Happy New Years

 

I hope everyone had a good year and that 2024 is even better.  And I want to thank everyone who continued to read this blog even when other commitments (my ankle) forced me to sit on the bench for a while.  We still have the most pageviews of any New England blog and we will continue to bang away at it!!!

See you in 2024!!                           

Ken

The Dusty Partridge

An old fashioned fly, in the same class as the Picket Pin, that has never left home before a day on the stream.  It is half nymph and half streamer although it is more of the former than the latter. And it is a REAL freestone fly because of it's size (size 12 hook) and its somber hue. 

The tail is made of partridge hackles and the body is from that partridge fluff that is so underrated.  The key is the four turns of full size partridge hackle that's palmered onto the hook. The only "flash" is a bit of brown ice dubbing. It is fished with some wire weight by the head or none at all.

No Beads!!!

After I tie one I run it under some water and then squeeze the water out while pushing the hackle fibers back.  Does it make a difference?  Probably not but I like it and enough trout and bass do to!!!

Have a great Holiday, whatever it may be, and I'll see you in 2024. My ankle is almost back in form.

Ken

 

Tiny Fish (What Big Fish Want)

 There's a fine line between fishing and standing in the water like at idiot"  - Steven Wright

One of my favorite spots to cast a fly is on a section of the East Branch of the Westfield River (more commonly known as the EB) and that spot is known as the Slant Rock Pool. From the tail of this water to the fast water at the head it is "dry fly land".  Morning shadows cover this water in Summer until around 11 am and then the shadows creep back in around 8 in the evening. 20 foot drifts are common here.  It's a great place but it holds another secret: the place is alive with tiny emerald shiners.  Some of these little guys get caught in seasonal pools and can't make it back the EB.  But enough get back to feed the trout that we are after.  

   

When I don't think there will be much in the way of surface activity I'll tie on a tiny shiner pattern that is only about an inch long tied onto a size 8 short shank egg hook.  The little guys seem to want to hang out in the deeper sections and this pattern with its heavier hook gets their attention !

The  material that I use for this fly is the same as I use for stripers, it's just scaled down to fit the game. I've used this Tiny bait fish pattern at Wachusett with good results.

Ken

Why I Don't like Beadheads

 

The great Sylvester Nemes was the godfather of the soft hackle fly.  Now, I said "godfather" and not the "creator" of the soft hackle. That distinction goes back centuries to who knows who (too many to name here) but Nemes brought the fly back from the dead and showed us all how to fish it.  He also lived long enough to see what we did to this fly - we gave it a metal helmet which it never needed and called it a beadhead!!!!

His wife was pretty vocal about this concoction and said more than once that Sylvester did not consider it to really be flyfishing. An old fishing buddy (Jim Bowker) of Sylvester's said that Nemes would chew his butt off when he saw him fishing a beadhead.  

I have written on this blog how I think that the BH stretches the definition of flyfishing by showing anyone who was interested that a trout will grab a bead that has been glued to a hook and doesn't really look like trout food.  Thomas Ames, Jr., who wrote the great book, Hatch Guide For New England Streams, really couldn't say what the bead was supposed to represent.  I think it's just an attractor that sinks unnaturally fast and that's that!!!!!

In the past 25 years the vast majority of my sunken fly trout have been caught on soft hackles. Most of the time I use no weight but when I do it's with drop shot. I get hung up enough to know that I'm fishing in the zone.  If I see surface activity it's very easy to pull off the shot and go at it.

BTW, I fish subsurface on the Swift with nothing smaller that 5X and my 5X gets me down quick enough and I believe I've never had a refusal on the Swift because of 5X tippet.

Ken

BTW, I Have Something To Say About Fishing Equipment

 "Basically all a noodle rod is is a fly rod with a spinning handle" - Anonymous post on a steelhead forum.

The first time I saw one of these outfits was on the Stillwater River during the Fall salmon run.  It was at least 10 feet long and fairly soft after the middle of the rod and was loaded with, what looked like, 4X mono with some kind of nymph at the business end. It was, in my opinion, too long for a tiny (and CROWDED) stream like the Stillwater but I could see where the owner of one of these rods could walk right up to the Y Pool and, using the same logic (?) that guides the DFW(?), tie on a PT Nymph and start fishing. Current regs forbid that. One has to use conventional fly fishing gear (it says) to fish there along with tenkara fishers who do not use conventional gear.

Let's  muddy the waters a bit more.  Tightline angling is, for the most part, fishing with MONO. In some waters mono leaders cannot exceed certain lengths and many of the fly reels there are loaded to the max with mono and far outcast Tenkara guys.

