Fly Fishing Information On The Millers, Swift, Middle, West and East Branches Of the Westfield River and the Ware, and Mill rivers. YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR MA. FLY FISHING INFORMATION, the top ranked fly fishing blog in Massachusetts! WHAT FLY FISHERS READ!!
If leaders are fished on a SUNKEN FLY then the leader visibility is a moot point. Modern leaders, if they are below the surface, are practically invisible especially the fluoro variety. Mono has made great strides to reduce light refraction over the past decade to where it's almost a "no decision" between mono and fluoro. (Note: my sources are not retail outlets which have another agenda) - Me
Reader Hunter has the knack, the skill AND the patience to haul leviathans out of the Swift. This was caught and released this past Sunday with a fly rod, two nymphs and a kayak plus the attributes listed above.
People would give me that "strange look" when I would mention monster brookies in the Swift the size of what you would fish for in Labrador. Here's the proof.
Hopefully we can add some LLS to the mix.
On another note the Swift rose from 45 to 110 cfs yesterday. That may be with us for a while since no rain is in the forecast.
Book Me
Let's beat the heat on the Swift in August. My stream thermometer seems to be stuck at 58 degrees which is perfect and the fish are willing!
On another topic, I just wanted to compliment you on your writing. All of your posts are enjoyable reading - clear, succinct, and well-written. The one before this was particularly good. It really captured a sense of place, your experiences, and the unpredictability that makes fishing fun. Reader John 7/23
A Jewel From Cady Lane
Another morning just like the others. On the river at 7am, the Y Pool lot is full, the Pipe/Tree Pool are filling up and and I have close to a mile of water all to myself. I'm fishing Cady Lane on the Swift.
I have been haunting the place since Memorial Day with brookies and browns coming to the net and of late, some beefy bows are in the mix.
Here are some hints:
1. A 45 cfs flow may look like a trickle to some but it's perfect for trout hunting BECAUSE you have greater mobility in a lower flow. Most over-your-waders pools are now waste deep and you don't have to negotiate those steep banks to get in. Find a place to get in and you can walk up and down the river, a task that is not so easy with a flow of 115 cfs.
2. Even with the lower flows DO NOT WALK ON THE DARK GREEN WEED BEDS!! These beds are like quicksand and you can get stuck. Walk on the ribbons of sand and gravel which are easily seen.
3. Get there early or stay late. The kayak crowd will hit the place after 10 am and on weekends it's a mess.
4. The Flies - My version of a Gartside Nymph is a constant producer down in the jungle. I add a bit of weight to the body so it is effective in higher water and it's best fished with a "twitch" (a twitch is only about 20% of a "strip").
5. "Reduced Buggers" (size 12 dressed sparsely with a peacock body instead of chenille also fool browns and brookies.
6. My Sulphur Soft Hackle in sizes 16 and 18 proved itself yesterday morning. I began to see the telltale insect launching themselves and then came the occasional trout breaking the surface with that porpoise-like rise. I put on a size 18 SSH attached to a 12 foot 6x tippet and made quartering casts downstream in front of every
rising trout. It represented a sulphur swimming to the surface and a mixed bag of brookies and bows totaling about a dozen must of thought so too.
Then came the Kayaks. You can always hear them before you see them. I've noticed that a passing kayak or two will not knock the fish down but a steady stream will. I wish they would stay below the boat launch!!!
The Rivers This Weekend
As I write the flows are:
Millers - 517
EB - 172
Swift - 46
The Millers and the EB are very fishable IN THE EVENING!! We have great flows but oppressive heat this weekend. Fish at sundown on the two above rivers.
Book Me
Want to get away from the crowd?? Follow me.
P.S.
Found the homes of two very big browns, 24 to 30 inches, down deep in the "Lane". Next time.
The first inkling of this "strange fish" occurred last Fall when reports out of Bondsville (thank you Sam) mentioned an odd looking brown, a light colored fish that began to show up on the lower Swift. Double haul to the present month and the reports, photos and video (thank you Falsecast) of the same kind of fish being taken above route 9. They are Landlocked Salmon for sure and are in the 7 to 10 inch range.
Where did they come from? They could of gone over the spillway during the high water of this past Spring OR they could of been the progeny of the adult salmon that went "over the falls" in the Fall of 2018 and were seen spawning up and down the upper Swift. As mentioned by a reader of this blog these fish would be the right size for a salmon that hatched in early winter of 2018/2019. The main question is did they go over the spillway or were they born in the river?
