"Trout are among those creatures who are one hell of a lot prettier than they need to be. They can get you wondering about the hidden workings of reality"
Who fishes these streams? Well, hardly anyone to be truthful. I will mention the stream name and favorite spots on well known streams but never, ever mention or give the name and location of a thin blue line.
If you just bought a $1000 dollar fly rod you will not be seen on a thin blue line because you will not be able to show it off as you would on the Farmington. Tenkara rods, where there is no leafy canopy, and glass rods where there's a lot of underbrush, rule the day. In fact, thin blue lines demand simplicity in equipment and approach.
We could vastly improve the quality of life for self sustaining brook trout AND self sustaining brown trout populations just by stopping the stocking on these small streams.
BTW, beavers are important to wild trout survival. A few years ago some local TU'ers declared war on those dam builders. I had a wildlife biologist from Maine declare that if beavers were harmful to wild brookies then Maine wouldn't have any wild brookies!! Enough said!
Ken
14 comments:
Hi Ken - I hope you are enjoying the holiday season! In all of my year’s of fishing the Swift, I have never checked out Jabish Brook? 35 years ago, when I fished fished the Swift I was told by somebody that Jabish Brook had “wild brookies”. I looked for it once and never found where it dumped in. I wonder if it was the source of the wild brookies proliferating the Swift now? Have you ever fished it? Is it a thin blue line?
BTW, I was at the Swift last week and the BT spawn is pretty much over from what I saw.
Falsecast,
Jabish has wild brookies all the way up along rt 202 and not just down where it hits the Swift. In its ultimate wisdom the DFW stocks this stream on top of the native fish. It might provide spawning habitat for those Swift browns too.
Happy Holidays Buddy!!
Ken
Ken, I too also love thin blue lines. I live in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, and blue lines are scattered throughout. I have an older 5ft Cabela's branded two-piece 1wt that works perfect for this type of environment. Realistically, it doesn't get any better than hitting blue lines. You generally don't need a lot of gear, which is a plus. A small slower action fly rod, a small box of flies, and some time to enjoy the experience at hand just seems to work best for me. Actually, the avatar photo in my profile is of my favorite blue line.
I hope things are well with you and yours, and I missed seeing you around on the EB....Phil
Ken, It is a shame that the DFW stocks trout in streams that already have a natural population. Yes, that natural population is smaller in size than the stockers but they are WILD fish and don't need the invasion of hatchery fish. Maybe the DFW will someday change their ways.
GW
You touched on the most ridiculous thing about the DFW stocking some of these thin blue lines, hardly anyone is even fishing them!! There is a stream in my home town that comes out of a dirty pond but within a half a mile is fed by dozens of cold springs and becomes a gorgeous cold clear trout steam with native brookies in excess of 12 inches. I have never seen anyone fish it a single inch of it in my entire life except for myself and access is very limited. Yet every year it gets stocked anyway and I can't for the life of me figure out why. Its nothing more than an expensive way to feed the local herons.
You introduced tenkara to me on the Swift. I use tenkara rods on small streams most of the time as you can collapse the rod while pushing through the understory. Easy to bow & arrow cast. Tenkara rods make small stream fishing even more enjoyable. Thanks.
Bill/Tully,
And you've got some good tenkara streams in your neck of the woods!!
Ryan51993,
The sad thing is that the DFW KNOWS there are native trout in these streams but they stock them anyway.
Ken
Dear Ken,
As I said in a posting earlier this year, I've done most of my 'bluelining' in central New York State, where native brook trout inhabit virtually all of the small coldwater tributaries in the Susquehanna, Delaware, and Mohawk watersheds. In the county where my family farm is located, certain of each watershed's larger coldwater tributaries are stocked by the DEC with brown trout, whereas the smaller tributaries and feeder creeks are not. Rainbow trout are stocked in only three of the county's kettle ponds - none are stocked in its rivers.
This arrangement seems agreeable to the native brook trout, whose habitats see little-to-no intrusion from the browns stocked well downstream, and almost no fishing pressure. The Massachusetts DFW would do well to adopt a similar stocking strategy.
-Mike
The state turned what was once supposed to be a way to help supplement and enhance trout fishing opportunities in MA, into a full-on business for itself. It's no longer about what right, but rather about money and budgets. The more fish they create and stock, the more money in their budget, and the new for more jobs. No fish=no employment for many. It's no longer about what's good for the people and what's good for the wild fish. It's all about protecting their jobs.
Merry Christmas Ken! I take far more pleasure out of fooling Native Brook Trout or a wild Brown over any stocked trout. Stocked trout are fun and to be sure we all learn fly fishing by catching them. After a while though for some of us the urge to chase wary wild trout, small though they may be, will begin to take hold. They are really the true test of an angler’s skill IMO. The “trophy” photos on my phone are of 8” to 10” wild trout and I usually get laughed at by the guy showing photos of the 18” bows they caught in April after the stocking truck left the pond. My advise to these folks is that tying "flies" that look like the trout food pellets at the hatchery would probably work really well-
Anonymous 6:31,
Good point!!!!!!!!!
Ken
Anonymous,
Good point!!
Ken
Many good blue lines in MA some even in urban settings, if it looks fishy it probably is in my experience!
Paul Fay
When I lived in MA, I had topo maps in my truck and I would hunt down those thin blue lines. At least once a year I'd luck out and fish one that the DFW would secretly stock. There was even one in the suburban town I lived in that only exposed itself above ground in a secluded empty lot and I could catch brooks consistently in that spot. Never saw any evidence of another soul fishing it. Of course, the hornberg was my fly of choice for targeting these small brookies back east. Even had a local artist paint the fly I used a few months ago. Ken, now you know what my hornberg looks like :) https://photos.app.goo.gl/byhHR5pDi3WpMNfZ7
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