I Don't Want To Start Anything, but.......

 "The solution to any problem - work, love, money, whatever - is to go fishing, and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should be".  John Gierach

Well, they did it again!! The stream to the left may be recognized as the West Branch of the Swift River, a very important body of water because it sustains a good native brook trout population AND it is the home of a great run of LL Salmon that sustains the population in Quabbin.

That's why it's a mystery why the DFW would stock this stream with hatchery fish.  The month of April saw the carpet bombing of the West Branch with brown trout and then with rainbows.  We have been told all along, by those in the know, that hatchery fish don't get along with the natives.  So why stock hatchery fish to compete with natives?  It's not just the little gem that's in the above photo but EVERY stream that has natives should not be stocked with competing fish.  I know that this may upset Joey Hookandbullet and the boys down at the club but they don't really fish these brooks as their reputation suggests. In fact, many of these "blue lines" hardly ever get fished so stocking them is a waste of a resource and a destructive act on the resident fish.

There's a growing portion of the fishing population that cares more about self sustaining  trout in a "blue line" environment than stockers with ripped tails and missing fins!

Spring Insects

It's been aa banner year if you like caddis.  They are everywhere. I've seen spotty hatches of Quill Gordons and some early Hendricksons. Water temperatures should hit the mid 50's to trigger a hatch but these COLD nights and mornings of the past two weeks  seemed to have stalled that.  No problem - just keep fishing!!!

Ken

Hare's Ear Caddis (Kind Of), Smallies In Big Rivers, And Long, Lost Guides

Drab and dowdy - 1. Not neat or becoming in appearance: a shabby old hat, lacking smartness or  A CADDIS FLy.

 Hare's Ear Caddis

"The uglier the better" it can be said about the caddis.  It is the most numerous of the aquatic insects in freestone environments and far out numbers the mayflies.

It was mid June about 15 years ago when I pulled off of 93 north to take a Manchester exit to cross the Merrimack for a sales call when it hit me.  The sky was full of a billion large caddis flies that were plastering my windshield enough to put on the wipers which was a mistake because after a minute I could barely see through the caddis slime. I  pulled over and with a spare bottle of windshield liquid and a squeegee managed to make things visible.  I don't know the species of caddis but it was about a size 12 and may have been the notorious ALDER FLY which doubles as the State of New Hampshire State Bird in some parts.  The Merrimack isn't noted as a trout river in those parts but I couldn't resist thinking of the smallies in that river and the feast that they had.

As I write I'm thinking of a similar river (Connecticut River) which may have the say phenomena (caddis blizzards and bruiser smallmouth) just right for the picking.  The fact is, outside of some shad, I know little of this river.  I could use some direction on this.  I'm not looking to open the vault on some secret spot but just a general direction.  Email me with some hints or suggest a time when we can work this river.  We are off the clock so no fees required.

Finding A Guide

Cruising the net can give you the impression that there are lots of flyfishing guides in your area.  Not so fast!! Many of these websites have not been updated in weeks, months or even years.  This can translate to someone who is out of business which means that you are wasting time looking for them.  Look for guides that update ALL OF THE TIME!!!!!  These are the guys that actively want your business and do not just sit there waiting for a message or the phone to ring!!!!!

Ken

Natives

 " If someone asks me whether I prefer fly fishing with a "dry" fly or a "wet" fly, I answer simply that I prefer fly fishing and put the accent somewhat suavely on the word "fly". 

 Malcolm Whitman

My first stream born trout was caught when I was about 11 years old because this old retired farmer told me how he used to catch small brookies (natives he called them) from this little trickle out in the woods.  Yes, I did take a can of red wigglers and managed to land two native trout which set me on the course that I've been on for decades.  These fish were 'natives" and not survivors from some hatchery dump.  This stream was a rarity because it was not intersected by any roads, not even an old cart road, just a footpath that was rapidly growing over and it would not be visited by a stocking truck.

I fished this stream yearly and then would add another little gem to my secret collection every so often.  I still go back to these gems just to keep me grounded in reality. Beavers have taken over my babbling brook but the brookies are bigger and more numerous. 

