"Thanks again! Caught a dozen browns in four hours! All caught on emergers size 20" - Reader Phil on a short trip to the Millers
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.
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
10 comments:
From your picture it looks like the old Holtshire Bridge area is open. Very nice brown. I’ve been having good success around Erving in both the morning and evening with size 14 olive soft hackles and dries. Primarily rainbows with an occasional brown. I’m seeing rises to caddis, a few stoneflies and light Cahills(?)too. A good rain, however, needs to happen soon!
Chuck
Chuck,
Nope, old photo. I like the looks of a tasty fly rod!
Ken
Ken, I was one of 5-8 last Tuesday at the depot. Sulfurs were coming off and emergers worked, but amazing to me, I didnt see anyone in the big pool above the bridge, under the bridge, or the couple of nice runs just below the bridge on the way down to that tressel. I was amazed!
Got a bunch of bows, and smallies, surprisingly no browns. Had a lot of fun.
Love that brook trout picture, Ken.
Hi Ken - I’ve been on the Swift my last 4 times out. I’ve only used one fly, albeit a few of them as it has been crushed, #14 black ant. 17 inch Bows and 8 inch Brookies have been coming for it. Terrestrial time of the year is coming and my personal favorite dry fly fishing. Soft hackles do not work for this kind of fishing, but it brings it’s own special excitement. I’ve had incredibly delicate takes, just sucking it under, and crushing splashy takes. Later in the summer will be a big flying ant hatch of #18’s, but I have been having luck with larger flies. Fun time of the year!
Andrew
Sam,
Yup, a beautiful Swift Brookie!!
Andrew,
One can count on the ant swarms in New England around the end of August and that's when I carry those winged imitations. Regular ants?? I should carry some.
Sam,
Thank you Sam
I have taken trout on ants on the Swift right up through December albeit years ago but I don't see why now would be any different. Its a fairly recognizable food source for trout in almost every river yet gets little fanfare. I recall back in the 80's and early 90's when I could afford $1.25 for a bag of loose black Unviversal Vise dry fly hackle and a $6.00 box of 100 94840 Mustads and not much more...it was more due to college poverty than brilliance on my part...but they worked pretty much year round.
Last week I went to the Bridge Pool around 3:30 in the afternoon and had an "early release" over the hour and a half I could devote to it that day. During that time period, I watched a young local guy (about 20) drift a worm through the riffles and catch a fish on almost every cast--browns, bows, smallmouths, bluegills; the only thing I didn't see him catch was the ubiquitous Millers chub. To his credit, he was careful with every fish and released all of them. Today, I headed back and was the only person there--similar conditions, except that I used everything from a wooly bugger to a partridge and orange to a couple of dries to an emerger and then finally to an early terrestrial. Not a strike, despite the rises and jumping fish. But, as always, it beats yard work.
Charles
Can't believe I just found this blog after being on the swift all mid-day 11-5:50 and didn't realize I left as it got good. It was my birthday so I left work early and wanted to try a new river I did end up with 1 brook trout but I feel I should have gotten more, is a small dry fly always the go to? I started off with a big wooly bugger for about 2 hours because that is what I know and got nothing until a nice guy gave me his small fly to try
Charles,
I believe that nymphing is patterned after what you saw that "young, local guy" doing - bait fishing. As a kid we used to drift worms, caddis larvae, and "perch bugs", AKA dragonfly nymphs and catch everything that swam in the stream. Some modern fly fishers act like they invented the technique. The more things change the more they stay the same!!
BobT,
I took a trout with a December ant on the Swift years ago out desperation. You think I would of learned.
Ken
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