Summer Favorites For The Tailwaters

"Cedar Waxwings were flying in mass picking off the hatching sulphurs. (thank you Chuck for the bird identification) One came so close to my face I could feel the wing beat. The morning sun had that mid summer glow to it, much like a Monet painting and I didn't come within 200 yards of another fly fisher. I was really in my element and enjoying it all". - Me 

"Sulphur" Emergers
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I love this time of year because of the insects that I find on the Swift and the Farmy.


The Ephemerella Dorothea is really the main species that can claim the name "sulphur" although there are others.  Check out the swift around 10am for the swooping cedar waxwings (read quote above) followed by surface activity.  I LOVE swinging a wet soft hackle in front of a bulging trout and many times I fish the entire rise with that fly.

Hook - 16 or 18

Body - olive thread from hook bend to eye

Thorax - bright yellow rabbit fur

Hackle - light ginger colored hen hackle
(Note: Authors Thomas Ames Jr. and Ed Engle have mentioned a bit of orange colored hackle for this fly.  I've used some orange rabbit in the thorax and it does the trick.  Do trout really care about color?  Well, they were not turned off by either color!)

The photo on the right has the bright yellow thorax and some orange thorax.  Take your pick.



The Needhami

This is the go-to summer fly on the Farmy in the opinion of many. Starting in July this diminutive fly (sizes 20 to 26) will hatch all day right into early September.

It's known as the little Hendrickson due to its colors.  Two years ago I spent three days on that river and had tied up two dozen of these fliesto fish the Farmy and then promptly left them at home.  That required a trip to UpCountry to get replacements which was the first time in 30 years that I bought a freshwater fly.  That's how important this fly is.

Note: This fly has found a home on the Farmy.  Word has it that's not  found on the Catskill Rivers or in northern New England.  Some anglers in those regions have never heard of it or seen it.  If you know otherwise please let me know.

Hook - size 20 to 26

Tail - one strand of midge flash'

Body - chestnut brown thread

Thorax - synthetic brown dubbing

Wing - ultra fine post yarn material in a slate blue color.


I don't fish the Farmington often enough to claim any unique knowledge of the river which is why I check out the UpCountry website to know what's going on. They will tell you everything - what flies are producing and what spots are HOT.  That last attribute is a welcome relief from the  "I will tell you about the fish that I catch but  never where I caught them" crowd!!!!!  Those are the guys that really don't want you fishing or catching trout where they fish.

RAIN

As I write the weather boys are talking about some big T Storms.  We will see..

Ken

Special Edition - Another Swift Brown!!!!

"Fly fishing does have its social aspects - on some of our crowded trout streams it can get too social - but essentially it's a solitary, contemplative sport. People are left alone with themselves in beautiful surroundings to try to accomplish something that seems to have genuine value." John Gierach 

Ok folks, another ringer by frequent commentator and Fish Hawk Hunter B.  Yes, it's a Swift Brown which will dwarf most Farmy Browns and that's for sure.  No mention of what was used but that the brownie was caught, it appears, in broad daylight within the last 48 hours.  And it was released. I've seen the video.

It's great to know that these fish exist in our home waters.  And that's not the only one.  There are many good browns all over the Swift.

Nice going Hunter.


Have a nice weekend everyone!

Ken

Older Dries,The Rivers And Your Comments

"I wish you could see them! I never saw so many rotten flies in my life. I was literally astounded. You know the stuff - Mills' Best and a bunch of English flies. Of all the miserable soft hackle, lathered on in bunches! It is no wonder that he became such a magnificent caster. If he hadn't learned to put those flies down so carefully they would not have floated". A fellow angler critiquing the dry fly selection of the GREAT dry fly fisherman George LaBranche from Catskill Rivers by Austin M. Francis

It seems that I've been seeing,in print,and hearing the proclamation that a dry fly that has hackles wound around the front of the hook shank is a CATSKILL style dry fly. The great Catskill tiers, Gordon, Christian, Steenrod, Cross, Jennings, the Darbees' and the Dettes would have all objected to such a simple minded statement. They developed and refined the Catskill style but were not the first to tie a dry fly that way. Here's the story:

