Some Winter Flies And Fishing Through The " Dark Season"

 "It was big for a mayfly-almost an inch from nose to tail-with a smokey olive body, tall grey wings, head and tail elevated in an oddly regal posture as if the bug was proud of itself for being so handsome. Trout love mayflies because they're loaded with protein and easy to catch.  Fishermen love them because they're pretty in an overbuilt, Victorian way, and we like the big ones because they're so easy to see on the water." -John Gierach

The "Dark Season" starts when we turn the clocks back which brings the curtain down on Evening Fishing (my favorite) with a thud!! Now, some of you actually like winter flyfishing and may actually prefer it over a Hendrickson hatch on a balmy April afternoon or a dense caddis hatch on a June evening or those beautiful BWO on a damp, cool September morning. If any of the above describes you then read no further. Just tie up some rainbow warriors and try to piss off some trout and know full well that fly fishing centers on BUGS and not what attractor fly we toss.

Do I give up winter flyfishing?  No, but my choices about where to go (the freestones can have a foot of ice on them) and what to use are limited. I fish flies that imitate insects and not costume jewelry and insects are less concentrated in the winter.  Those are the reasons I'm found on the Swift, usually above Route 9 with its moderate tailwater environment.  Yes, the flies are small so you need small offerings. and my offerings (mostly) are soft hackles in the 18 to 20 range and my favorite materials are olive or black thread or floss and starling hackles.  This fly represents a lot of what's hatching in the winter.

                                                                                PINHEADS

I've used this fly for about the better part of 20 years and it was developed for the Fall and Winter. Along with the Hot Spot it finds itself on the end of my tippet more often than not. The Pinhead LOOKS like a midge style insect and 20 to 24 works just fine.

Hot Spots

It was almost 15 seasons ago when I found myself on Christmas Eve morning (7am) at the Y Pool.  All the Holiday obligations were done so why not. I threw on a Hot Spot that always did well below the gauge and  had an early Christmas present.  It seems all the fish wanted it.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and are avoiding crowds.  We want you around for Christmas.

Ken

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 "I've fished a lot of places and met a lot of people, but there are only a handful of streams that I know inside and out and an equally small number of people whom I consider to be close friends. But a few of each is enough when you're loyal as a dog to all of them". John Gierach

 

It has been a very good Autumn on the fishing front and it should be after the drought stricken summer that we had.  The EB and the Swift have been excellent with fish spread out everywhere and most of the water being underfished and that's even the Swift.  As I've been saying for years - spread out - and you will have a different experience.

A Good Fly
My top fly this Autumn, outside of the trusted Partridge and Orange, has been the Possum Nymph and why not.  It has slayed them on the EB and has had good days on the Swift. It is as generic as you get with just the right amount  of mascara to make it a bit different. Someone commented on this blog that spawning fish don't eat.  Well, they eat possum nymphs as well as soft hackles (among other things).

The Brookies

 

As Swift regular Phil predicted last week the Brook Trout spawning season may be closing down at least below Route 9.  They are still there but not in the numbers of just a week or so ago.  I didn't break my Swift PR of 17 inches but caught enough around 12 inches and beyond to keep me from crying.  Catching a 4lb brown while targeting brookies didn't hurt either.

Even little brook trout can make a day, especially when it's your first trout on a fly!!!!

Book Me

The Swift produces right through December and it gives you a chance to wring out those last few hours on your 2000 license. Email me and we will set up a date and catch some trout.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and stay safe!!

Ken

Walk On The Green, Not On The Redds

I got a water bed and my husband stocked it with trout - Joan Rivers

It's that time of year again - the brook trout are on the beds in clear view and we still have a mindless angler or three wading right through the redds. The Swift is not the best  brookie river in central New England because we stock the hell out of it or even because we practice catch and release. It's because of the environment that the Swift has what the brookies find perfect for spawning.  So why ruin it by stomping through it?

Stay on the Green

Walk on the weeds or on leaf litter or on sandy bottoms.  Trout don't spawn in those areas.  Stay off the clean gravel or you will be scrambling brookie eggs and then complaining that there are not as many brookies as before.

This Weekend

We had our little introduction to winter over the last two days but this weekend will be mild and dry.  All the rivers are in good shape and the Swift and EB should provide some season ending dry fly action.  Don't miss it.

Ken

Caddis Fly Musings

"If  the Mayflies are the aristocracy of the fly-fishers insects, then the Caddisflies are the working class.  The drab, earthy Trichoptera  cannot compete with the colorful Ephemeroptera for sheer majesty, but when it comes to satisfying the appetites of hungry trout it is the caddis that bears most of the load". - Thomas Ames, Jr.

caddis emerger

Let's face it, the caddis fly is the Rodney Dangerfield of trout insects. It gets no respect! That honor goes to mayflies and if you don't believe me just consider this: Flyfishers will swoon at the sight of a Hendrickson or a Quill Gordon or a BWO or a sulphur but when we see a caddis we say "there's a caddis" and not much else. Also consider that we seem to fish these flies as if they were a species of Mayfly which they are not.  Let's look at their behavior and techniques needed to imitate them.

