"If I fished only to catch fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago".
Over the years I've been asked many times this simple question: " Are there holdovers in the Millers? The simple answer is YES and they are basically browns and when we talk of holdovers we are talking browns that make it through the winter which Robert Behnke said was the major cause of trout mortality in a freestone environment (Behnke was considered the foremost expert on trout and salmon).
Now, does that mean at the end of every winter we have a stream full of holdovers? That simple answer is NO and there is a good reason for it. In my opinion, after almost 40 years of fishing this river, you will only see holdover browns in, let's say March, if we have had a mild, easy winter. By mild and easy I mean little of no snow, no icy floods, little stream or anchor ice with milder than average temperatures. If we have a horribly cold winter with lots of river ice with scoured stream bottoms the browns will not stand much of a chance.
I can look back on the early Spring of 2006 and 2010 to make my point. Both winters were mild with little snow or rain at all so run off was not a problem. By late March, before the clonebow trucks did their thing, I was catching rising browns that were feeding on hendricksons. It was wonderful!!!!
Are all freestones like this?? Answer - They can be. The EB, being basically miles of riffles with little good wintering habitat, no doubt has winter kill. The Ware, even with some very bad flooding a few years ago, has good holdover potential (all those beautiful pools).
So, keep an eye on the weather forecast and another eye on the stream gauges. Don't miss an early Spring on the Millers!!!
Ken
10 comments:
Great topic today Ken- Here’s a general question, why is it that rainbows and browns which do well in other harsh winter climates don’t thrive here in our local cold water freestones? Is it because our cold-water rivers are not cold enough through the summer months or is it winter kill or both? Are there other factors at work? It seems like some rivers have at least small sustaining populations of trout. I’ve caught many small -juvenile bows and browns over the years and they all can’t be hatchery escapees, can they?
I remember stocking the Millers in the Bears Den with browns with you back in early May 2006. You were saying that they were rising (feeding) trout in the river. The lead guy from the DFW said they were newly stocked fish gulping air. Then you showed him the rising trout and he said they were not recently stocked fish but feeding fish that were there for a while. He was surprised.
Jeff N.
After reading the blog for many years it would seem to me that the Ware has perhaps the most potential of any stream regularly mentioned here. It is also the stream that I am least experienced on by a lot. Based on what I have seen of that river there should be as much holdover potential if not more than the Millers - although the Millers does have some giant pools that probably can hold a bunch of trout through winter. Being not nearly as familiar with the Ware (fished it maybe 15 times) how do water temps hold up in the hottest summers-it looks like the type of place that could have some springs-which could help in both summer and winter.
Happy New Year Ken.
Your post reminds me of a question I have been wanting to ask, especially since you grew up fishing the Millers. Are there northern pike in there? A couple of years ago, a guy posted a YouTube video with a couple of pike he said he caught in the Millers. The upper watershed along the bike trail in Winchendon certainly looks like pike water, as do the areas in the Lake Dennison-Otter River section. A northern on an 8wt would be a fine thing. Just curious.
Charles
Charles,
I had moved to Athol in 1984 a few years after Lake Rohunta (which overflows into the Millers) was stocked with Pike. They didn't seem to take in the lake but some went over the spillway into the river. In the winter of 1985 the Athol newspaper published two photos of 20lb+ pike taken down in Orange behind the dam. The DFW said that the pike were reproducing in the Millers but the sightings of pike have seemed to have tailed off over the years. My guess is that people don't fish for them much anymore. P.S. That is great bass water down there.
BobT,
I took a 5 inch brown out of the Ware last summer. They don't stock 5 inch browns!!! The USGS for the Ware also recorded the water temperature which seems to have the same temperature profile as the Millers which holds browns all summer. I'd love to see this river managed for browns.
Dean F.
My guess is that many of these rivers do not have suitable wintering habitat. Yes, there are some deep holds but you can only have just so many trout in them.
Ken
My experience is much like others here with holdovers. They seem to come and go. Certain streams have a higher potential then others and one should look for dead water or ponds that offer deep winter refuge. Another thing I noticed a lot of people forget about is tributaries. In other parts of the country like the smokies for example fish move out of main river stems and into smaller spring fed tribs. The type of trib to look for would be a spring fed creek with a gentle gradient, these streams tend to be less affected by seasonal flooding and as such fish mortality can be lower. Osgood and thousand acre Brook are two examples on the Miller's with the latter really having excellent holdover potential.
Paul Fay,
You are right about Osgood and Thousand Acre Brooks although I've never caught a brown in these streams, only brookies and a lot of them in Thousand Acre. That stream and another unnamed Millers trib are loaded with them. Way downstream there is Lyons Brook which has a resident population of very small brown trout. I believe Lyons was once stocked but not now. Osgood is , regrettably, still stocked.
These streams prove that trout can survive year round. Most tribs in the Millers watershed hold native brookies but they mostly stay in the tribs and don't move to the big river so they stay small. They are still very valuable.
Ken
If you think of it comparatively to the Hoosic, which has large population of wild browns, how is that much different? Both have numerous spillover dams, deep holes, adequate shade, cold tribs and an abundance of bugs, leeches, crayfish and forage fish. My guess is that the major difference between the two is the water composition. Whereas the Hoos has a higher ph as a chalkstream, the Millers has more granitity and higher acid content. Its a known fact in VT that the west slope rivers (Batt, New Haven, Hoos etc) have a higher density of wild and hold over browns due to their water chemistry, whereas the central rivers Otta, White, Black all have far lower wild populations. I think the same can be said for the Hoos in western MA, vs the Millers in central. IMO.
Anonymous 5:27,
Great point! The Millers is a low PH watershed except for a ribbon of rock/soil that crosses the Connecticut river up around Warwick. Brookies do pretty well in that low PH environment. Maybe browns don't.
Ken
Ken,
I think interesting things happen in freestones, especially those that have brooks flowing into them. For example the Quaboag that really warms up in summer, but it does have numerous brooks flowing into it. In December 5 or 6 years ago fishing by one of the pull-offs on rt 67, I caught a little brookie that looked just as native as the ones in the Swift. I doubt that brookie could make it through summer on that stream, but there it was in late fall.
Also interesting was a little 8 or 9" brown that was very silvery looking, unlike any stocked brown I ever caught. Stream born maybe in one of the tributary brooks. I will email you a picture of that fish, Ken. It almost looks like a small salmon.
Regards, Sam
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