Theodore Gordon communicated via letter to the great English fly tiers of the day, Fredric Halford in particular, (early 20th century) and was able to secure instructions AND materials to tie English dry flies. Their dries, created decades before American dries, had hackles would around very close to the eye of the hook and Gordon copied that but objected to the poor quality English hackles and the fact that these flies copied English insects. The other great tiers mentioned above changed everything. First, they insisted on the stiffest hackles. Second, they moved everything BACK from the eye of the hook and Third, they tied a slim, sparse dry fly much different from the English style. That is the Catskill style as seen in the photo above of a Dark Cahill which, as the story goes, was first tied by Dan Cahill, a brakeman with the Erie Railroad. Cahill has another claim and that is that he was the brakeman on a train that had a load of rainbow trout from California. The train broke down and he convinced the crew to save the trout by dumping them into Callicoon Creek, a Catskill stream, where they established themselves. The rest is history.

God only knows how many trout have been taken with this style. We do know one thing and that is that this imitation of an adult mayfly is not as popular as it was decades ago. That's probably because we know now that the rises that we see are rises for the emerging insect and not the adult. Also, this fly will get beat up after a fish or two. I switched over to the comparadun over 30 years ago because it represents the adult and, with it's body stuck in the surface film, the emerging insect too. It will float forever! It also survives riffles and fast water very nicely, a fact that is still not accepted in dry fly circles.

I fish comparaduns and other hackleless creations but love the look of a traditional Catskill Dry!!!

Your Comments

This blog has a lot of readers and it is safe to say that it has more readers than any other owner operated fly fishing blog in the northeast.  But what really sets it apart are your comments.  The last 10 posts have had well over a 100 comments.  Blog hosting platforms cannot distinguish between the owner comments and the readers comments. The comments on this blog are approximately 70% readers and 30% me chiming in.  Most blogs, if they get any comments, are a 50-50 mix of owner and readers and that's because some owners feel compelled to answer EVERY reader comment with a thank you (which also drives their comment numbers up making them seem more popular than they are).

As it turns out some blogs are morphing into semi private chat rooms where the same old readers comment all of the time and end up in a silly back-and-forth with the blog owner which does nothing but artificially pull up their comment numbers. Not on this blog!!!!  Many of you REALLY know your stuff.  Keep it up!!



The Rivers

Does anyone know how to do a rain dance??  Maybe I should plan a family cookout or hand wash and wax my Jeep or start painting the house or how about renting a cottage on the beach for a week???  All those activities usually result in a flood.  All we can do is smile and fish where we can.

The Swift is chugging along at 125 cfs and it will stay that way until we get rain.  The other rivers.....?

Ken

Getting Deep Into Summer, Sulphurs And The Drought

I barely ever use 7x...maybe on a few super tiny flies but I only buy a spool every year to keep it fresh not because its gone. I fished the highly technical South Platte in Co for the last 7 years...presentation is king. The really good fishermen never really use anything below 5x except on occasion for the tiny bugs. I used to use 6x and 7x on the Swift exclusively but realize after many years that I was probably casting from the wrong spot more often than not. You hit the nail on the head Ken..to all readers here there is a lot of great information randomly dispersed throughout Kens blog...well worth the time to go through it-you will be a better angler. Thank Ken for his great blog. - Comment from Dan T on July 15 2016

Sulphur Soft Hackle

I love this time of year.  Evenings last forever, winding down to a dusky finish that goes well past 9 pm.  Trout rise on summer evenings especially evenings that have a cloud cover.  I'm still flummoxed by those that hit rivers, even tailwaters, at mid day expecting classic surface action.  It's not going to happen and if you don't believe me here's a quote for you:
 "Summer weather here now means the best fishing will shift more & more to early and late in the day." - Upcountry Fly Shop 6/24/19  Those boys should know!!


The Sulphurs

I've seen them as early as the first few days of June and as late as late July on the Swift.  The early emergence was down in Bondsville and the Y Pool being the latter.  My favorite spot is below the Route 9 bridge down to about the crib dam.  Cady Lane has them but I've never seen big numbers down there like the BWO in October.

