"The purist fishes exclusively with a fly rod, which means that he owns a spinning rod and sometimes uses it, but he doesn't talk about it much...and stores it separately from his fly tackle." - John Gierach
So far, so good!! We get blasted by a heat wave but then we are greeted with a weather front that drops the air temperature by 20 degrees. As I write (5:30am) the air temperature in Trout Land is only 46 degrees. What is equally important is the fact that our stream levels are holding their own and this is the key to everything. If the aquafers are fully charged then there will be ample cool water seeping into our rivers and the trout will find thermal refuge that we will not find with our hand held stream thermometers.
The Swift
The Swift went up on the 15th to 114cfs and has stayed there. I was discussing this with Brian at the Deerfield Fly Shop and we are leaning towards a very dry landscape in the northern Connecticut River watershed which keeps the tap running out of Quabbin. That should not last much longer.
BTW, there's a lot of talk about the scarcity of trout in the Swift. That will end with the July 1st stocking BUT there's plenty of trout there now. One of the doubters saw his first "pellet hatch" and said "where did they come from?" A couple of my newbies took their first trout EVER recently from that river. There are fish there.
Hatches
Sulphurs rule the day on the Swift. Size 16 to 20 in a soft hackle and size 20 to 24 in a dry will work although the soft hackle, if fished as an emerger, will out fish the dry.
The March Brown can be found on freestones in June and early July like the Millers. Look for them in slower water with soft, silty bottoms.
Remember, fish the freestones in the very early morning or in the evening right into the dark. If they (browns) are rising then they are feeding and that's a good thing. Get the fish to the net quickly and that means using a fairly stout leader.
Tenkara
I'm getting a steady pulse of requests for tenkara lessons and we are catching fish using that wonderful method. Contact me!!!
Ken
9 comments:
I finally got to the swift, first time in feels like forever sadly. But there were willing trout through out. I'd not checked flow, was surprised, but it worked out fine. I started out with a dry dropper (scud below, chernobyl above) but almost immediately the Sufurs were going so I bailed and fished an emerger, dead drift, swing, dangle... and in some spots a bit of stripping. Got several, and sadly broke off 2 that got to logs. That hasnt happened in years to me, the first one was just bad play on my part, I should have forced it with side pressure a little more. The second was the biggest trout I've ever hooked on a fly rod (and I have caught a few 23" browns on the millers, this fish was significantly bigger than those) and she took me into the log jam she came out of and all I could do was hope. That didnt work!
End point though, I fished Rt 9 up as far as you can go on the bubbler, because when I havent been in a while, that stretch where I learned to fly fish as a kid just has good memories... The only spot that had nearly zero trout was the hemlocks, which is weird. Always used to be a consistent pod of fish there over the years... but the past few it's much less so, and when I was there yesterday, either no fish or a few I just couldnt make out.
Super pretty with the laurels blooming, plenty of fish, and fishermen too - per usual. Thankfully no naked swimming guy ha ha ha!
Ken,
Went to the Swift yesterday, and as always your advice was right on target. 15 cars at Rt. 9, so I went to the Tree Pool lot. 5 cars there, but two were leaving. Neither had seen a trout. Thought I might have to hike down into less used places. But there was absolutely no one in the Tree Pool or anywhere in sight upstream or down at 10:45. So, for two hours, the only thing there were cedar waxwings, swallows, a nice sulphur hatch, willing trout, and me. Caught 5 between the Tree Pool and the pipe on a #12 sulphur emerger that I had not used yet, since tying it. Went for the slightly larger size due to the flow rate. Great day to be in the woods and on the water.
Charles
I'm seeing a lot about water temps lately, I think it's important to note a few things, we do ,luckily ,have tail water in New England to fish so if your antsy to work out a few fish and free stone temps are high head to the swift or fife brook section of the deerfield. Also, keep an eye on your favorite freestones, I get weather updates on my phone for the areas around my blue lines and if we get a few rainy cool days chances are the temps are ok to fish and usually fishing can be outstanding as fish will opportunistically feed while they have a break from high temps, that's summer fishing on freestones, summer is also a good time to try to find trout that have moved into tribs for thermal refuge, I think this is the case when a lot of folks are wondering where fish have gone that were there all spring, some research and exploration can lead you right to summer trout hang outs and many of these streams are not stocked by the state and are a few times removed from the original stocked water body in some cases. The headwaters of the squanny is a great place for this Although stocked theses brooks do hold natives and the browns eventually find there way up there as well
B’town Jim
Fished the Swift from 12 noon to 4pm today well below Cady. Used a 12 flymph with a 16 green copper John as the lower fly in the tandem. Got two good (14+) bows and two good Brookies and 4 smaller brookies. 7 of 8 took the copper john. Maybe smaller is better or lower in the water column.
Jim, Paul,Charles,Hibernation,
Thanks for sharing!!!!
Ken
Les's pool has been great, ive landed around 7/8 bows in the two trips ive gone a few weeks ago on some soft hackles, and or nymph rigs. I was working the head of the run. Quick question Ken, do those fish get stocked past the gate? Or do the fish just swim down to the bigger pool. It's just amazing how far down they swim if thats the case.
Brandon,
They used to stock past the gate but not lately. Actually the distance from the gate to Les's is not that far and with the high water events it would be easy for a bow to swim the distance. Trout stocked below RT 9 on the Swift have made it down to Bondsville many times.
Ken
Got to fish a remote section of the Deerfield on Wednesday - the nearest stocking point is about 3-4 miles downstream from the put-in (at a dam so no stocking above). Plenty of bows up there - wild (got a few silvery 6-8" fish) and holdovers, also lots of smallies and chubs. It was mostly bass and chubs until we got below a cold water trib, after that the rainbows were spread throughout the river for the next 2 miles of the float. We figured that the trout had stacked up below the trib during the hot spell, then spread out below when the weather cooled down again. At the very end of the float we ran into a few recent stockers - they just sort of flopped around on top as they were reeled in - a bit of a letdown after the many hard fighting fish (with several break offs) that were encountered upstream.
Mike from Pittsfield,
Good report!! I am a bit surprised about running into "lots of smallies and chubs" but wild bows offset that quickly.
Ken
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