1. First, let's get rid of a certain myth. The great Gary LaFontaine floated the idea that caddis create (or store) gasses under their shucks to rise quickly to the surface. This idea caught on and was pretty much universally accepted EXCEPT for the great Bob Wyatt, the author of What Trout Want, The Educated Trout and other Myths. He searched the planet for gas storing caddisflies. He found none.  He interviewed entomologists in the USA and in Europe.  No dice on gas filled caddis. Maybe LaFontaine discovered a new species was the only response. So, how does the caddis rise to the surface so quickly. Most possible answer = Caddis use their legs to kick to the surface and their legs are longer and stronger than a mayfly. That is why soft hackles work so well especially using the Leisenring  Lift.

But why do the LaFontaine sparkle patterns work so well?  Can you say ATTRACTOR PATTERN?  Nothing in our underwater insect world is that shiny.

The Mystery Hatch

It's the first week of May on either the Millers or the Ware. The flows are perfect and the air temperature is in the 60's. You have been there for two days and every time that you walk by the riverside bushes blizzards of caddis explode into the air BUT you have seen few rising fish and very few caddis riding the surface of the river.  What's going on? Where did those bush dwelling caddis come from?  Well, they did not rise to the surface like a mayfly does but crawled on the stream bottom to the shore where it hatched and then hit the bushes. A main player in New England is the Glossosomatidae family of caddis and I think it's the number one caddis species as far as numbers are concerned. They love fertile freestones but find tailwaters a bit too cool and infertile for them.  

How to fish this hatch

Fish the edges of the river when you see caddis buzzing around the bushes. Use a drab soft hackle or a possum nymph when you do this.  Now, this fly lays it's eggs by diving to the stream bottom and attaching the eggs to stones.  Use the same flies with a Leisenring Lift to mimic that behavior.

What About Dries?

No self respecting trout will refuse a well placed appropriate dry fly but most of my dry fly fishing with a caddis pattern is done in fast, choppy water.  That's because elk and deer hair float forever in choppy water and choppy water is where the trout live in freestone streams. I don't seem to do well with caddis dries in slow moving water. 

Book Me - Been fishing the same old spots on the Swift and the EB? Book me to fish new areas.

More Later!!

Ken

Nothing Is New

 "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded! - Yogi Berra

Sometimes you think that you have discovered something that is brand new only to find that you have been beaten to the finish line by someone else.  Here's the story: I go through a lot of tying thread, most of it in the construction of fly bodies and most of that in making soft hackles but also in the tying of some pedestrian patterns such as WB's, streamers and such.  In short, bodies take up a lot of thread that is probably best used in other applications.  So, one day I'm in the local Walmart and I end up walking into the sewing aisle and there it is - a huge display of polyester thread in EVERY shade of the color spectrum (well, almost). The diameter appeared to be about 3/0 which is just right for thread bodies on wet flies in the size 10 through 16 which is the bulk of my wet fly tying.  So, I bought a few spools (300 yards for $2.50 each) and tied up some flies.  The trout loved them and that was the only test I needed.

Here's the rest of the story. I am reading the latest newsletter from the Western Ma Flyfishers when I see that local fish hawk Dan Trela has been using this thread for years which I would consider a good seal of approval.

The thread is made by Coates & Clark.  Try it out!!

At least I was the first to use Flex Seal on leaky waders.( I think)

This may be one of the best fly fishing Autumns in recent memory.  Get out there and fish!!!!!

Ken

Rating The Rivers (Or Sort Of) And Seasonal Stuff

  "No fly rod at any price is going to magically transform you into a Lefty Kreh or a Joan Wulff any more than a Stradivarius is going to turn your middle school violin student into Itzhak Perlman. And make no mistake: Itzhak Perlman could pick up a yard sale fiddle and extract soulful Tchaikovsky from it". - George Roberts, Tail Fly Fishing Magazine

It really isn't fair to rate rivers after the worst drought in recent memory but I will, kind of! The Swift wins because it is the Swift and being a tailwater with a mandatory release really helps. In fact, 125cfs for most of August and September was too high of a release. It did fish well all Summer and into the Fall and grew thousands of brook trout AND BIG BROWNS.  It may be safe to say that this river may be the BEST brown trout river in southern New England because where else can you fish over 3 or 4 browns where the smallest is 5 lbs?  And this condition occurred naturally, no genetic slight of hand by DFW folks.

