I fish because I love to. Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly. - Robert Travers
Still time to order your Fall flies, especially the Partridge and Magic
Notice - someone found a lanyard loaded with tippet near the Y Pool on Friday, 9/24. Describe the lanyard and the range of tippet sizes then contact me via email. Ken
Notice - Lanyard owner found 9/25!!!!
The Swift is beginning to change as I write. Brookies are starting to group up for their Autumn trip upstream and so are the browns. In a week or so the clonebows will be dumped in. Remember, the browns and the Brookies are the real prize on this river. In my not-so-humble-opinion a 14 inch brook trout in worth more than an 18 inch rainbow. Why? Because bows of that size are commonly stocked but a 14+ brookie is fairly rare and a large Swift Brown is a fish for the season!(Yes, the Swift holds 20 inch brook trout and 15lb browns!!!)
Look for the browns below shallow riffles where the brookies are spawning.
Don't bother hoping that this year will be a repeat of 2018 when Quabbin overflowed and the LL Salmon entered the river. It appears that even with all this rain there will be no overflow this Fall, hence no salmon unless we get many inches of rain quickly.
All the rivers are in perfect shape and should remain that way so book a trip for October or November (the best months)!!! The Millers, Ware, EB and the Swift await you!!
Ken
7 comments:
Maybe an overflow with all this rain today.
GT
The brookies are aesthetically far above the bows,whether it's a spawning male or female.Their colors are like the fall folliage in the Alleganys! And they like to fight as opposed to the fat bows!
Now if we could only get the state to wake up and realize this rivers' true wild trout potential. Knowing our state's mandate of "more manufactured trout means more state money", it's highly unlikely they would ever consider eliminating or even reducing the stocking numbers they dump in that ditch. Still it always fun to fantasize and wonder what it would be like to have a true wild brook and brown trout fishery in MA.
Great blog as always Ken- As a dedicated wild fish guy I agree with your opinion. I don't think there's any argument that Wild fish put up a better fight pound for pound than their tank raised cousins. I fish the Swift often and when there I'm targeting the natives with light tackle. When on occasion a stocked fish decides to grab my #14 winged wet that's fun too. Now I have to say that I have nothing but respect for people who fish the micros for the big bows. Obviously landing a large fish on very, very small tippet presents challenges of its own stocked or not. For me though that's just not the type of fly fishing that I prefer. With wild trout often maxing out at 8"s I get asked a lot why I put so much effort and money into into catching such a small fish? Silly question, because they grab the types of flies that I love to tie, they're fun to fight and if I'm lucky beautiful to hold.
Chet,Anonymous, Dean F.
I like seeing a group of readers making GOOD comments instead for the usual bland dribble about photos of pretty fish. You guys speak for the many readers of this blog by saying that stocking clonebows that will not make it a year in the swift or anywhere else is not a good management strategy.
Ken
There was some studies done a while back in California and don't quote me but something upwards of 70% of the stocked fish they studied died within 100 days and I think this is a similar story in most trout waters. Like I've always said dump the bows in our ponds and lakes and leave the browns for our streams, I know it's more complicated then that and I'm sure it's a subject surrounded by red tape but if it was up to me things would be different.
Paul Fay,
I've worked with the DFW years ago sampling the Millers River in September for trout. Browns made it through the summer, bows didn't.
Ken
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