Now, our DFW may have answer with all of the electroshocking that's been done over the past two summers but we really don't hear much from them, do we.
Going forward, if you catch a "strange looking brown" let me know. If these fish are born in the river then we have another Mother Nature success story.
BTW, I saw two DFW employees down at the Horse Farm bend with an electro shocking pack and DIP NETS on Monday morning. The only fish you would use a dip net on would be for fingerling brookies. I wonder what that's all about?
Cady Lane Poaching There they were on Tuesday morning, 4 or 5 brook trout heads in the water about a few hundred yards below the Horse Farm. Those trout heads were not there Monday morning but 3 anglers were. One was flyfishing and the other two had spinning gear and were drifting what appeared to be large flies under bobbers. The call is in to watch for these guys or anyone else breaking the law on the Swift.
Book Me
We are approaching the latter part of Summer and will soon be on the cusp of Autumn which is when the best central Ma fishing occurs. It's not too early to book your trips to the Swift, Millers, Ware or the EB. Every year people wait to the last minute and get left out or have to settle for a less than perfect date. Book Now - I don't take deposits so your money isn't tied up for weeks or months. It's the perfect deal!!
"By now I was a full convert to split bamboo. I'd given away the last of my graphite rods: no more plastic for me! Fishing with graphite, I decided, was like playing baseball on Astroturf." - George Black, Casting A Spell, The Bamboo Rod and the American Pursuit of Perfection
I am very lucky to have lived within a half an hour of my favorite fly fishing rivers. I have to admit that it may have been by design and not by chance. As a "road warrior salesman" I could be all over Massachusetts but at 5pm I could find myself next to a good trout river by design and living next to (15 minutes) good trout rivers didn't hurt either. I had a good career, a good family and all the flyfishing that mattered to me. It was all that I wanted!!
What I look for now is that great Swift Sulphur hatch. In the past week I fished Cady Lane where my size 16-18 SH sulphurs took 16 very good brookies and a 16 inch brown before 10 in the morning which, in my opinion, was a bit early for the sulphur action. It was fun.
The next day found me in the flats above the duck pond where at 8am the trout seemed very scarce. By 10 am sulphurs were popping and the trout made their appearance ( my theory is that they bows move up from the Duck Pond Pool into the flats to snag emergers. This is more of a fact since I've seen it over the years. My "flats" adventure netted 4 bows between 16 and 18 inches and a few brookies on the ginger colored sulphur emergers seen above in sizes 16 to 18. NOTE: all the fish were caught on 5X tippet. No need to go gossamer with your leaders if you are fishing subsurface as with an emerger. The best way to kill a trout while fly fishing is to play it to death on 7X or 8X which will happen with those tippet sizes.
Yesterday was a different story. I fished the section at the second pull off on River Road and besides 2 8 inch brookies I did nothing even though I saw many more brookies and some bows the day before. Some time that happens.
BTW, I never fished within a hundred yards of anyone on those three days and I was on the Swift and catching fish. The Pipe Pool as packed and the Y Pool parking area was jammed but I had the river to myself where I fished.
Book Me For July And August
These are good months because the crowds are down and the fishing is good. We can fish the Swift anytime and the Millers and the EB in the evening. Contact me!!!
The greatest enemy of "good" is "better" Voltaire"
There are three species of trout that live in the Swift. I love all of them but not to the same degree. Let me rank them from worst to first. (I hate saying something is "worst" but it rhymes in a nice way). Number 3 is my least favorite and number 1 is the best.
Number 3 - The Rainbow Trout "Wow, I just caught a 20 inch rainbow!" We have all heard that statement but what does it mean? I'll tell you what it means. If you are in Massachusetts or in most of the streams in the eastern U.S. you have caught a hatchery raised rainbow trout. The river that you caught it in probably doesn't have a ghost of a chance of "raising" a bow of that size let alone one of them holding over through the winter into the next season. The vast majority of rainbows in this country (except the Rockies and Alaska) are the product our hatchery system(s). Massachusetts raises some very big bows and I have clients from New Hampshire who fish this state because "the rainbows are bigger". It's not that our rivers are any better it's just that the hatcheries are and there lies the problem. One day the trout are few but the next day they're swimming between our legs! There is an artificiality to this reliance on rainbow trout which is a trout that is fairly easy to grow and and grows large but does not reproduce in most Ma. waters.
