"Two Wrongs Do Not Make A right, But Three Do" - Unknown
First, I don't like fishing over freshly stocked fish. It's not fun. The key to that first sentence is the word "freshly". Trout smarten up within a few weeks and then the real fun starts. Now you can fish over the only REAL population of native wild trout in Massachusetts by targeting the wonderful brookies of the Swift. You will not be targeting a native fish population like the Swift brookies ANYWHERE else in New England and that includes the premier rivers like the Deerfield or the Farmington. If you don't believe that then request that they stop stocking the Deerfield and the Farmington for 5 years and then see what you have. It was just a few years ago that UPCOUNTRY FLY SHOP on the Farmington told its readers that most of the unmarked browns that people were catching were not wild fish but unmarked stockers. (about 30,000 were stocked)!!!!
More Browns
Our DFW states that brown trout reproduction barely exists on the Swift, that a stocked brown can grow to double digit proportions in that river. One would then think that an effort would be made to stock more browns and/or find out what conditions need to be to achieve successful spawning. All this makes more sense than chasing the rainbows along.
Finally It's Dropping
In 48 hours the Swift has dropped 44 cfs to 410
In 48 hours the Millers has dropped 202 cfs to 786
The Ware is at 187 as I write and that means GO FISHING!!!!!
Ken
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26 comments:
"You will not be targeting a native fish population like the Swift brookies ANYWHERE else in New England". Can you please explain your rational as I fish Northern Maine where the fish are native and in some cases never been stocked.
Ken I think your spot on here that's why I enjoy fishing our freestones in Sept before fall stocking. rivers like the squanny hold fish all summer and by September they are spread out and a keen eye for trout lays is required to find them. I think it's important to mention the brookies in the swift are among the largest you will find ANYWHERE, my personal best was 22 inches and had some serious shoulders and was caught on the swift. I think you would have to go to Labrador to find larger brook trout!
Paul,
The Squanny - Years ago I would fish that river on summer evenings from June though September and would catch lots of browns all on dry flies. I've always liked that river.
Anonymous,
The rational is simple, the Swift may have the densest population of stream born brookies in New England and that is the opinion of a Ma DFW worker. It is also the home of many 20 inch+ BT and one of 26 inches that we know of. The Swift is the "perfect storm" when it comes to brook trout.
Ken
Capitalization of the word, 'ANYWHERE, is a bit over the top, Ken. Native brook trout survive and thrive all over New England (see Anonymous's comments above)
As for Paul's assertion that you'd have to go to Labrador to find a sizable brookie; he's mistaken. The Aroostook watershed, the Fish River chain, the St.John watershed, the Allagash, the ponds of Baxter State Park... the list goes on. The trout in these watersheds are naturally reproducing and as wild as they come; there is no stocking. Wild, 20"+ fish come out of these waters on a regular basis, Paul.
I cannot understand why the Swift isn't managed entirely for wild brook trout. I'd stop stocking the rainbows and browns and let what is already in the stream slowly fade away, then manage the river for wild brook trout. To appease those who want to catch large stocked rainbows and browns, they could be stocked below the Bondsville Dam. I think it remains cold enough down there so that those stocked fish would last a while.
Matt, good suggestion and the Bondsville section behind the industrial park is loaded with brookies. My best day ever down there was a Saturday morning where I took 27 on dries. No big rod benders but lots of fun.
Mike, No, Paul isn't mistaken. Wild 20 inch+ brookies come out of the Swift too and they are not stocked either. The real mystery is how come whenever I compare Swift brookies to Maine brookies a few of you guys get all itchy??
Ken
That's why I said among the largest, I'm well aware of the large brook trout in Maine
Matt is correct. States such as Vermont (and now NY) have a policy of not stocking over wild populations of either native brook or previously introduced but now self sustaining brown or rainbow trout. Certainly for a thriving brook trout fishery the state should just allow the rainbows and browns to fade away. To the degree that browns are regulating the population of brookies (and preventing a stunted crop of brookies) there could be, dare I say, a limited harvest of brookies with slot limits.
The conditions for browns to spawn simply don't exist on the Swift- browns need swift moving riffles as well as tributary streams (with said riffle water) that they ascend to do their business. Telemetry studies on a Vermont fishery have shown that browns will travel 20 + miles well upstream into tributary streams of surprisingly small size. Those conditions don't exist on the Swift and never will.
Anonymous,
Suitable spawning habitat on the Swift exists ABOVE the Quabbin and maybe on Jabish Brook.