The Flymph

We should make this simple.  The determining factor as far as legal fishing goes on C&R waters should be this:

1. Use ANY fishing equipment that you like but NO BAIT. You can use a spinning rod, a bobber and an artificial fly. That's what indicator flyfishers basically do.

2. Single, barbless hooks only

3. This makes the regs simple and enforcable!!

If you think I'm going overboard on this wait until you see my next suggestion.

Ken

Happy Thanksgiving  

 

A look At Classic Wets

 

"Flyfishing is the most fun you can have standing up" - Arnold Gingrich

Back in the first half of the LAST CENTURY your main choices for flies were limited to dry flies, wet flies and streamers.  Hardly any notice was given to nymphs and terrestrials and what passed for an insect imitation was basically a joke. Imagine a wet salmon fly with over 24 different feathers in it's constuction!!!

Not all was lost because some flies were created and then stood the test of time.  The fly above is my version of the Light Cahill, named after a Dan Cahill who worked for the Erie Railroad. Legend has it that a train wreck threatened a shipment of rainbow trout.  Cahill mustered a team of men together to transport the cans of trout overland to Callicoon Creek. Within 10 years that stream was known for it's rainbow fishing and Dan had a fly named after him.

I like using the fly above early on a "sulphur day" (a warm June day) and then switch over to a dry when the trout start working the surface in the early evening.

The Blue Dun is a 19th century creation that still is catching trout although it has gone through its own evolution. The purple body is my adaptation and it seems to work as well as the more famous olive body. (it's a BWP and not a BWO).

 I like these flies because they actually look like insects unlike todays beadheaded monstrosities!

Ken

" An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

This has been a trying month for me due to a broken ankle.  My time has been used up by tying flies, writing a blog post or two, tying flies (again) and reading blog posts about my favorite rivers.  I've seen some questionable blog entries where an author tries to justify a personal position which isn't necessarily a bad thing but when a writer pens something that is totally wrong someone should take notice of it.

I found the following" Second, the Swift below Cady Lane is catch and release 100% of the time".  That statement is totally WRONG. All one has to do is read the DFW regulations to be set straight. 

It makes me wonder what else is out there!!

Ken

 

The Weighted Wet

 

"The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope". - John Buchan

Who says you can't add weight to a standard wet fly such as a soft hackle.  I've been added weight to soft hackles in the form of non toxic wire for years.  I like it because I feel that the trout are attracted to the "body" and not the metal "helmet" of a bead head.  I feel that the fly that I'm offering has to some how look "natural" and not like a piece of costume jewlery. My only concession to "glitter" is the red head such as the one on the fly pictured above. Sometimes I will only use a turn or two of wire on the fly. It adds just enough weight but it can be hardly noticable on a cold day with cold fingers. The red head marks the fly as "weighted".

Remember, try to leave the brookies, who are on their redds, alone. 

Don't wade on the gravel but confine your tip toeing to the weeds and leaf litter.  Brookies don't spawn on that stuff.

Good Luck!

Ken

The More Things Change..........

 "The difference between fly fishers and worm dunkers is the quality of their excuses". Anonymous

For decades and decades the hallmark of fly rod construction was seen in the beautiful, top of the line, bamboo rod. It was the rod that owners treasured and  would spend REAL money for. It was also a rod that, because of its material, was fragile.  The creators of these bamboo rods understood that and did something about it.  They offered an extra tip (tips usually break first) without additional cost. (actually the cost may have been buried in the base price but nobody seemed to care). The buyer went home with the insurance policy of an extra tip. Let's say he breaks the tip the next day.  He can still fish because he has a spare tip!

Today we have to ship the broken piece back, or the whole rod, and wait weeks or months for a replacement.  Let's do what the old timers did and sell us a rod with TWO tips. If we don't blink at a $900 price for a fly rod why not $1200 for a rod with the extra tip.  From what little poking around that I've done I've found two companies that do just that (Moonshine is one).

I've always thought that eruo rods cannot stand up to a traditional casting stroke and work best when the heavy fly is "flopped" into the water. That way the heavy fly is not flying through the atmosphere at 120 miles an hour ready to destroy any rod tip in it's path!!!

My Ankle

It's been 2.5 weeks in this cast with maybe another four weeks to go.  Thank God for fly tying BUT I want to go fishing!!

Ken

The C.K. Nymph

 

This nugget of a trout fly was conjured up by one Chuck Kraft way back in 1961. Back then the averge nymph fly had a bare minimum of materials built in ( this has 3) and was drab and natural looking.  I like it because it fits the way I fish bigger nymphs - short line and slow, picking pockets as I slowly move along the river.