Here's what to do. Get out on the river around 9am and swing some soft hackles while watching the sky for the birds.  Cedar Waxwings will start swooping and diving for the hatching sulphurs and this will last to about noon. When you see the little yellow sailboats floating downstream switch to an appropriate dry although that soft hackle will still catch fish right under the surface.

There are basically two sulphurs out there- Dorothea and Invaria. Don't sweat the size difference because it makes no difference. 




                                                                                     Sulphur SH With CDC

The Drought

Yes, the rivers are low but the fish (browns) are still there and they will be when we finally get some rain.  I've seen worse droughts than this one (2010 and 2016) and Millers and EB trout always put through.





Ken

The Evolution Of The Wet Fly And A Lost Fly Box On The Swift. See Comments

"Angling is extremely time consuming.  That's sort of the whole point." - Thomas McGuane


The flies pictured to the left (McClane's New Standard Fishing Encyclopedia, circa 1965) is a very timely snapshot of how things used to be.  The WET FLY ruled the day and everybody fished these little complicated toys.  They caught TONS of brookies and hatchery dummies and people swore that the predominant fixed wing was an important part of the fly even though hardly any mayflies have such stout and sturdy wings.  Back in the day the "experts" insisted that the standard wet fly, either with a solid quill wing or a rolled wing of duck fibers, represented a "drowned" adult insect and trout liked those.  The fact is the natural wing of a mayfly has very little presence underwater.  The body of the fly is the trigger for the trout and that's what the trout wanted.  That's why sparsely dressed soft hackles work so well. Thin fibers sway in the current and the body, also sparse, is in full view.
                                                                Partridge And Orange

A funny thing about that 1965 McClane's book: it has photos of 52 classic wet flies but only 28 photos of nymphs (and some of those were laughable.  Today it's hard to find a classic fixed wing wet fly in any catalog.  That's all for the better.

The Rivers

We had a good late afternoon/early evening on the Millers but it is getting very low.  A good thunderstorm will wake things up.  Fish at sundown if your smart.  The Swift has been great and we have had the place to ourselves.  I'd like to see some rain on the EB and the Ware.

Fly Shops

Evening Sun Fly Shop and the Deerfield Fly Shop are open for business.  Deerfield is open Noon to 5pm Tuesday through Saturday.  Call Charlie on his hours.

Happy Fathers Day Guys!!!

Ken

The Swift And Its Brookies And Browns

You don't have to be on the bottom this time of year, 1/2 to 3/4 the way down is normally plenty deep (and can even be too deep during a hatch, that's when wets flies/soft hackles typically beat out nymphs). Water temps are optimal, there a lots of bugs hatching & in the drift, and trout are feeding throughout the water column.  -  From the gang at UpCountry Fly Shop 6/12

A Swift Brown - 16 inches and chunky!

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If you have been fishing the Swift River during the last two weeks you have been fishing the best water in Massachusetts.  Now, some of that has to do with the drought which is whacking the freestones but the Swift is great because of its brookies and browns (and cold water).

Forget The B.S. About Crowds

In the last three trips I've seen 5 fly fishers, period.  I spent 6 hours on the stream yesterday,
caught a pile of brookies and a good brown and saw only one other fly fisher (hello Kentucky smallmouth guy!).  Nobody is fishing the Pipe because they are waiting for the July stocking. If you are feeling lonely there's always the Farmy.  I've heard that's PACKED to where one Housy guide gave up on the place!

People still seem to like to fish at mid day. That makes it better for the die hards and those that are not afraid to fish the off hours. (check the comment about darkness on the Millers in the last post.)  It appears that the Y Pool is still jammed and that's too bad.  There's a lot of lonely water on that river.  BTW, the brookies are larger than they appeared to be in the last two years.  Lot's of 8 inch plus fish and on a 3wt or 4wt bamboo it is the essence of flyfishing.