Ken
I am not at all convinced that the main stem of the Swift (below the Quabbin) does not provide suitable spawning habitat for brown trout. The spawning habitats for brook trout and brown trout are similar and they overlap in many watersheds, to the point that wild hybrids (tiger trout) are occasionally found. There is suitable spawning gravel with enough flow to keep brook trout eggs oxygenated, and if a couple of winters ago is any indication, also landlocked salmon eggs. So why not brown trout? (And why not rainbows for that matter?) The river has never been managed to support a wild trout fishery and browns and rainbows have never been stocked with the intention of creating a self-sustaining population. Until the river is managed with the intention of establishing wild populations, and it fails, we shouldn't make assumptions that it can't be done. Whether we should be trying to establish a wild population of browns or rainbows or managing for the existing wild and native brook trout population is the key question we should be thinking about. Continued put-and-take style management is a waste of a valuable (albeit artificial) coldwater resource.
I tend to agree with Brendan on the spawning habitat issue. I've seen paired up browns from the Bubbler Arm to below the Pipe during the Fall. The weird thing is I've never taken a 4 or 5 inch brown in the Swift. I have in the Millers.
Ken
IMO, our state does a horrible job in terms of attempting to protect and conserve wild trout habit. Their main focus is stocking, rainbow trout stocking for that matter, the cheapest and easiest trout to grow and dump. It's strictly a business for them, and a philosophy they are fearful of changing. I would much rather see them spend less on stocking and allocate those same dollars (that we provide them) to habitat restoration (with stricter regs) on a few determined rivers they know can support wild trout populations. And if they must stock, why not stock more browns, which have a much more elusive nature to their identity and can sustain poorer water conditions and higher water temperatures (maybe they could look at CT, and the strategy/success they have and the tourism fishery dollars they bring into their state). I don't blame our state fish biologists. As a matter of fact, I feel for them, as it must be frustrating to know what is possible in terms of restoring our wild fisheries, yet only to fall on deaf ears.
I caught a 4 inch brown in the Y pool about 15 years ago... only time I've ever seen one in the Swift, so not exactly strong evidence of natural reproduction. In contrast, I caught several 4 - 8 inch salmon two summers after the most recent fall/winter overflow, some all the way down in Bondsville. I wonder if the population base of browns (they seem to be outnumbered 20:1 by rainbows) is high enough for any meaningful reproduction to occur? Also, fish that have been selected for generations for success in hatcheries tend not to have the best genetics for life and reproduction in the wild (hence programs like the survivor strain project in CT).
Sending you a Cool Pic, from the Swift!!
Best
Will
If there is suitable spawning habitat for brown trout below the res then they would be spawning successfully.
Brook trout and brown trout do not, by and large, use similar spawning habitat. Brown trout seek out heads of riffles where there is downcutting into the redds to keep them aerated and help clean out waste.
That habitat does not exist below the Res and they have no access to tributaries that do offer that sort of habitat.
Brook trout look for upwelling springs seeping in from the bottom of the river.
I am willing to bet that if you go into the areas where brookies spawn you will find groundwater seeps. I'm also sure that you will find that brookies (as do browns) spawn in the same locations year after year.
Tiger trout that occur in the wild are unicorns. There ARE tiger trout reared by various state hatcheries (including Mass I believe). I am sure some anglers catch these fish and believe they are stream bred fish.
The river I have fished for 40 plus years has a strong brown and brook trout population and there has not been any stocking in decades. I've never come across a tiger trout. I am sure there may be a very small handful but as noted, these are unicorns.
With regards to the brookies below the Res - the state should consider closure of the fishery during the spawning period. I've seen too many grip and grin photos of big brook trout in full spawning dress to know that these are fish being targeted over redds. Not cool.
Dear Ken,
While I agree that the Swift's wild brook trout population is a resource deserving of protection and proper management, it is important to avoid false comparisons between the Swift River and those Maine/Canada watersheds which offer wilderness fishing for wild brook trout of exceptional size.
I've been fortunate enough to fish the interior of Labrador, where 5-pound-plus brook trout are commonplace and 10-pounders are caught regularly each season. 7- or 8-weight rods are essential there, as any cast may yield a brook trout, landlocked salmon, lake trout, or northern pike which tests the limits of your tackle.
The experience of wilderness fishing of this caliber puts the Swift River in its proper context: an overfished semirural tailwater, with a self-sustaining population of (mostly small) brook trout, which depends on aggressive rainbow/brown trout stocking to meet angler demand.
