"Lawyers are like nuclear weapons. By all rights they shouldn't exist, but if some people have them, then you'd better have one too, just in case." John Gierach
I've been fishing this river for 38 years so I know something about it. I know that this river, like all freshly stocked freestones, fishes well in the Spring but really hits it's stride at dusk on a Summer evening. I would want to find myself on the Upper Trestle Pool or the Kempfield Pool, either one will do and it's all surface action.
Don't forget morning fishing and I mean EARLY morning and that's getting on the river before 4am. (I used to live 10 minutes from the river so it was easy). This is a summer time activity because the water will be the coolest at this time of day and the surface feeding will be heavy over a short window. At 4am the water is boiling with fish but by 6am the sun is up and it's over!!
Fishing in low light means you need a fly that can be seen like the one shown above.
The Millers is a brown trout river and throwing in rainbows is a waste of time. I worked with the DFW in sampling this river in early September (twice) and all we found were browns!!!!!
Ken
10 comments:
Do people fish the Millers in the winter?
I have had success at the deerfield in December and January, and the Swift is always very productive year round, but haven't committed to a winter Millers trip yet. Is there enough of a holdover population to make it worth a day trip?
Winter conditions on the Millers suck. High water, cold water, ice is everywhere and any holdovers are in the deepest pools. Fish the Swift.
Ken
Wet wading the Kempfield Pool is my favorite summer activity. Brown trout, smallies, bluegill, chubs--it's all fun on a fly rod.
Charles
Hi Ken,
As the note quote states..There is strength in numbers..
Over the years you have been a champion for many of the fisherman's causes. Brown trout being stocked in our Rivers has been on top of the list.
We all know that DFW can't "grow" Browns any faster than Mother natural allows, which blunts its stocking in our rivers. As the saying goes..see above..there natural default is clown bows that placate the bait guys and keeps the majority of the revenue paying public happy.
Your influence and your website perhaps could help us all rally together to convince the DFW to stock more browns in our rivers over time. It can not happen all at once. But if we all rallied together and were able to get Trout Unlimited, Fly Fishing Clubs, Private fishing clubs to help, we might be able to get the DFW to add a few brown trout pens to their facilities.
To that end, given you many years of interaction with the DFW is there anything/one we could all write to an influence to see if we could get their policy to change over time?
Best regards,
Gerry S.
Tell them that we are sick of rainbow stocking and would like to see more browns in the Swift and the Millers where they have proven to be more sustainable than rainbows.
Ken
Did anyone fish the Millers catch and release sections this year? I fished both upper and lower sections with little success. The lower section had some rainbows that they threw in during regular stocking operations. Many small Brookies but no Browns for me. Bears den is my home water and nothing but small Brookies on nymphs and dries. However, the upper regular section by the Royalson damn fished very good into the summer for all 3 species. Just curious if anyone did better in the C&R areas.
steelhead,
The drought hurt the Millers this year even in the lower CR. "Bears Den is my home water and nothing but small brookies". That's actually good news since the DFW doesn't stock brookies up there.
Ken
There seemed to be a lot of fishermen and few fish,probably hiding in the deep water all summer. The might be coming out now! Cheers,Chet
Ken,
This is two years in a row now for me not catching any Browns. I wonder if they stopped stocking Browns in both sections. I have been fly fishing it for over 30 years now and can usually catch browns all summer long into the fall but not in the last two years.
Eric
Steelhead,
That is very strange. I didn't put a lot of time into that river but I remember one Spring day when they threw browns in. Now, there nwas a time back in the early 90's when the DFW just stopped stocking browns in the Millers. There reason was bogus and I threatened litigation and they backed down. That's how we got TU helping the DFW in the Brown trout stocking. I hope TU didn't drop the ball on this!!!
Ken
Post a Comment