Chasing bows and "survivor" trout (native brookies are the REAL survivor strain) has a tendency to knock you off the rails so to speak. It's good to get back to what trout fishing used to be.

Conditions

Yes, we got rain and the streams are high but are around their average flow for this time of year.  We needed the rain!!

Ken

Other Species

 

"If the Mayflies are the aristocracy of the flyfishers 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 bear most of the load". - Thomas Ames, Jr. "Hatch Guide For New England Streams"

Millers River Smallie

It will be only about a month until I hit the coast for my annual chase after stripers. It is always fun to go after these guys whether they are schoolies or monsters although I have to say that chasing stripers in the 20to 35 inch class can make the day for me especially when you can catch dozens of them.  Add bluefish and the seasonal shad and we have plenty to cast to in the brine.

But what about other FRESHWATER fish?  Let's face it, many in the flyfishing community look down on the other species and that is a shame!  When I was a kid I cut my flyfishing teeth on pickerel, largemouth bass and crappie (known in New England as Callico Bass) and anything else that would hit a fly.  Now, I still pursue other species but they have to live in an environment that I like: flowing water (rivers) or deep clean lakes.  That means that I like SMALLMOUTH BASS which I consider the most underrated fish that swims.

My top Millers River smallie was about 16 inches and weighed in around 2.5 lbs. I took that bass at the head of the Kempfield Run on a size 10 stonefly nymph.  I caught a 14 inch smallie under the bridge at the Orcutt Run on a size 14 comparadun in the late afternoon that I thought was a good brown trout. I've caught many over a foot long over the years. The largest that I've seen on the Millers was caught at the Bridge St. Pool and was a brute that tipped a hand held scale at 4 lbs!!

My favorite river fish is the brown trout followed by brook trout and then smallmouth.   Our big reservoirs like Wachusett and Quabbin have great smallie fishing that lasts all summer and remember, smallies are not stocked fish.  THEY ARE WILD!!!!

 I am getting sooooo tired of clonebows!

Ken

 Many activities that we do as a pastime have some pithy truisms attached to them and flyfishing is no exception. One is that trout put on the "feed bag" in the late Fall to prepare for winter (false).  The other (my favorite) is "don't bother flyfishing until the leaves on an apple tree are the size mouse ears". Ken

A Swift Brownie

A few years ago I made the observation on this blog that many of the browns coming out of the Farmington were skinny. "Brown Eels" is what I called them.  I did a presentation in the Albany area and many of those folks had noticed the same thing with Farmie browns.  As it turned out another blog, the Connecticut Fly Angler, noticed the same thing when when he described them (browns) as "Pickerel Trout".  Why is that? Maybe the food base in the Farmie is inadequate for the amount of trout that are thrown in (remember, most of those trout are stockers).  The trout in the photo above is a prime example of what happens when predator fish get lot to eat.  The countless brook trout in the Swift provide an ample forage base for the big browns that we have.  Ample forage is why we have monster browns best measured in pounds instead of inches!!!

So Far This Spring.....

Maybe it's the warm days and the low water conditions but I feel that I'm fishing in late May instead of early April.  We need some rain quickly.  The Ware has been good but I'm really waiting for the Millers to get more predictable.  Right now it's at 366 cfs but it was at over 1800 just this past Friday.  It's had a sample stocking in Athol and Royalston but I'm waiting for the lower river to to come alive.  I just have to remind myself: it's early!!!

Flies

The Partridge and Orange continues to be the top fly this Spring. Sizes 12 through 16 rule the day.  Ditto for the Partridge and Olive and the Possum nymphs.  If you've been out and about lately you've seen the millions of caddis in the stream bushes but no rising trout because these insects crawl to the shore and then emerge. They  (trout) should be after the egg laying insect soon.

Go Fish

Ken

A Dry Spring So Far And I Wonder

"The Smallmouth bass was once the premier game fish in river environments 100 years ago in the Northeast. It was introduced, for the most part, by anglers, and by natural migrations and adapted very well (maybe too well in northern Maine) to it's new home.  It has been pretty much forgotten by modern flyfishers over much of it's new range and that is a shame.  Me

Yup, it's happening again. Mother Nature has turned off the spigot at least temporality which has resulted in low water conditions through the State.  Now, these conditions are not killing the fishing because it is still early April and the flows, low for this time of year, are still ample and cool enough to fish.  A good rain storm will fix things quickly!!

