Big Browns On The Swift And How To Catch Them

  "The purist fishes exclusively with a fly rod, which means that he owns a spinning rod and sometimes uses it, but he doesn't talk about it much and stores it separately from his fly tackle" - John Gierach

Hunter knows how to get it done!  He has accounted for a good number of big browns and brookies on the Swift.

The following is his story:

Hey ken hope all’s well,

Sorry to see the trout escapades come to a stop, but glad to see you planning to continue fishing!

Thought I’d send you this monster me and my friend both caught on the same fly this summer. 3 weeks apart, same fish, same fly, absolutely incredible but a testimony to the patterns of these beast. 29inches I estimate 11-12lbs minimum. 

Developing more streamer patterns to turn the bigger ones, you will see the 32 inch brown in my hand before summers out! For now I’ve kept it simple, early morning, or late evening when they are more likely to feed without looking twice. Classic streamer pattern similar to grey ghost but with brook trout colors. What I’m working on now is a jigged streamer with accurate colors and representation, this is what will hook the big one. The colors themselves turn it, but it doesn’t commit. 

I sent you the picture of my buddy with it, and myself, the fly we used, and the streamer pattern I’m trying to recreate in brook trout colors.

This is the kind of fishing we all dream about and it's right here in central Massachusetts. The DFW insists that browns don't spawn successfully in the Swift. Well, they certainly GROW in the Swift as these photos prove. The biggest trout I've caught in the Baystate have always been browns and this is where the effort should be made to create an "interesting" fishery.

BTW, if you have a photo of a "good catch" I'll post it here as long as it's a Massachusetts fish. (sorry, rainbows excluded)

Ken