And the Swift was noticeably empty yesterday. Only one car at the lot on Route 9 when I arrived at about 8:30 and only saw three people at the pipe until I left just before noon. Trout easy to spot but quite finicky. Fished mainly down toward Cady lane and didn’t see anyone else for 2 hours. Caught two rainbows there. Then fished my way back to the parking lot ABOVE the pipe and netted another rainbow. Missed at least three others on the take. There’s trout in some of that skinny water if you have the patience to look for them. Plus no competition. All trout on grey and yellow mop flies each with an orange collar. - Reader Comment January 2020
From 1/10/10
"Now for the myth killing segment of this blog. Conventional Wisdom, almost always wrong, states that you fly fishers better get to the PIPE before New Years Day (the regulation change) because the bait boys will clean the place out in no time. This nugget has survived from year to year despite little or no evidence. If you would like EVIDENCE that this is garbage then take a stroll through the past years that have been carefully recorded on this blog. You will see that fish were caught throughout the Winter in this section. Here's what happens below RT 9 in the Winter:
1.The bait guys clobber the trout in the SPRING and not in January. The Spring trout are freshly stocked and DUMB. The January trout have been in the river since they were stocked either in October or July. They have wised up as witness to the equation that 10% of the fly fishermen catch 90% of the trout right up to New Years Eve. And now we are expected to believe that worms and powerbait suddenly become more successful? Hardly! It's true that bait fishermen who stand by the PIPE will catch fish just like fly fishermen do because that's the EASIEST spot on the whole river. Not a lot of skill required.
2. I've gone down to that section in early January and have seen NOBODY fishing and only a few tracks along the shore but I could see trout! I've never seen the "blood stained snow" that is always mentioned.
3. Last year was the first year that I remember the parking area being plowed. I will not tempt fate by trying to go in there if the snow is deep. I'll drive around to the other side and walk across the field if the flow allows me to cross over. That said it's easy to park in the Y Pool lot and go upstream.
4. 250 CFS is very fishable above RT 9 but a torrent down by the Gauge and the Pipe. We have had a few winter torrents in the past 10 years. Best to go upstream when that happens.
Last winter sucked above and below RT 9. Maybe the same thing will happen this year or maybe the lower section will be good as in some seasons past. One thing is for sure: the same old story will be circulated again next year."
By the way, I was there below Rt 9 on Monday for a short time and took some fish. I saw one crafty fly fisher take about a 1/2 dozen in a half hour from the Tree Pool. The fishing will be good if: 1. we don't get a long lasting flood like last year or 2. we don't get a long spell of frigid temperatures and very deep snow. Those two conditions send the trout to deeper holding areas downstream (I think).
What Flies - If I had only two patterns to use on the Swift below Route 9 in the Winter they would be Scuds and Pinheads!!!
Ken
9 comments:
Love this post, Ken. If the catch and keep crowd can't clean out Bondsville, which gets hit hard year around in that regard, they surely won't clean out the upper Swift during winter. This weekend is looking pretty inviting with the warm temps.
Best, Sam
Sam,
I think one of the things that would help Bondsville would be to spread the stocked fish out more. It seems that the bridges get all of the fish. Do thery actually stock down in the industrial park?
Ken
Ken,
DFW spreads them around some. I saw the DFW fellows hustle them down from the stocking truck in Fall of 2018, only time I've seen that in person though. What I would really like to see help Bondsville is a section that is catch and release at least part of the year same as below route 9. The catch and keep folks hit it hard, but they never get them all.
Sam
Ken
I think Sam is right with having a CR section that is seasonal with catch/keep till July 1st just like above.
CR
Ken,
I also agree with Sam. There are a couple spots where bait slingers camp out (some even on their lunch break from companies there) and toss all sorts of hardware, powerbait, corn, etc. I have even seen lost jig heads on the bottom that may go 1/4 to 1/2 0z, sluggos and various other heavy duty crap. I cannot blame them if they take their limit only, but w thanould love to see a large protected zone below the lower dam to aid survival and spawning. In addition, as you have noted, this stretch is warmer than the Rt 9 area, so it's hard enough on the trout. There are several nice runs there, but at low water (50 cfs…) there are large areas of barely ankle deep blase'runs, and think the trout seek out more appropriate water. Sam and I have seen our share of folks toting Bows/Browns on a stringer out of there - so anything that would help protect them would be nice. Brookies seem to have good years and average years there - so they're doing pretty well there overall (I think in part because some of the stringer jockeys won't take the smaller ones (I think....). OK said my peace... hope they do something to preserve that area. Jim M
Anonymous 1020,
I agree. The trout keepers won't target brookies as much as bows/browns. I think C&R starting 7/1 to the end of the year would be good. The place is great for brookies. 4 or 5 years ago I spent a Saturday morning in early August dry fly fishing from that stream side cottage up to the "wall" and took 27 brook trout. They were, for the most part, small (6 inches) but lots of fun with my 6ft 3wt bamboo.
Ken
Ken,
At times the brook trout fishing can be very good and other times you wonder where in the world they are. I think they travel around quite a bit. I would like to see a DFW study on their movement patterns. I think that would be very interesting and probably surprising.
Sam
Ken when fishing the pin head in teh winter the fish are usually "down" would you weight it with a bit of shot around 8 " above the hook and fish it down? Or would You use a tandem rig with maybe a bead head hares ear?
I fished your pinheads on the surface with my 3 wt rod at Cady Lane in Nov-Dec and the brookies liked it a lot! Couldn't get any of the big fish to come up for it but it was fun just the same.
Quinney,
Yes, with micro shot 8 to 12 inches above the fly.
Ken
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