The Millers

It's low but it is still producing.  Now, don't stand in this river at 1pm, hold your stream thermometer in the first 2 inches of the water column and then declare that the river is a bass river.  Fish very early in the morning and at dusk because it's a whole different river.  The browns actively feed at 70 degrees and if you use a stout leader and nothing gossamer you can land and release quickly.  Four times in the 36 years that I have fished the Millers I have hooked, shortly played and broken off browns only to have them get caught within two hours.  Remember, the Millers is a BROWN TROUT river. Sampling has proven this through the years. Note: Take your stream thermometer and tie about 3ft of stout mono to it.  You want to do that to get the temperature at the bottom of the river where the trout hang out.

The Ware

Shhh....Quiet, It's taking a nap!


The EB

As I write this river is at 70 cfs.  The best summer morning that I ever had on this river was in early September after a long, hot summer with a flow of 65 cfs. I caught 18 all on dries!! Get out early or stay late.  If you can't then grab the clubs and hit the links!!!


Let's Do Some Early Morning Fishing.

A 5am start is not too hard and 4:30 works too.  They can be 3 or 6 hours.

Watching The Forecast

Never give up an opportunity to fish a cloudy day in the summer especially on a freestone full of browns like the Millers.  Browns don't like bright light!!

Ken

Pheasant, The Drought And The Myth Of The Crowded Swift

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning how to dance in the rain - Vivian Greene

Pheasant And Orange

Another feather that should not be overlooked for soft hackles is the common Ring Neck Pheasant.  The late, great Jack Gartside loved them and used them as the primary material in many patterns from small wets to streamers.  The beauty of pheasant is the huge range of feathers that are available to you on each skin.  And they are fairly inexpensive when compared to partridge (which is still my favorite).  You can buy them online or if you know a shot gunner you can put your order in for October.





                                                                                   So Many Feathers

The Drought

Thursdays rain was a godsend for central and western Massachusetts.  It was not a gully washer but enough to boost stream levels and set us up for a good weekend.  As I write ( 5:10am, 6/12) the flows are:

Millers - 186 cfs, up 30 from yesterday good)

EB - 240 cfs, up 136 from yesterday (great)

Ware - 57 cfs, up 20 from yesterday (not yet)

Swift - 110 cfs, up 3 cfs (Its been a good week)

WB - 106 cfs, up 40 cfs (the right direction)

Remember, this boost in the flow will not mean that your mid day angling efforts should start again on the freestones.  It's still a early morning, evening game for the summer.  What we need is a rainy day at least once a week.  Yesterday was the first in about a month!

The Myth of the crowded Swift

I just finished three guiding trips on the Swift this week, one on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Sunday we came within 100 feet of an angler and on the other two days WE SAW NOBODY!!!  So what's with the myth of crowds????

First - most anglers fish the same spots over and over again and NEVER explore other areas.  Some of the biggest complainers spend their seasons at the Y Pool or the Pipe area and nowhere else.  Some, strangely, enjoy the crowds and seek them out.  Some, complaining of crowds at the Swift, go prancing off to the Farmy which is considered in many circles to have a REAL crowd problem.

Second -  Covid 19 is to blame!!!  Many forms of recreation have been closed such as theaters, amusement parks, malls (yes, shopping is considered a recreation) so the throngs go in search of something to do.  Hiking seems pretty safe so off to the Quabbin they go.  The visitor center was off limits so they ended up at the fishing parking lot on route 9.  On a normal weekend you may have 30 cars there but the hikers swelled the number to close to 100!!  Same thing at Tully Lake in Royalston.  Normally you have 5 to 10 cars there. Two Sundays ago there were over a 100 parked all the way up to Doanes Falls.  The same fate landed on Royalston Falls.

Third - Once we beat this plague the amusement centers will open up and the majority of "hikers" will return to their normal haunts.  Then all we will have to deal with are the same people fishing the same places and complaining about it!!

Book Me

May was excellent and June is filling up fast.  May I suggest a 3 hour evening rise trip during the summer on a freestone river?  It's my favorite flyfishing!!!

