"Fly fishing is a magic way to recapture the rapture of solitude without the pangs of loneliness". - John Volelker
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3/22 - The clonebows are in the Swift.
The Millers - 1210 cfs and that is very high. If you just NEED to hit the Millers play it safe and fish below the mouth of Orcutt Brook, especially below the new bridge since it is usually fairly safe to wade.
The Ware - At 184 cfs this river is rounding into form. I like anything below 200 cfs and this is just right for swinging soft hackles or dredging caddis pupae. Watch the flows after a heavy rain!!
The EB - They are playing with the flow by holding water back at Littleville. It's now flowing at 702 cfs BUT THAT IS BELOW THE DAM and not upstream towards the Gorge. That water, without heavy rain, should get into that 250 to 350 cfs area. Remember that this section of the EB is one of the last of the major rivers to get stocked in the Spring.
The Swift - It's at 184 cfs and that means they are dumping excess water out of Quabbin. I haven't personally checked the flow out in person but if it's coming over the dam in the Spring you will have what we had a few years ago when smallies, pickerel and perch found their way into the river. (we don't really want that).
I like the Swift but I like it at 60 cfs!!!!
Fish some blue lines!!!
Ken
14 comments:
That beautiful photo. Is that spot on the Millers?
Anonymous 7:16,
That spot is a spot that I liked to call the "Cable Pool" and it is about a 1/2 mile below the Bridge Street Pool. You can get there by bushwacking along the left side of the river or take the tracks downstream.
Why do I call it the Cable Pool? Back around 1985 some kayak type built a kayak course by stretching wire cable across the river with sliding "gates". It always screwed up the flycasting so I woulds rearrange the gates to fish.
The whole set up lasted about 3 years. BTW, fishing is good down there.
Ken
Does anyone know why the spillway section of the Y pool is restricted? There is a floating net buoy across the river. I’ve never seen this before
Ken blue lines have been producing steady browns and some brookies for me this March, I have had success with early stonefly nymph patterns in small sizes 18 and 20, a pt nymph can represent these as well as the black wire copper johns or anything with a slim profile, also some success imitating olive clingers that I saw when turning rocks that I believe to be drunella, but any kind of olive hare's ear will do the trick in a 16 or 18. Fish have been holding in the deeper pools and I would assume with water temps around 45 in the streams I've tried that some hatches are on their way soon!
Paul Fay,
You are getting done Paul. My thin blue lines seemed to be frozen over for half of March but like you said: some good days are right around the corner.
Justin,
I have now idea what that structure is for. A few years ago they put the same thing around where the bubbler flows into the Y Pool. someone said it's to detect any leakage from the dam. Mayybe someone knows....
Ken
This last Friday the swift below the bridge for a mile or so was very sparse. I saw 2 fish all day way far downstream which was very strange in my experience. Hoping it's just due to the higher flows but I will be waiting for a stocking there.
Do the area Freestones fish well before bring stocked if the flows are ok?
Brian,
My experience on the Swift suggests that the trout go down to the deep water at Cady Lane and below during the winter. My answer to your Freestone question is "not really". Unstocked "blue lines" with native trout can be good.
Ken
Ken have you ever been able to get any browns in the bluelines? in the last few years? that's a dream of mine but I only ever see our little brookies when I venture out.
Andrew,
There is one stream in the Millers Watershed that has a steady population of browns. Commentor Paul Fay knows a few. I will not give the name/location of these streams because they are fragile but studying a topo map of a watershed and then exploring it could lead to results.
Ken
Topo maps are your best friend, the Deerfield river has many wild browns no secret about that, in the fall they run up tribs to spawn some successful some not, in the streams that do have successful reproduction you can find resident populations of browns in the 8 to 10 inch range, some of these streams are sparsely populated some hold many browns
Picked off some bookies in a small brook in Ashby. Blue line season it is indeed.
Greetings
New to the Western Mass area - some of the rivers I know by name but being an "outsider" I am unfamiliar with the name "EB" - please educate me in the real name.
Thanks
Mac
Mac,
About 15 years ago I began to write a lot about the "East Branch of the Westfield River" especially the Chesterfield Gorge area. I also got tired of typing the whole name out so I shortened it to the EB (East Branch). It's a great place!!
Ken
Thanks Ken for the clarification of EB
Mac
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