I have fished Montana, the southwest corner of North Carolina,
Western NY, Northern Georgia for all that they offer and New Brunswick for all that it offers and that is Atlantic Salmon. I've done well there, not like the halcyon days that we all read about but in something akin to the average trip from someone that drives hard or flies fast to spend some time on a river that is not impossibly crowded and has some difficult fish to fool. The last few words of the last sentence say it all. If the fishing runs are chocked full with wading fishermen that look like an old photo of an "opening day" I'm not interested, Period!!
I've caught fish under these conditions BUT the REAL memories are of fish caught in local rivers that fill my mind with memories and dreams. The MILLERS holds a lot of those memories like the misty July evening where the river exploded in rising browns. I took about a dozen until I lost my comparadun and couldn't tie on another in the dark. There was another Millers brown that I chased for five months before it was fooled by a #14 partridge and orange that was draped over a mid stream rock. There was the 2 foot long brown that slowly rose to my dry and then slowly sank, not to be seen again. The same thing happened on the Swift but that brown was caught (luck).
Why have a bucket list and a fist full or airline tickets when all of this fishing is all around you? American Flyfishing Magazine highlights many, many streams all over the country that are not destination rivers (read crowded and or overrated) but are close by and underrated? I've had great fishing on the EB over the last 15 years with lots of caught trout and very few other anglers!!
The Swift And It's Browns And Brookies
The browns have been ganging up on the Swift and the brookies will be right behind them. It would be interesting if the bows were not stocked in the Swift this Fall just so we know if they really make a difference. The most successful trout in the Swift is the Brookie because they can reproduce in the river. The Brown is the next best because it can survive the longest (20 lbs are proof of that) and the bow fills in the holes and that's it.
Book Me For September, October and November!!!
Ken
12 comments:
"Why have a bucket list and a fist full or airline tickets when all of this fishing is all around you? " Why not do both?
Because many just don't realize what they have locally. Many only want to fish "destination rivers".
Ken
I totally agree with the value of home rivers and am glad that we have some here. Let's all be honest too that the Swift has become that same overcrowded fishing location, especially during covid (stop stocking Rainbows). Also, how great is the fishing right now in the stocked rivers? I bet not many people are at the Quinny or the Squannakook, but the day after the stocking, there will be a full lot. I attribute a lot of the FF mess that is the united states to social media. All the endless "fish porn" photos and guides offering floats that look like the movies. Also, easy fishing, they all make it easy for the intimidated angler. Anyone who want to try FF, just has to go online and everything, every river, every entry point, every technique, fly selection, every guide is right there. I won't even go into the wrongness of the fish stocking report. For those of us who learned by actually fishing, it seems, well, easy. I have been going to SW Montana for 25 years. I took this year off at the recommendation of my local friends. The Madison is just a highway of people, same for most of the other "storied" rivers. The mysterious decline of the Brown Trout there is very troubling. The Big Hole has something like 70% less, the Beaverhead too, lower Madison. At the same time more and more people are "getting into it". All in all our sport is declining in appeal because of this. It doesn't mean it's bad, but it isn't anything like 20 years ago. I just hope this trend stops. I hope less and less people think FF is somehow, cool. This happened after the movie "A River Runs through It" too. I am not "worried about the future of conservation", I am worried about too many anglers. Just my 2 cents. I am thinking of going to Swift today, I am sure I will find dozens of people.....waiting for their tee time. :)
Ken,
I totally agree. I have never been into destination rivers. When I am standing in the Kempfield Pool, without anyone in sight in either direction, and a bald eagle flies slowly over that beautiful stretch of river, who needs to go anywhere?
Charles
Ken I'm right with you here, trying to target trout is what led me to flyfishing and in my young mind I thought trout could only be found in remote spots far from my home right outside of Boston. I spent a good many years searching for trout in the white mountain areas and Maine only to come to realize these big name rivers fished O.K but certainly not better then my beloved squanny and the past few years have found me searching blue lines and "marginal" streams only to wonder why I didn't start here in the first place gorgeous brook trout and even wild browns some in the 20 plus size can be found in many MA streams and I've maybe bumped into a few fisherman, most who see me at the streams wonder " are there really fish in there geez" a little research can led one to these wild fish some being minutes from downtown Boston
Falsecast, Charles and Paul Fay,
Amen to that!!!! You guys "get it"!!
Ken
Hi Ken, I have a warm water free stone 500’ behind my home. I fish it often for Fall Fish and Blue Gils when I don’t have a lot of time to drive out to trout water. I posted a picture of that river on a forum and a guy responded that he has to drive 3 hours to get to water as nice. That response made me feel pretty fortunate to have trout rivers 30 minutes to an hour away. One of them is the Quinapoxet. Last week I caught a couple of browns in the 6”-7” range, small but great fun on the light tackle I was using and I didn’t see another angler over 5 hours of fishing.
Dean
Dean F,
And my understanding is that the browns in the Quinnie are native!!!!
Yes Ken the dark chocolate ones!
Paul Fay,
??????
Ken
The wild browns on the quinny have a distinct dark chocolate color on their back and butter yellow bellies, usually sparse spots with red halos
Thank you Paul!
Ken
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