Go Fly Fishing This Weekend

Ken

Browns On The Millers And Brookies On The Swift

 

"Thanks again!  Caught a dozen browns in four hours!  All caught on emergers size 20" - Reader Phil on a short trip to the Millers

Simply said, the Millers has been great and it's been great for those who fish early or late.  Noel Coward once wrote "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun" and he should of included Millers River anglers who could be seen lucklessly thrashing away at midday.  Now they get it!!  The "Evening Rise" is what the traditional dry fly guy lives for.  The proof of that was the fact that last Thursday saw 9 cars parked at Wendell Depot at 8pm.  SPREAD OUT!!!!!  The Upper Trestle and the Kempfield are not the only places to fish.  I saw those 9 cars after coming back with a client from a spot where we saw only 2 other anglers and that was while we were leaving.  Many of you have a copy of my Millers Flyfishing Guide so use it.  Learn the river.

By the way, don't forget early morning. If you can do it 4am is good and even 7am is good if it's a cloudy start to the day.  We fished the Millers Saturday morning from 7 to 10 and landed a gorgeous brown and lost three others.  Not a bad start to the day.

Early morning and/or evenings will be the rule into September unless you get a cloudy day.

Swift Brookies

If you remember there was a concern over the past three years concerning the scarcity of brookies during mid summer on the Swift.  The theory was that they were all hiding in the deep water of Cady Lane but would reappear in October to spawn.  That was true but it was a departure from from previous summers where we would see schools of brookies milling around.

The River is now loaded with them.  I'm seeing schools of young-of-the-year fish where I didn't see them before and there are plenty of 6 to 10 inch fish to cast too. 

This is a perfect time to introduce someone to this sport not through traditional methods but through Tenkara!!!  It is a great method on the Swift!!


Sulphurs On The Swift

They are starting to pop up on the Swift in the mornings.  The water level is dropping about 10 cfs a day and should get back to below 100 shortly where it belongs.  If I get half the sulphur action I got last summer I'll be happy.

Summer Bookings

If you want good fishing on a freestone river in the Summer then book a morning or an evening trip.  If you want a mid day trip then book the Swift!

Ken

Hen Revisited, Sulphur Soft Hackles And Our Rivers

Took advice off the previous post I think about someone having luck on the Housy went there this morning and went 3 for 3 on beautiful brown trout the biggest being 17-18 inches unfortunately I think I lost a bigger one though.... Caddis were popping off in the morning and the river was a perfect flow I’ll be going back for sure!  - River report from a reader

A few months ago I  dissed and wrote off Hen Hackle (as in chicken) for being too webby, too thick, too big to use and probably some other comments that that the material didn't deserve.  But then I was looking for soft hackle to build some sulphurs and I found near the bottom of my hackle container two forgotten hen capes that changed my view of this feather.

Look at the three feathers to the left.  The one to the right is what I had trouble with: fibers that are too long for winding on even a size 12 hook and when I do get them on the hook they have a habit of clinging together and I don't like that.

Now check out the other two feathers.  The first thing that you notice is that they are narrow which means shorter fibers which means the ability of tying smaller flies which is what I like.

How does one obtain the narrow feathers?  Well, my days of getting them through mail order is over.  I need to see these capes to make sure that they have the feathers that I want.  As it turned out I have about a half dozen capes but only two have the feathers that I want.  Guess I'll stuff a pillow with the others!!

A Sulphur Soft Hackle

How do you tie a soft hackle fly to represent a sulphur emerger?  First, use a hen hackle like the middle one in the photo above.  It's dyed olive but has some brown tones to it.  Second, use a yellow 6/0 thread for the rear section of the fly.  Third, use some bright yellow rabbit dubbing for the thorax.  Size 16 and 18 seem to fill the bill on the Swift.

One more point - not every light colored mayfly is a SULPHUR as so many seem to believe.  The Cahill Family (Stenonema and Stenacron) are the dominant species in many rivers and will outnumber  Ephemerella Dorothea in many cases.



The Rivers

Yup, it's been about three weeks since central and western Ma has had ANY measurable rain but the rivers are holding up fairly well.  The Millers has been good as has the EB.  The Swift is dropping at about 10 cfs per day for the last week.  Remember, we are entering the evening part of the season for our freestones so plan on leaving the river at dark if you want to be successful.  Also remember that I have 3 hour guiding sessions for the "Evening Rise!!!



Ken