I'd like to see fewer of them.
Number 2 - The Brook Trout
We are the luckiest anglers in New England. The Swift carries a mother lode of Brook Trout that is hard to duplicate in the northeast. Where else can you catch 8 to 10 inch brookies as a common occurrence? I took 16 this morning. Where else can you have a good chance to nail a 15 inch brook trout without travelling North for 8 hours? 20 inch brookies are caught every year!
Now some may thumb their nose at an 8 to 10 inch brookie and that is too bad for them. I for one would rather catch a 10 inch brook trout than a 15 inch bow ANY DAY. Why?? BECAUSE IT'S WILD and catching them on a 7 foot 3wt bamboo rod just can't be beat.
Number 1 - The Brown Trout This is truly the Ghost of the Swift. They are there and in fairly good numbers but they play it safe by hiding next to logs and under cut banks AND avoiding full sunlight.
Our browns can thank the huge brook trout population for their monster size and there is not a brook trout in the Swift that would be safe from the 22 pounder sampled by the DFW last year. I've seen them over 10 pounds and have caught one about 5 pounds a few years ago.
It appears that reproduction is low and I'm wondering if some additional browns stocked instead of the clonebows would help.
Just thinking!
Crowds
If you are fishing crowded water and feel that you are being squeezed by other anglers then you have nobody to blame but yourself. Crowded water will always bring out the worst in many people so why be part of the problem. I know that many really relish the "herd mentality" and probably feel safe with people around. I look to avoid them. That's easy on the Millers and the EB and is actually easy on the Swift except for the kayaks. EXPLORE, EXPLORE, EXPLORE!!!!!
Ken
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
"I frankly don't make much of a living, but I make a hell of a life" - Jack Gartside
Lost Reel - A reader is looking for an older Hardy reel in a light green neoprene case lost on the Swift on 7/10/20. There is a reward for its return
Gartside Soft Hackle Nymph
There are three fly tyers that make it into my Hall of Fame and not in this order - Polly Rosborough, the author of Tying and Fishing the Fuzzy Nymphs ,John Betts, a pioneer in the use of synthetic materials and Massachusetts son Jack Gartside.
I was having lunch with friend Brad when I asked how his morning went on the Swift. " Took six bows on a Gartside Soft Hackle Streamer". Whenever I hear the name Jack Gartside I get triggered to spend the next day at the vise working up, or attempting to work up, some of his creations. It was about 30 years ago that I tied a few of his marabou streamers for Merrimack stripers. "These powder puffs will never work" I thought. After a few hours I had the triple crown, a striper (many), a bluefish (many) and a shad (only one). Today 90% of my streamers are marabou!!
My favorite is the Gartside Soft Hackle Nymph because it just looks so buggy, uses natural materials and is easy to tie.
Hook - size 8 to 12 nymph hook
Weight - non lead wire
Thread - 6/0 and the color of your choice
Tail - a tuft of brown marabou
Body - tan rabbit dubbing with a flashabou rib
Hackle - oversized partridge hackle
Head - brown ostrich
It's a stonefly, it's a leach, It's a crayfish, it's a damsel fly. It's everything. Years ago I used to fish Wachusett Reservoir with a sinking line and this fly and always catch smallies.
River Update (8:00am 7/8/20) And an open note to the DFW Millers - 125 cfs( fishable in the evening)
EB - 64 cfs (pray for rain)
Swift - 112 cfs yesterday it went from 45 to 144 in the morning and now it's dropping again. They electroshocked on Monday and I heard they plan to do it again this week.(Note:they did on 7/8) That begs the question WHY????? You know the fish are there and you're not doing them, or anglers, any favor.. In one week this river has had its flow increased twice, decreased twice and now electroshocked (twice). If this is worthwhile then tell us why and tell us the results of last years science experiments!
Thank you for the multitude of comments over the last few months. This blog has been averaging close to a 100 comments for every 10 posts AND the vast majority have been from readers (not from me) AND they are REAL comments about technique, flies, places to fish and not sugar coated "what a pretty fish" or sounds like a great day" filler. THANK YOU!!! - Ken
Salmo Trutta
The brown trout is my favorite trout for a few good reasons. 1. It is able to survive those hot and dry summers on our freestones such as the Millers and if left alone with good water quality and an ample supply of groceries will grow to the gargantuan sizes that you see in the Swift and on this blog. The Swift is a great example of what this fish can do without any genetic manipulations that you hear about elsewhere. These fish are FAT and not skinny like eels by virtue of the fact that they are the unchallenged apex predator on the Swift. I almost feel bad for the brookies that feed these beasts!!