The EB, The Millers and the Ware

All fished well during the Spring especially the the EB and the Ware but by mid June the tap went dry. The browns will survive these conditions and evenings are made for this but when water gets too low it just isn't fun to fish for them.  That's where the Swift comes in!!

The EB has been the best of the freestone rivers this Fall with trout all over the C&R section and the angling should hold up as long as the water temperature stays at least in the mid 40's. That may last through the end of the month this year.

Seasonal Stuff (Micro Eggs)

100% of the egg patterns that I toss are tossed in November and they are all on the Swift. Yesterday I took 4 bows and 5 brookies on micro eggs (size 14, 16 and 18) in 3 hours. If you think that the sizes are too small remember that brookie eggs are small, usually the size of a pea or smaller. I fish them 6 to 8 inches below a micro shot without an indicator. Orange is the standard color of choice ,but I had some good hits with eggs that were a light pink, sort of a cotton candy color. 

The Quote At The Top

The wisdom at the top of the page is worth it's weight in stripers! George is a casting instructor (a good one) that is now the Managing Editor for Tail Fly Fishing Magazine, the voice of saltwater fly fishing (another good one). I met George on the Swift a few years ago and he is what he appears to be - no nonsense, straight to the point but very friendly, something that works with being a casting instructor.  The magazine is first class.  In fact it's above first class. It's a private luxury jet to fly fishing destinations!!!  No, I get nothing for this plug and don't want anything.  Just get a copy and read it online or in print..  You'll like it!!!

Book Me

Ken

November Dries On The EB And The Swift

 On the Firehole I caught thirty-six inches worth of trout - in six installments - Arnold Gingrich

It's been a very good Autumn so far.  We have had just enough rain to keep the rivers at a fishable level with the EB and the Swift leading the way and dry flies have produced great results.  Many times Fall rains blow out rivers which ends the dry fly season. But this year the flows have been perfect, the temperatures have been perfect and the trout have been "looking up".

There was a late October day on the EB when a brownish/grey caddis began to hatch and that made my client change from a weighted possum nymph to a caddis dry.  He took 10 additional fish.  Another client threw an elk hair caddis into the skinniest water that he could find and took fish.  On that occasion there was no real surface activity BUT the flows were low and trout could see anything on the surface.  The fly of choice is something buoyant and something that can take a beating and that is a simple deer hair caddis. Sometimes I'll darken the wing with a sharpee but most of the time I leave it natural. It represents a caddis, of course, and a stonefly too. Might as well throw in a terrestrial insect into the mix also.

The brookies on the Swift love them too.

An EB Auction??

It appears that a public auction of Chesterfield town land is scheduled for November 15th and it appears that one of the parcels on the block includes river frontage on the EB.  It looks like the land from the first turnoff to below the spot that I call the swimming hole is the spot. Now, who would want to build there? Nobody I would guest because it isn't buildable as I see it.  I know that the town has spent a lot of effort "fixing" the dirt road (River Rd) this past month.  Is something in the wind that could limit our access to this river?.  If you know anything let me know.

Fishing has been great!  BOOK ME

Ken

Into November

 "The Difference between Flyfishers and Worm Dunkers is the quality of their excuses" - Anonymous

Don't be frightened of November because it's not that bad. Yes, we may get some snow flurries but we will still have some balmy days in the forecast.  For instance, the average high temperature for Nov. 15 (middle of the month) is 47 degrees in Belchertown, the home of the Swift. That is a very comfortable temperature.  In fact, the water temperature is warmer now than on all rivers in central Ma during the early Spring. It's supposed to hit the low 60's for the rest of the week!!!

The flows are fine.

EB - 245 (perfect), Millers - 114 (perfect but few fish)

Swift - 44 perfect! The brookies are on their beds!  Watch where you walk. Ware - 96 (and they said it was stocked!)

Top Nymph This Fall (So Far)

Yes, I'm still fishing soft hackles and doing well with them over the past month but I've resurrected the possum nymph to do some heavy lifting on the EB and the Swift.  It is as generic as you can get except for a little "secret sauce" the seems to make a big difference. I've drifted them with a tiny split shot about 10 inches above the fly and even worked them under an indicator (yes, that's right) while fishing some deep runs.  Trout like them!!!!

Even Micro Buggers have done well in the size 12 range. Mine are tied with peacock herl instead of bulky chenille.  The peacock adds just the right amount of subtle glimmer and that makes it work.  We hooked and lost 4 big browns last week on this neat little nymph/streamer.  How big were the browns? All were at least 5 pounds.

Book A Trip

We have weeks of good flyfishing left and we don't have to be there super early to beat the crowds or the Summer heat. Fishing in November is like fishing in April. Mid day temperatures are good and we will have more insect activity.  Book a Trip!!!

Ken