The Millers?

Yesterday morning the flow was about 420cfs. Now it's running as I write at 1880cfs.  What's up??  A rogue thunderstorm in Athol dumping 6 inches of rain??  Nope, It seems that they held back water for the "cancelled" River Rat Canoe Race and then dumped it.  Now, in the past stocking of trout occurred after the race (scheduled in mid April) was history and the flow subsided. This year Royalston and Athol got an early stocking which could very well be flushed out of the river by a 1880cfs release.  Best wait until May!!!

I Wonder

What's going on with our pastime?  It seems that many of the younger crowd have taken on an almost militaristic approach to this once benign endeavor. This is seen in the marketing of our "toys". Words like "tactical" and "stealth" have entered the lexicon. Fishing trips have taken on the aura on a Navy Seal raid.  What's next, camo face paint. 

Time to chill out.

Book Me

Ken

Rainbow Trout And Current Conditions

 "For the moment at least, we fall into that class of fishermen who fancy themselves to be poet/philosophers, and from that vantage point we manage to pull off one of the neatest tricks in all of sport: the fewer fish we catch the more superior we feel" John Gierach

I've just about finished, for the second time, a book called "An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and and Overran the World" by Anders Halverson.  This book should be required reading with every fishing license purchased because it shows how our license and sporting tax money is used to support and prop up the indefensible action of stocking hatchery rainbows that basically don't have a chance of surviving for a season.  And all of this is to placate the " catch and keep crowd" who, by the Fourth of July, have put away the power bait and bought more rubber worms.  You would think that the DFW would want to develop a hardier fish (say, brown trout) to put in our rivers.  That would give the DFW the most bang for their buck even though the catch and keep crowd would scream if someone tampered with their rainbows.

Most fishers who fish moving water are flyfishers and they fish all season long and they want a fish that doesn't pull a disappearing act like rainbows.  Do what Connecticut and New York do: STOCK BROWNS and try to develop a stain that can reproduce in the wild.

Go Fish

Don't ask me where, just GO. The rivers are fine (maybe a bit too low) and there are fish.

Ken

Random Thoughts

  “There are people in my life who sometimes worry about me when I go off into the fields and streams, not realizing that the country is a calm, gracious, forgiving place and that the real dangers are found in the civilization you have to pass through to get there.  John Gierach

Well, the fish are getting out there slowly but surely. Remember, it's still early in the season with a lot of season left.  There once was a time when we had the shit show called "OPENING DAY" which was always on the 3rd Saturday in April and I remember fishing in snow squalls or standing in shin deep snow on some little blue line out in the woods or looking at the hordes that lined the banks of popular streams. Now you only find the hordes on the tailwaters it appears because flyfishing for trout starts and stops on tailwaters for many of todays' flyfishers. There may be the obligatory trip to the EB but it's the Swift, Farmy and the Deerfield and that's it for many. For people like me that is a good thing because I don't like crowds. In fact, I'd rather fish a freestone that's in good form than fish a tailwater. I fish tailwaters when the freestones are not in good form such as in the winter or a deep drought in summer.  My best memories of flyfishing in this State are on the Millers, EB and the Squannacook and those memories involve fishing the "evening rise", the Holy Hour for the eastern flyfisher.

If you want to know if your favorite waters have been stocked just go to: Ma DFW stocking and you will have it. Waters stocked on a Monday show up on the report the next day.

Where Did They Go?

It seemed like just yesterday when we had a bunch of guides on the Swift and the EB.  I know of three who have hung the "closed" sign on their websites.  It's not easy being a guide on a river.  First, you don't get to fish as much as you would like. What you do is try to put your clients onto fish and take pictures.

Actually it's fun and that's why I do it.  I like the fact that I've pulled some flyfishers away from the "9 to 5 tailwater treadmill" and showed them what a Summer dusk is like on a real trout stream.

Book Me!!!!