookie eggs will have hatched instead of being scrambled by wading boots.
Your Comments
Keep them coming!!!!!!! The true value of any blog is how many READER COMMENTS it can generate plus your comments are the best.
NOVEMBER
The photo on the front page of this blog was taken on a November day on the EB. November has always been a good month on this river. Don't miss out on great scenery and big bows. Book me!!!!!
15 comments:
Hi Ken,
As always, thank you for everything you do with this blog. It is an incredible resource. Quick question about the brookies spawn. Does one need to move up and past cady lane area at this point in the year? Or should there still be a good amount of activity there?
Regards,
John
John,
Glad that you like the blog!!
It is best to move upstream if you are chasing brookies at this time of year. The Bubbler Arm will have a lot of brookies as well. Cady Lane actually empties out of brookies during the spawning run.
Ken
Ken,
Good observation concerning the browns on the Farmington as opposed to the Swift. Maybe there's too many in there.
GW
I'm not sure I agree with your quote about the "well conditioned trout" because it depends on the time of year. Could the thinned out body of the trout be a consequence of spawning? They spend a year consuming protein much of which would go to the development of eggs or sperm. Once they expel those eggs or sperm their weight and "bulk" appearance would be significantly reduced. Then they will begin the process again.
great blog, I have been following for years and tell others to check it out.
As for brookies I went out to the swift a couple weeks ago and founf the upper swift packed all the way to Cady lane. I went to Bondsville and caught about a dozen nice brookies on streamers and dries in a few hours time. Only a few people to contend with there. Largest brookie was around 12". Keep the info coming!
Thanks
Alan
Allen C.
Good Work!!!
Anonymous,
If spawning resulted in thinner bodies than the browns of the Swift would have thinner bodies. They are FAT all year!!! It's the ample food supply that keeps them fat.
Ken
You don't need to throw big streamers to catch big fish but IMO its much more fun to see a big brown chase down a streamer and smash it. See if your 6x holds with a hit like that. A take on a size 18 nymph you may not even feel. And yes Ken I know swinging soft hackles and traditional wets can entice a similar bite but I'll toss streamers over swinging small flies all day. Does it result in more or bigger fish prob not but its a more enjoyable way to fish IMO. Trail a smaller fly behind the streamer if you really want the numbers.
Pat,
Streamers might have their place but I would rather catch a 23 inch brown on a 22 BWO than chuck a fly fishing version of hardware at them.
Ken
At the EB yesterday and can sum it up in one word ICE, no not in the guides but 1 to 2 inches thick almost across the river in places. Tough to fish but not impossible.
Studies show tagged trout caught year over year vary considerably on size, they continue to get longer, but weigh much less.
Every year I feel more and more that a November/December closure above Rte 9 would be a good idea. I realize it will not be popular with many people, but the Redds really do get trampled. Even passive stepping is hard to avoid doing damage. For example, I don’t think anyone should be wading in the bubbler arm. It could be argued the eggs haven’t hatched by Jan and then they would get trampled anyway.
Here is another guess on the Farmington trout (I have never fished there). I hear they do a lot of electro shocking there. There is a feeling those trout stop eating and, in fact, on rivers Ike the Madison the local guide community wants the state to stop aggressively monitoring via electro shocking. Just a guess?
Do you have successful reproduction of brown trout in the swift?
Gary,
I had ice on the Mill river behind my house. Not in inches but enough.
Falsecast,
The Ma DFW should let up on the electroshocking of the Swift.
I have a question concerning your first sentence. All trout will (may) get longer year after year but will weigh less as they age. That's normal.
A study should be done concerning late Fall/winter fishing on the upper Swift. Does it really cause trout/trout egg mortality. We need that info instead of what we get now.
Anonymous 9:48
The DFW should be answering that question instead of chasing clonebows around to see where they disappear to. We should be studying fish that have a rats chance of reproducing.
Ken
Hi Ken — I bet I could find the article and post it here, but basically they found that some years a tagged trout will have broader shoulders and be stouter. Other years, it actually weighs less as it has lost mass for some reason. It could be the time of the year, spawning or whatever. Obviously, a trout will never get shorter, but it will grow longer each year it survives. Some years the tagged trout got, for example, a half inch longer and a lb lighter based on girth measurements. The next year in might be a half inch longer and much wider.
The recent Eastern Fly Fishing article on the “survivor strain” browns of Farmington pointed out that they were stouter and stronger with larger tails. Perhaps the snakey ones are the stockers? I have definitely caught thin Browns and Rainbows on the Swift, but I totally agree with you that the Browns seem to have gotten a lot broader with big “shoulders”. I agree it totally corresponds with the Brooke explosion. A lot of us were catching Browns here 25 years or more ago that weren’t like they are today. Keep em coming!!
Andrew,
I would love to know the biomass numbers for the Farmington. Is there enough food to feed a population of large trout that, BTW, are stocked trout and that includes the survivor strain.
Ken
Follow up to false casts comments ...
I believe on the Farmi they are shocking in the fall to get spawners for their survivor strain program. From what I understand DEEP shocks the river each fall to collect eggs and sperm then fertilizes the eggs and raise the fish to be released the next year and in some cases 2 yrs. The idea is to have a better quality fish closer to nature than using the generic brand (so to speak) hatchery fish that come from brood stock that have been in captivity for years.
I think they collect about 100 fish a year if possible, get their eggs and sperm and then release them.
Regarding shocking in general - typically biologists shock relatively short stretches - usually the same stretches of a river, from year to year so there can be an apples to apples comparison of population trends. I've helped with shocking on a New England River for the past 20 years and the stretch being shocked is popular among anglers and I've never seen a negative impact from the shocking - fish will be feeding that evening or the next morning as if nothing happened.
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