There is so much BS out there about leader& tippet material...the factor I care much about with respect to tippet is the limpness factor for throwing dries...I like a few "s" curves on some casts. Most of the flyfishing specific tippets are fine SA/Orvis/RIO/Ump and others . I do stick to small spools on tippet because I dont want to buy a lifetime supply sized spool and have it go lousy...Over the past couple years I have been using mostly just 4x or bigger on most everything except some small dries. Out in MT this year we were on 2x and 3x at all times-caught tons of fish including roping some #16PMD dries to 3X.
I have stopped using flourocarbon for many years. Flourocarbon takes about 10X as long as monofilament to biodegrade and no matter how it is disposed of its most likely going to have to biodegrade for this reason alone I have sworn off flouro and truth be told I have always thought that we fishermen are kidding ourselves if we think the fish cant see it or even have a clue what it is and what the danger to them is. Until we can interview a fish...we will just be guessing. BobT, commenting in 2018
All it takes is two days of temperatures that have been higher than anything in the past month and the piscatorial juices really start to flow. This happens even if you have been fishing and tying all Winter. There is just something about Spring. We could still get one or two more snowstorms but the end is in sight. Hang in there.
Book Me
There is an uptick in requests for trips for this Spring. A big chunk of May got snapped up so don't wait too long. And remember, freestone fishing works during the mid day until around mid June and that's when it swings over to an early morning/evening fishery. I've had great Spring days on the Millers but my best fishing has been in the evening, just right for a 3 hour trip!!!
Yes, I wrote about this fly not too long go but
Think Spring
Ken
16 comments:
Hi Ken. Visited the Swift on Wednesday. Almost without exception, everyone said they did not see a fish. The only pod was right below the Rt 9 bridge but were flanked by spin fisherman. Are the fish there? We saw a couple of fish in the Y pool. None in the bubbler arm. E moved to Cady Lane. Later afternoon there was a short lived winter caddis hatch a just a couple of rises.
Any thoughts?
Thanks...Jeff J
Made a monthly "mental health" pilgrimage to the Swift yesterday to do some "social distancing", enjoy some spring weather and decompress for a day. Observed some bows just below the Rt 9 bridge, which was well covered by spin fishers. Observed 1 or 2 bows cruising the Y-Pool, nothing in the bubbler and a few random browns sipping on winter caddis at Cady Lane. No complaints! I'm usually happy just getting out and hooking up a few times and maybe landing a 1 or 2 on the Swift. Realize this was a topic of discussion in a previous blog(s), but what a difference in just 1 month (fish to no fish cruising around). Why do the bows stack-up below the bridge for the spin-fishers, yet seemingly vanished elsewhere? Thx.
Tim C.
So in thinking spring and going thru boxes i wanted to tie a few big bushy pogie bucktail flies Some are 9 inches long saltwater. However before doing this chore because of your post i checked my swift box. Plan on making a trip or 2 before St. Pattys day. Well some blacks 28 and some pinheads 22 and a few 22 bwo what was really funny as i changed vice holders for larger hooks i looked at the finished flies and noticed that my swift flies could fit right thru the eye of the 1/0 thru 4/0 salt hooks Just a real funny observation. Hope all well keep up writing we will keep reading
Gartside tied a nice caddis pattern the Philo Caddis. Real simple but effective.
Jeff,
Went above Rt 9 2 weeks ago and caught nothing and saw nothing. Same as everyone else. Then spent the second half of the day down by the pipe and caught fish. Yesterday went back and caught nothing. That's the way it's been.
Tim C.
I don't know. Maybe we should give up on the bows.
Ken
Did anyone happen to observe if the parking spots along River Road, i.e. at Cady Lane and the first two pull offs on the right, are cleared/plowed?
Thanks, Tom from Boston
Tom From Boston,
The 1st turnoff from Rt 9 was not plowed, just packed down not passable)
The 2nd turnoff from rt 9 was plowed half way down (passable)
The 3rd turnoff, the Gauge turnoff, was not plowed but was packed down and was passable
I was there Wednesday and a lot of the snow and ice was gone.
Ken
I went out to the Swift Saturday morning in the light snow. There was no one in the parking lot at Rte 9 at 7am. Below the bridge is where all of the fish are. I did notice on flock of Merganser ducks around the downed trees next to the bridge and another flock above the bench above rte 9. Very few fish in the Y-pool (maybe a dozen). Perhaps the only good place for the fish to hide from predators is the downed trees below the bridge?
I didn't venture down to the Pipe area.
JonBoxboro,
It's been the same for the last month. Very little above rt 9 with some bows hanging out off the current in still water. The Pipe has been good if you can squeeze in between the bait boys. I can't wait to fish a REAL river like the Millers, Weare or EB.
Ken
Ken,
My wife and I took a ride late afternoon and the Ware looks darned fishable, at least from my vantage point from the road it looked that way. Still a bit of shelf ice, but not too bad. We headed north from there and Cady Lane had three cars parked in it and the route 9 zone had two. That was at 4:30 or so.
Love that caddis pattern. Caddis is mainly what I have been tying this winter until my brother gave me a couple of sacks of pheasant body feathers recently which put me back on to Gartside Sparrows. I think I have enough flies to last me a while now. I can't seem to stop tying though - I think I have to admit I have a problem.
Sam
Sam,
The Ware was flowing at 120 cfs which is perfect except it's only at 33 degrees. It's tempting but.....
Ken
Ken saw something interesting today, happened to have a few free hours in the bertuzzi section of the squanny and was putting around as usual when i noticed a buffet line of what i thought were midges or small winter caddis, i could see there shiny "wings" and they were wiggling around almost like an emerging mayfly in the meniscus. One drifted by close enough that i could scoop him up and was surprised to find them to be early stone nymphs or emergers I guess... in all my time ive never noticed this and always thought stonies crawled out of the stream to molt into adults
Paul,
I've seen that with stoneflies but only in very high water. Thomas Ames says that all stoneflies hatch on exposed rocks but occasionally end up in the water.
Ken
I've seen the small stoneflies get swept up in the current quite frequently, as both nymphs and adults. I've seen a steady parade of stonefly nymphs drifting in the surface film, wriggling like crazy in the large pools on the Farmington on more than one occasion. I suppose they eventually bump into a rock to crawl out and hatch? I have also had good dry fly action on the adults, even out in the middle of the river. I think, perhaps because they are small, they are more at the mercy of the wind and the current, and they can at times APPEAR to drift and hatch in a way that resembles caddis or mayflies more than the larger stoneflies. The adults are easy enough to imitate if you find fish eating them... twitching a buggy fly in the right size is usually enough... elk hair caddis or griffiths gnats are good. The wriggling nymphs on the surface could be more of a challenge, but a dark soft hackle is probably a good place to start.
Brendan,
A few years ago I wrote about a small griffiths gnat with the bottom hackles trimmed off. I'm also thinking that a small, dark winged ant pattern might be close enough.
Ken
Hey Ken don't let it go to your head!
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