Don't Forget Peacock and Autumn Around The Corner

 

                                                Just be yourself. All the rest have been taken

I totally admit that I totally forget about peacock herl bodies. They are simple to tie and trout love them. Maybe it's because they don't appear to have any "science" involved in their creation and may just appear a bit too retro for the modern angler.  I tied some up this past week and the brookies and one 18+ inch bow inhaled it.  Note to self: tie and use more of these!!!

Speaking of peacock, don't forget the basic pinhead, a top midge for me on the Swift. A peacock collar and a thread and wire body is all that's needed in this 22 to 24 fly.  It beats out my Hot Spot Midge in a close race.

   Hot Spot

I Like August

There are lots of reasons to fish in August. First, the throngs of anglers have thinned out from the Springtime months. The sun sets earlier in the evening which moves up the hatch activity and the early mornings may actually have a nip in the air requiring a long sleeve shirt. There's still plenty of insects hatching and with the advent of the terrestrial season AND all the rain in July we should have great conditions right through September.  It is safe to say that the wet July saved some trout from being parboiled as in the last few years.

Book Me For September, October And November

I know it's early but I think we would all like to avoid the Autumn log jam that is getting a guiding slot on the Swift, Ware, Millers and the EB.  Just reserve a spot without a having a down payment and the spot is yours.

Ken

Back In The Flow

 "The fish and I were both stunned and disbelieving to find ourselves connected connected by a line." - William Humphrey- The Armchair Angler

It was good to step into a trout river (the Swift) after 3 weeks of forced exile. I spent a few hours catching the occasional rainbow and a bunch of brookies came to the net with everything landed on a soft hackle of sort, mostly a Partridge and Orange or a Partridge and Yellow, size 16. That P&Y is becoming a favorite summer fly especially in a dry version.

The fly to the right is your standard soft hackle P&Y and with a little floating dust works great up and across stream for nymphing trout.

The Swift is back to it's familiar flow of 55 cfs but that didn't stop the rafting guides from scratching the bottom of the river with their "too big for this river rafts." You would think that the Deerfield or the Millers would be, with all this water, their backyard.  One very famous floating guide once told me that they don't drift the Swift unless you really can't wade it. Wish the rest felt the same way.

The Ware (119 cfs), The Swift (55), the EB (267) are perfect and yielding catches.  The Millers, (1150) needs some time.

GUIDING

Evenings in the Summer are great to fish as are the mornings but don't forget the best season of all - FALL. Book your September, October and November dates now.

Ken

Fish Friendly Photography

  "Fishermen are born honest, but they get over it" 

Ok, we've all seen the photos of the vanquished trout - laying on the wet shoreline and totally motionless. Photos are snapped, high fives are tossed around and then the sacred C&R ritual is performed and fishing is resumed. But we may have sentenced a trout to death by photography!!!  Many anglers take WAY to much time shooting pictures instead of releasing. I've seen trout go this route on the Swift and drift downstream to die. (The worst are the people taking selfies of themselves and the fish.) I will call them out on it and sometimes it works but...

How to take a Trout Photo

First, time is critical. The whole event, from netting to net release should take much less than a minute

Second - the net and the fish should never leave the water. Appealing photos often come through keeping the fish partially submerged and perhaps slightly downward.  Consider leaving the fish underwater the entire time.

Third - worried about dunking your camera? Get a waterproof case or a waterproof camera.

Fourth - go barbless all of the time because it saves time and wet your hands before removing the hook. (I'm constantly amazed at the number of fly shop catalogs and magazines that STILL publish photos of barbed flies for sale.)

Fifth - And don't lay the trout on the ground.  If you insist then hand over your license!!

Where to go

Try the EB.  It's perfect!!!!!

Ken

Fishing July in April Conditions

"If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're doing something wrong" John Gierach

Here is a Saturday morning photo of the Quabbin spillway with basically no water flowing out of "the pond".  The water level is about 2 feet from the spillway apron.

This means that with 2 feet of hedge room and with the Swift flow reduced from 100 cfs to 55 cfs we will have a normal Swift if we can only stay dry. It's about time!!!

Can't say the same about the Millers which reminds me of July 2009 where the river crested at 1000 cfs and kept rising through August.  It's at 3000 right now!!!!!!

The EB is becoming tamed with a flow in the high 400 hundred range.  It will fish well this coming week.

                               

                             There's always a slight summer lull in fly tying but not this year.  The word must be out on  the effectiveness of soft hackles or maybe people just like that style of fishing.  Anyway, it beats carpet bombing the river with tungsten depth charges!!!!

      Ken

 

 

                                            

July IS The Weirdest Month.

 I had just spent the better part of a week up in Camden Maine   on a non-fishing vacation when I came down with a rip roaring kidney infection that landed me in the hospital for 5 days and possibly a longer in-house confinement.  I'll be back in my waders in no time and that is for sure.  In the meantime get out there and fish and I don't mean the same old Farmy and Y Pool. The rivers were all PERFECT until we got the record breaking rain. Now they are "running through the bushes" but this will not last and it's a given that we will have great flows going into the Fall.

