"Smoked carp tastes just as good as smoked salmon when you ain't got no smoked salmon - Patrick McManus
Why is the place crowded? Answer - It has a lot trout.
Why does it have a lot of trout? Don't say it's because it's stocked a lot. Other locations on the Swift get a lot of fish but then they are hard to find for most. The reason is that those trout remember where home is (the Hatchery). That's why almost every day between 10 and 2pm we have the pellet hatch. Trout have good memories. But more importantly is the steady stream of aquatic minutiae that gets flushed out of the hatchery and into the river. Look a 100 yards downstream from the Pipe and on a good day you will see a dozen or more trout gulping thousands of tiny flies while above the Pipe you barely see any. The Pipe changes the chemistry of the Swift. It makes the river downstream fertile (more brookies) and that means more food for the browns (BIG browns).
I could prove this simple observation by building a discharge pipe from the end of the hatchery and rerouting the outflow to either the Gauge or the flats above above the Duck Pond.
Within a few days the trout would find the new discharge location!!
River Flows
Ware - 282 cfs
West Branch - 444 cfs
Swift -52 cfs
EB 758 cfs
Millers - 1190 cfs
The Swift (of course) is fishable, the Millers isn't and the EB and the Ware will be shortly.
(Note- on 10/24 the Millers was at 405 and dropping. What a year!!!)
Ken
5 comments:
As good an explanation as any
GW
G.W. I think it's the only explanation. The only good one that is.
Ken
Ken your definitely spot on here, I've seen a similar situation in new Hampshire, at the powder mill hatchery in new Durham, they divert the merrymeeting river into the hatchery and then back into the river again a little ways downstream. That portion of the stream holds a population of rainbow and brook trout while the rest of the river holds few if any ( there are lake run fish where the merrymeeting meets lake Winnipesaukee)
Had a good time fishing in the rain on Saturday, Ken. Very quiet and peaceful. With rain falling I thought it a good time to try indicator fishing which I rarely do, but I found it fun and interesting. Pre-rigged at home with a bottom fly bead head hare's ear, and about 16" above that a bead head pheasant tail. I can't say I knocked it out of the park, but it was fun to see the "bobber" go down a couple of times with both hits coming on the upper fly.
I had to re-rig as it was getting dark, and I wanted to keep it simple at that point. One nymph without indicator was cast against the opposite bank of a slow wood filled zone. Easy to wade, that is what I look for in fading light; most light actually these days. Thought I was hung up on a branch, but I'll be darned if it wasn't a nice trout. A nice brown I think, but light being what it was, I couldn't confirm before it came off.
Best, Sam
Sam,
That was a tough storm Saturday night. I was on the coast of NH at my daughters and the wind was terrific.
I use indicators in areas where they give you a good avvantage.
Ken
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