How to fish for them First, they are everywhere. Browns in the 20+ inch range are all over the river. A 6 lb brown was caught just above the route 9 bridge about 2 weeks ago. I caught one about 22 inches and fished over one that was closing in on 30 inches.
The fantasy is to hit the swift at night with mouse patterns. That's not necessary. Pick a very early morning or a cloudy day or a half hour after sunset and fish something BIG and subsurface such as an outsized wooley bugger or a deceiver that you would use for good sized schoolies.
Mouse patterns can be problematic. You had better be a very good caster and that means being able to get this big fly airborne without having it hitting the water on multiple falsecasts. One "splat" is ok but more than one will spook an old brown trout.
Another fly that could very well work would be the old standard bass bug either made of deer hair or balsa. I remember a few decades or so ago that fly fishers were catching monster bows in one Alaska /river with balsa poppers. If it worked on bows it will work on browns!!
The Rivers
The Millers and the EB are ok now and will continue that way as long as we get weekly rain. Remember, very early mornings or sundown and after.
The Swift
The fish are stocked but they seem to have developed lock jaw. Fear not, they will get hungry!!
Book A Trip
Want to know more about the Swift?? How about an evening on the Millers (I've had over 35 years of them). Just email me and set up a time!!
"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish that they are after - Henry David Thoreau
The Swift has been stocked for the summer C&R season. I saw the truck at 8:45 this morning and the gentleman told me that they were stocking 2000 trout from the Y Pool to the Industrial Park.
So the deed has been done and we have no excuses not to catch trout. They are spreading these fish out so there is no reason to hit the traditional log jams like the Y Pool or the Pipe. Have some fun and SPREAD OUT!!! PracticeSocial Distancing on the Swift for better fishing. Take the path less traveled and see where it takes you. Before the stocking trucks began to roll I took a dozen 8 to 10 inch brook trout with a Grouse and Flash and my 4wt 7 foot bamboo. It was a blast and I was the only one there and I believe that my clients and I will continue to fish away from the crowd.
The Future
Look at the photo to the right. It is a photo of about a dozen fingerling brookies out of a school of about 50 just a foot or so downstream from where I was casting. That's why the browns grow so big. That's why the Swift is so special and will continue to be.
Have a great July 4th, spread out and play it safe!!
"In gathering samples of sulphurs I've found an unusually high incidence of crippled duns with bedraggled wings. To this do I attribute the fact that my most consistent producers during the Sulphur hatch have been emerger patterns fished with a downstream, and slightly across, presentation". -Thomas Ames Jr.
It has been a crazy two months. First, my guiding has been "through the roof" as well as my fly tying business. Secondly the drought really forced us to switch gears and pick our spots. This is part of the yearly cycle of the freestone angler - fish and fish hard before the rivers go into a mid season swoon and then rely on the tailwaters to pull us through. If you only fish tailwaters you are missing the point.
Crowds - they are been nonexistent on the Swift where I fish it. I may see 2 or 3 people each session that I'm there and that is by design. Last year we had great sulphur action in July that is described perfectly by the Thomas Ames quote at the top of the post and the fly to the left is the emerger that worked.
Body - yellow tying thread
Thorax - orange rabbit dubbing
Hackle - gray partridge
Hook - standard dry size 16 through 20
The Drought It rained and then rained some more. The drought has been broken (maybe) with the Millers running at 223(very good) as I write and the EB cruising along at 144 (very good too). Remember, the strategy is to get to the river VERY early or stay past dusk. The second option is usually the best because you will have diminishing crowds as sunset approaches instead of the growing hordes as the sun rises in the sky. Plus the hatches, except for the morning trico hatch which is over a full month away, are better in the evening.
It's Still There!!
Book Me Now is the season for the "Evening Rise". Book a 5 to 8pm trip on the Millers or the Swift or the EB and have some summer fun.
One More Point Is it my imagination or is there less chatter about using stomach pumps on trout to find out what they are feeding on? I hope so. We really do know what they are feeding on. We did just catch one, right??? Ditto for fly fishing competitions. You want to keep score? Play golf!!!!