-Mike
I have taken a few 4-6 inch browns in the swift river in the bondsville section though… I do have pics of them as well
So I would like to pose my question again that I asked in the previous thread. In case it wasn’t seen by some, I recently fused the fly fishing only catch and release section of the Nissitissit and caught a few small browns. One was 6-7 inches, one maybe 7-8 inches. Does anyone think it’s possible these were stream born?
I have seen brown trout redds in the Farmington in shallow gravelly runs similar to the areas where brook trout spawn in the Swift and elsewhere... I obviously don't know about the presence of upwelling seeps in these areas that some studies suggest are sought out by brook trout.
While I agree that in southern New England 99.9% of tiger trout are stocked, not wild, brown trout have been observed spawning in the same areas and at overlapping times in spring creeks in the Driftless Area. Brown trout spawn later in the season, and their redds are sometimes formed over the top of brook trout redds... often enough that it is suggested that brown trout actually seek out brook trout redds for their own spawning and that this could significantly impair the successful reproduction of brook trout. Attempted hybridization (mixed-species pairs trying to spawning) was commonly observed as well.
As for the 6-inch browns in the Nissitissit, I would bet that these are stocked fish, but you never know! Browns of that size are frequently stocked in MA... some years there are numerous fish of this size in the Swift, and a few years ago, it seemed that hundreds of these small browns were stocked in the Miller's in the fall (they were great fun... rising frequently to nice hatches of olives that are often ignored by larger trout in that river).
All of these questions are much more interesting to me than the wanderings of stocked rainbows in the Swift... thanks Ken and everyone else for the engaging discussion!
They put that size browns in sucker brook, and they most likely found their way down into the Niss. I caught them there this year too. If you catch a vibrant 4-8” Brookie then it’s likely a native, but those are hard to find and tend to be far away from the heavily fished areas. I maybe get 1 or 2 of those gems per year if I’m lucky…
I'm 100% in on habitat development focused on supporting wild trout. Cut the put and take budget by half and throw the test tube trout in the ponds and lakes. Put the other hald toward habitat rehab and development. Let the truck chasers mob the ponds rather than the rivers. It's a strange cultural phenomenon. Stuffing pellet fed trout in the freezer like Armageddon is coming.
The stocking program does have value though. The first time I went out and wrangled some trout for dinner was at Beman's ponds in otter river state forest. I was 13. That was my first solo outing and I didnt give a damn where those trout came from. It made my day. It was a proud day and was a the moment that codified my interest in trout fishing.
The fly fishing came in my early 20's. Then I became interested in real trout and where they live. DFW can do both. I think it's weird that they are proud of a 100% put and take concept. Which they have stated in print multiple times.
I was at the Miller's TU meeting a few years back. The DFW biologist guest speaker made a lot of statements about MA water quality not supporting trout reproduction. I thought that was weird and showed him pictures of two to six inch brookies I had caught in the West Branch the week prior. He was surprised and interested.
That guys response was indicative that the interest in fostering wild populations simply isn't there at an institutional level. Furthermore, his presentation was about acid rain and how it has effected small stream pH, rendering the waters inhospitable to trout eggs. Which to me seemed like evidence that DFW had already established an existential excuse to not take interest in wild trout populations. Its "science". That was four years ago I think.
I think the best way to promote such an effort is to simply get more folks interest in fly fishing and sharing the rewards of catching wild river critters. Catch and release isn't the answer. Stocking isn't the answer. Habitat and water quality is the answer.
DFW stocks tiny browns. I catch em in Preist Brook in Winchendon. Hard to say man. They are stocking 500,000 fish this year. It's anyone's guess.
To Chris - in that same stretch i have caught 4-5” brookies several times. I was hoping they were not stocked fish. Encouraged to read you caught small browns.
We have a spring creek out here in Western New York that historically was filed with wild brook trout. In a flood many years ago, rainbows and browns from the adjacent fish hatchery escaped and filled the creek. Rainbows died from whirling disease (I think) but the browns survived and thrived--at the expense of the brook trout. 10 years ago, I caught a brook trout almost every trip. Last year I caught one all year. The brown trout are now entirely self-sustaining and have outcompeted and replaced the brook trout in this creek. Wouldn't the same this happen in the Swift?
Matt's comment raises the key question regarding any attempt to establish a wild population of browns in the Swift... would it put the population of wild, native brook trout at risk?
Brendan,
It's safe to assume that the browns take a good chunk out of the brookie population on the Swift. The browns are heavy weights due to feeding on brookies BUT it doesn't appear to hurt the BT because their numbers are still strong and they are not a bunch of runts. (big browns will keep their numbers in check). So far, so good.
Ken
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