"Tailwaters are what Thomas McGuane called "the great theme parks of American fly fishing," with their more or less stable water temperatures and artificially inflated populations of insects and fish. They are irresistible for all kinds of reasons, but all of those trout breed the peculiarly postmodern sense that anything short of a 20 fish day is a bust, so when things are slow there's the temptation to lie about numbers or to vaguely allow that you are "getting your share" - John Gierach
What to do? Before I became addicted to SH I always carried a supply of micro wets on the stream. They were in sizes 18 through 22 and ALWAYS had a tan colored body with light brown WET FLY HACKLE. This fly has worked on the Swift (the only game in town) from mid July through mid September when the BWO seem to take over.
This fly has done well in the flats above the Duck Pond and down to the slow water by the Second Turnout. Yes, you can fish it at the Pipe and it will do well there (everything does!!)
Apply no weight to this offering but just let it drift downstream letting it rise in the current until the slack is played out and then repeat.
Our Drought
1992, 2010, 2016 and this year. These are the worst dry years that I can remember in central/western Ma. Two of the above years had a Fall tropical storm save the season but as I write this the Caribbean is storm free and that is unusual and a bit scary.
Here's where we stand river wise: Millers 54 cfs, Ware 4.0 cfs, EB 14 cfs and the Swift is flowing hard at 110 cfs. The Swift, at 110 cfs is flowing at 4.7 times the combined flow of the Millers, Ware, and EB!If this continues we may not see a Fall stocking except for the Swift. This happened a few years ago when the EB missed out on the Fall stocking and I believe it has happened to the Squannacook.
A Word To The Wise
Spread out on the Swift!!! There's more places to fish than the Y Pool and the Pipe. I mentioned two places earlier and there is always Cady Lane which may hold more pounds of brown trout and any other New England river.
Did I mention the brook trout??
Pray for rain!!!!
Ken
4 comments:
Ken yes it has happened on the squanny and quinnie. Don't count the squanny out if it does not receive a stocking, fish summer over very well in this stream and by September have spread out. I have had very good days in the early fall before stocking on the squanny and fish it right through the winter fishing the old fashioned way and by this I mean quietly walking upstream looking for signs of rising fish or likely holding zones, bwo parachutes seem to be the fly they want and an olive leech or wooly bugger rolled slow in the deeper sections will produce as well, if you want wild fish go upstream to Willard Brook and fish the gorge section plenty of nice Brookies in there that will take just about any fly presented in a manner that suggests dinner!
Paul Fay
Paul,
Back in the 70's I would fish the Squanny right through the Summer and into the late Fall until it iced over. I had great midge fishing in late November into December below the dam at Townsend Harbor.
Ken
I'm hearing stories about warm water on the Deefield. Isn't it a tailwater??
JW
JW,
It's a tailwater but all tailwaters are not created equally. It's the size of the water body and the depth of the water body behind the dam. The Swift has the huge Quabbin behind it and produces water temperatures in the mid 50's 1.4 miles downstream from the dam. The Farmie produces temperatures in the mid 40's 2.0 miles downstream with a "pond" much smaller than Quabbin and that's because of the depth and height of the reservoir. Now, three years ago I when to and old haunt on the Deerfield at 6 am and was greeted with low water (good) but with water temp at 68!!!
Ken
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