The State Of The Swift And Caddis Questions

"There are people in my life who sometimes worry about me when I go off into the fields and streams, not realizing that the country is a calm, gracious, forgiving place and that the real dangers are found in the civilization you have to pass through to get there." - John Gierach


I drove down to check out the Swift knowing that Belchertown received 21 inches of the white stuff. The question is has any of it been moved to accommodate parking for fly fishers?

Here's the rundown by parking area as of 9 am:

Route 9 Main Lot - It has been plowed as of Friday afternoon

Route 9 across the street - A small area that may accommodate three cars has been cleared

The lot across from River Road - It has not been plowed

All three pull offs of of River Road including the Gauge lot - They have not been plowed!

Enoch Sanford Rd (the cul de sac road the turnaround has been plowed but the fisherman parking area has not


As it stands the areas have very limited or no parking available. Now, here's where YOU come in. If you drive by these areas in the next three days and notice that snow has been cleared just email me at: ken.elmer9@gmail.com or text me at 978-790-4320. You would certainly be helping a lot of fellow anglers plan their weekend!!!

A Simple Caddis

The caddis fly has always bugged me (pun intended) and many other flyfishers.  I have been on the Millers, a great caddis river, in mid May and have seen a zillion adult caddis flies hopping around in the stream side bushes BUT see very little surface activity.  That's because a good number of immature caddis do not rise from the bottom of  the stream to the surface but crawl along the bottom and then emerge on the shore, dry their wings, and then fly to the bushes. It is a good strategy to fish any of the subsurface patterns available and save the dry versions for egg laying time.

                                                                                                                                     DSM Caddis

You guessed it! A soft hackle fly dressed a bit stouter such as my DSM Caddis will fill this bill nicely. Just change the body color to match the insect if you like although I really don't think it will make too much of a difference.

When To Fish The Dry

Most of the important (big numbers) caddis of Spring will hatch/lay eggs during mid day hours. By late Spring this activity takes place during the low light hours of  morning and evening, just like mayflies!

I don't like traditional dries that are supposed to imitate caddis because they look like a cartoon version of the insect and are too complicated for their own good.  I like things simple. The above Simple Caddis is a breathtakingly easy tie:

Hook - standard dry 12 to 16

Body - fine dubbing of grey, tan or olive

Wing - (here's the tough part) use very fine deer mask hair and not a lot of it.  Don't make the wing too long either.  The neat thing is that you can color the wing with a sharpie if you like to get that grey or brown color of some of these flies. It may not be necessary but it's fun to do!!!!


Ken