 Fly fishing has taken on too much of a social atmosphere where chit-chatting, shop talk and being seen takes on more importance than catching fish. That makes it too much like golf for my taste. It's not John Gierach's style of flyfishing and that's for sure.  I fish and guide on 6 different rivers during the season and seldom see the crowds that you see on the famous rivers. FISH THE "OTHER RIVERS".

Trico Experiment

A few years ago I was rummaging through the fabric section of a Department  store when I spotted this "veil" material.  It comes in  spool (1000+ flies) and is a stiff synthetic. It worked down to about size 18 but not smaller for Tricos.  Well, I found a smaller size and it's great.  Just remember to rough up the edges  by rolling them between your fingers and making some micro slits with scissors. A sharpie will color this wing material easily.

July For The Record

It is officially the wettest July on record. We set that mark on 7/17. That date also had the single day record for southern N.E. Those waters also resulted in the drowning of 2 people on the Farmy.  UpCountry said it right this past weekend: It's too high unless they turn the water off above the dam.  Try not to be too macho and fisg some easier, safer rivers.

Ken

Brook Trout And Where To Find them.

Brook trout are a reminder that the most beautiful things in life are the little things.  In only a couple of inches of fish, nature painted a perfect masterpiece. - Tyler Olrogg

Thank God for brook trout because without Salvelinus Fontinalis the catching of a stream breed trout in much of Eastern North America would be a rare event. We all know that rainbows depend on stocking for the most part to claim a spot in our rivers and the same goes  with most brown trout. Browns can survive in some marginal waters (that's why I like them) but successfully spawning is not their strong game.  To keep browns in most rivers you need a continuous stocking program.  Survivor Strain????  I'll hold my cards on that one.

Not with Brook Trout!!!!

One does not have to look far to find streams that are not stocked but have brookies  They're everywhere. One also does not have to look far to find native brookie streams that are seldom or never fished. That's a good thing.  

Somehow the brook trout has gotten the reputation of not being a survivor, a fish that can only survive in a pristine environment.  It is a safe bet that there are more native brook trout finning away in New England then bows and browns combined!  And many of their haunts are places like lowly beaver ponds, places where most fly fishers thumb their noses at.

People think that brookies are the mainstay of springtime fishing. Yes, if you want stocked brookies.  My first brook trout were caught on a rainy July morning when I was about 10 year old. Catching these two fish was the piscatorial equivalent of panning for gold and they were caught in a stream that had never been on a stocking list.

   All this high water has given some of our "thin blue lines" some new life. Fish a wet fly such as a Coachman letting it drift close to logs and undercut banks. 

Ken      P.S. don't forget the beaver ponds                   

 

 

What Drought? A River Update

" Accurately recalling a day of fishing id like trying to push smoke back down  a chimney, so you settle on these specific moments."  John Gierach

Here's where the rivers went over the past week.

Ware - 35 cfs on 7/1 140 cfs on 7/8

West Branch - 726 on 7/1, 267 0n 7/8

Swift - 114 cfs on 7/1, 96 on 7/8

EB - 359 on 7/1 411cf on 7/8

Millers - 327 on 7/1, 683cf on 7/8

Needless to say we have had heavy, crazy storms three days in a row which a rain jacket should take care of but it does nothing to ward off lightning and falling branches. So we cut the hours and cut the fee (fair is fair), lick our wounds and set up another date.

Here are some rivers of note: The Ware turned it all around with bows and browns on center stage. What a few inches of rain will do!!

The EB is into it's third week of good flows and good fishing.

The Millers was strong all of June and if it stays moderately wet in July it will be great.

Ken

Highs And Lows On The Swift

 "I think I fish, in part, because it's an anti-social, bohemian business that, when properly, puts you forever outside the mainstream culture without actually landing you in an institution."

One can find the Swift in either one of two conditions - nice and low, around 42 to 60 cfs where it's been for most of 2021 or in the 110 cfs or above range. Thee flows are manmade and can occur at the press of a button (I'm not kidding). From the first of the year until June 15th the flow was 42 to 48 cfs. Then it hit 114 cfs where it's been since. It will go down very soon due to all the rain and when the Connecticut River rises with that rain the Swift gets turned down.

Now, which flow do I like best?  I'll take the low flow any day.

1. I love skinny water! I love drifting small dries, wets and emerging patterns over trout that are in less than 10 inches of water. Tiny flies and stealthy casts are in my blood. You have those conditions with a cfs in the 40's.

2. Euro nymphers appear lost with those conditions.  The current is too weak to barge those tungsten bombs that they fish with.

3. Flows over 60 cfs change the Cady Lane section from something that is very wadable in the 40's and not wadable at 100 +. (and I'm not talking about the top of Cady Lane but below the horse farm to the cottages.

4. Brook trout love skinny riffles for spawning beds with just a couple of inches covering their backs.  114 cfs is, in my opinion, way too much velocity for successful spawning.

Top Summer fly

The Summer just works and is #1 on the Swift for me during the warm months.

All the rivers are flowing nicely (maybe too nicely). I've had good results on the Millers and have heard the same about the EB.  BOOK ME!!!

Ken

July News

 

1.Someone must of been doing a mean rain dance because all the streams are up and very fishble.

2. Swift got stock 7/1 and if it's like last year it's 2000 from the dam to Bondville.

3. Pray for rain and cloudy, cool weather this weekend to keep the kayak crowd down.

4. Have a great 4th of July

Ken