Lefty Kreh said the following: "Use a fly line one size lighter than the rod manufacturer recommends. Jim Green, who has designed fly rods for years and is a superb angler, mentioned to me more than three decades ago that he almost always used a line ONE SIZE LIGHTER when fishing dry flies where the trout are spooky or the water is calm...If you are using a six weight rod you can drop down to a five weight line with no problem. In fact, in very delicate fishing conditions I often drop down two line sizes."
I got an email this week that asked the question how big does a trout have to be to start eating other fish? I thought it was a trick question so I gave a trick answer: Any size! A 2 inch trout will gulp down a 1/4 inch fry of any species if it can catch it and so will a 1 inch trout.
What I really think the writer meant to ask is when do trout begin to capture most of their calories by eating other fish? Now we have a good question. We will exclude lakes (a totally different environment) and focus on rivers. For the VAST majority of river environments and for the vast majority of trout that live in them the answer is NEVER. It is safe to say that roughly 80% of a trout's diet, regardless of it's size, is made up of insects!!
.The Millers is an insect factory and is also a bait fish factory. Simply put, there's a lot of food in that river. The largest trout that I have caught over the years there have been brown trout in the 21-23 inch range. At around 3 to 4lbs they would represent the top 1% of the trout in size for that river. All of these trout were caught on SURFACE FLIES IN THE SIZE 16 TO 20 RANGE. In most cases I spied these fish feeding and took my damn time getting to them. One of them rose continually for an hour before I caught him. Did I think of throwing streamers at them? No! They were content to feed on aquatic insects. Trout will go after the most plentiful and easiest prey and that will be aquatic insects and terrestrial insects that fall into the water. A 6lb brown may gulp down a shiner but will never pass up a stonefly or a hellgrammite and that 6lb brown that was caught at the Pipe in October and highlighted on this blog was caught on a size 18 fly AND the 30 inch salmon I saw taken from the Y Pool back in 2011 was hooked on a SIZE 30 DROPPER. Go figure!!
When should one fish streamers? The answer is anytime you want but statistically your best chance of success for more and larger fish will be with insect imitations. And don't buy into that nonsense that the Fall is the time for streamers because trout are "putting on the feed bag" to prep for Winter. According to Tom Rosenbauer of Orvis trout consume the most calories in the Spring than in the Fall.
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. He fished it like a nymph!!
Marlborough Show
I thought that this year's event would the the same old, same old but it's not. The show is discount heaven. Everything from fly lines to reels to leaders to packs to fly tying material has taken a major price hit. There are deals galore!!
This begs the question: WHY??? Maybe the market is saturated or maybe the vendors are sourcing overseas and getting great pricing that's passed on to us. It's not really a one time SHOW SPECIAL because I've found great pricing online over the past 2 years. It's not too hard to believe that the fly fishing market is in a major change mode. That's the Free Market for ya!!!
Book Me
Even with this bone chilling weather people are still looking ahead to Spring and Summer and rivers like the Millers, Ware and the Westfield System. If you have a prime week or weekend in mind then CLAIM IT by contacting me at: ken.elmer9@gmail.com Don't get left out.
Ken
8 comments:
My biggest Brown last year (24"+) came to a #18 tan pupa which I did a Lensering lift in front of this feeding Brown. Watched and fished for him for over 15 minutes. I still can picture the swing to the fly and that white maw taking it in! I have done well just swinging pupa/ soft hackles though rise forms. I think a lot of fisherman are missing the boat by not swinging wets!
If nothing is happening that's when I fish nymphs or small streamers.
Anonymous,
Good points. A swinging wet IS an emerging insect!!
Ken
I enjoyed Marlborough. Didnt make any purchases, but learned a neat trick for using a gold leaf smoothing tool to smooth floss on Rangely Streamers or similar flys, and a few others as well. Most important and enjoyable though, I got to see some friends and made a new connection as well. Fun stuff.
As for big flies... I think I've caught my biggest millers fish on a #4 streamer (black muddler like fly I call the Millers 23 after the first fish I caught on it) but in the swift it was an 18 sulfer emerger... Big fish eat little stuff just like little fish eat big stuff. Funny animals we chase, that's for sure!
All that said, I like to fish biggish fly's when I shouldnt. For example, fishing a crayfish made for smallies on the swift for bows/browns... or a #4 chernobyl with big legs on the swift when everyone else is fishing #28's :). Both work, I just increasingly find big more fun.
Ken,
It’s been a long time since I heard the name Dark Edson Tiger. I fished this streamer many times in rivers and lakes along with its relative; the Light Edson Tiger. I don’t hear much these days about other flies that I grew up casting like the Picket Pin, Royal Coachman, Mickey Finn, Leadwing Coachman, Professor etc. I love casting these flies and I found the Picket Pin in particular to be extremely effective on any water I fish. Strip it, rip it, or swing it!
Perk
Perk,
These are names from the not-so-distant past, the Picket Pin in particular.That still is a very good fly that few will fish or know anything about.
Will,
Im sue=re you agree with the above statement.
Ken
The Pickett Pin is one of my all time favorites Ken and Perk. Ill dead drift it, swing it, strip it, dangle it... If I an put it in the water I will :).
A long time ago, a friend showed me a streamer version... It was basically the picket pin we all know and love, but rather than having the herl "head" above the wing, it was tied on a 4-5x long hook and and had a longer wing. It was just a herl body, rusty hackle palmered up, and a gray squirrel tail wing then the normal thread head. It's still one of my all time favorite streamers, and like it's wet fly cousin, can be fished many ways working in all of them.
The funny thing, was that when I showed it to Rodney Flagg one day after telling him about this Picket Pin streamer version, he felt it was a new fly. So I have no clue if the guy who showed me made it up, or saw it somewhere...
Regardless, the smaller wet fly original, and the big streamer varient both work.
How could they not? Herl, squirrel, palmered hackle... THat's almost powerbait :)!
Hey Ken
Can you recommend any other rivers in mass besides the swift that I can catch trout in over the winter? Thanks!
Zach,
The Deerfield is a spot and some years the Squannacook will work. Besides the Swift I would cross the border into CT and fish the Farmington. That's your best bet besides the Swift.
Ken
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