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!!!
Ken
10 comments:
Ken, do you ever fish the salmon river in NY for steelhead?]
Glad to hear you are getting good action on the soft hackles, Ken. If only left to one fly that would be it. I too fished that 2nd pull off area recently when the flow was 50 CFS. Even in low flow, a few channels were observed that were deep enough to hold fish, though they generally didn't that evening. I did net a couple of 6" parr-marked rainbows that were holding against a log. They were bright and pretty as could be, ambitious hatchery escapees I imagine.
Upstream of my position I saw a young man connect with a nice one in the duck pond as he cast toward the east bank. He almost had it to net when it got off. He handled the long distance release with good humor though. Saw another guy casting big lures that looked big enough to catch stripers by the way they were hitting the water. I did not see that fellow connect.
Best, Sam
Sam,
Good to hear from you. Yes, there are some strange things cast into the Duck Pond!!!
Brandon,
No I don't. From everything I've been told it is a crowded mess. Instead I fish Sandy Creek for lake run browns and steelies. Fewer people!!!
Ken
Ventured out to the EB around 2 this afternoon and took 2 bows on a hornberg and missed a few others, water was on the murky side but the fish fought hard... cooler temps and rain definitely helped
Anonymous:8:51,
The "murky side" was due to some heavy rain upstream that brought the flow from about 60 cfs to 160 cfs. Good timing!!!!!
Ken
Had a trifecta on swift friday eve, releasing substantial trout from each of the rainbow, brown and brook family down towards Katy Lane. Nobody around but me and Scout. Best brookie was 14+ and had a fresh scar from something that had this fish in its mouth. I'll email you photo.
-drl
DRL,
A perfect night. Can't wait to see the photo.
Ken
Hi Ken, I had a very good day today in the vicious heat. The Swift wasn’t that crowded and bite was on for me and my Ant. i took all kinds of fish including a juvenile LLS. I can only assume that it came over the spillway this spring. What is odd is that I haven’t seen or heard of anyone catching LLS this spring? I thought it was an 9-10 inch Brown at first, but then saw it was a Salmon with the telltale forked tail. It was an unexpected surprise. Have you been catching these or anyone else? I sent you a picture.
Falsecast,
Ok, now it's starting to make sense. Someone emailed me 2 months ago with the same claim and last Fall frequent contributor Sam talked about these strange 8 to 10 inch "light colored browns" down in Bondsville. In the Fall/early Winter of 2018 hundreds of LLS went over the spillway and many dug redds. Looks like they were successful.
The Swift amazes me!!!!!
Ken
Falsecast, I caught one last week above route 9 and was also wondering if others had been catching them. The timing is about right for it to have been spawned in the Swift during the overflow two winters ago, but it could also have washed over this spring. The adult salmon only come over in numbers when the overflow is in the fall when they are seeking out moving water for the spawn.
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