Hook - standard traditional streamer hook size 10 to 12.

Weight - this is OPTIONAL. I mostly fish it with a drop shot which allows me to go from zero weight to HEAVY in a second or two.  Tie some with wire anyway if you want.

Tail - Most use mallard but I don't. I use grouse or pheasant  fluff to match the body.

Body - any fur will do but the buggier the better.

Hackle - whatever you use make sure it's the lowest grade that you have. Palmer it on and then clip it.

You can rib it with wire but it's not necessary.

If you have broken at least two Euro Nymph rods in the past two years in the act of casting then shelve those critters and use a long standard rod with a stouter tip.  That's what I do.  My casts are shorter with a wider loop and I'm still catching trout (well I was until I blew out my ankle).

Ken

A BWO Dry- Size 24 (The Way It Should Be)

 "Something to think about: If you fish the wrong fly long and hard enough, it will sooner or later become the right fly". - John Gierach

It pays to stop fishing and start observing.  I was a very young man fishing the evening rise on the Squannacook River around Townsend Ma. Trout were rising EVERYWHERE and I got lucky and caught a few BUT I became utterly flummoxed by the behavior of those browns. A cahill type mayfly would come drifting downstream and go totally unmolested by the trout.  Then suddenly a trout would rise where no mayfly existed!!!  "What the F" is this about." Time to figure this out and just observe what was going on. (I was the only one on that section of the river so I knew I wouldn't be giving up my spot)!!

It became obvious that it was a food source (insect) that they were after but I just couldn't see it. So I went a few yards upstream with a wet Cahill and began to swing it over the "rises". All hell broke loose that night and this became my dry fly approach going forward: swing the appropriate wet fly (soft hackle) and when the surface action really takes over switch to a dry.  My dry of choice for freestone evenings has always been a comparadun. It's visible in low light and it wants to float!

Tails You Lose

Check out the fly in the above photo.  It's a size 22 BWO dry tied on a Saber hook, #7051  (very good hooks at a great price).  Notice that there is NO TAIL on this fly and that is because we tie tails to keep the back end of the fly floating. WE DON'T WANT THAT!! We want the fly to mimic the real insect by making it look real: front end poking up through the surface film and the rear end following the front end. Dust this fly up and it will float forever.  That's what I discovered on that Squannacook evening almost 50 years ago.

Saber hook size 20 through 24

Thread - 12/0 brown or olive

Wing - Hareline post wing (medium dun)

Wing Foundation - synthetic dubbing to match wing color.

Ken

Too Beautiful To Discribe

 "We fish for hours to hold a trout for a few seconds" - John Gierach

It's Fall in New England and if you can't be taken aback by the sheer wonder of this landscape there must be something wrong with you. Sure, there's leaves in the water but that situation will drift away in a week or two. Then we will welcome November which in my mind is probably the most underrated flyfishing month in New England.

Do you know what else makes these months special? No biting insects and not many crowds on the water. Yes, the Swift and the Farmie will still have their mobs but places like the Millers, the EB are rounding into form.  The Millers is at 656 cfs, the EB is at 1150 (high but dropping) and the Swift is at 56 cfs. (perfect)  Don't hit the Millers or the EB until they are around 500 cfs.

And don't forget the Ware!!!! Anything below 500 cfs will work.

Leave the Brookies alone

So, I've left the dark side and now believe we should practice not just "catch and release" for brookies but full blown "hands off" on the Swift for this species. Sure, there will be some "by catch" but leave the redds alone!!!!!!!  The Swift, in my not so humble opinion, is an absolute treasure and the best brookie fishery in New England.  Where else can you catch native brookies that exceed 20 inches and enough 15 inchers to where people don't even brag anymore????

If you don't like that then just chase the clonebows.  The DFW loves to stock them!!!

Ken

Fly Rods And Why They Break

 

"If I'm not going to catch anything then I'd rather not catch anything on flies". - Bob Lawless

It's that time of year when the weather is still fishable (much like early April) but it's been months with the same techniques and flies and I needed to shake things up. No, I'm not on the streamer bandwagon because I like small flies and light lines and light rods. So we change up the fly recipes and see what happens.

As I mentioned in the last two blog posts I worked up two flies - The Copper and Grouse and the Partridge and Red. I fished the P & R first through a 50 yard section twice and took 3 brook trout between 6 and 8 inches.  Then I switched over to the Copper and Grouse, fished the same water where I took 2 brookies between 11 and 14 inches.  All this took a bit over 2 hours.

What does all this mean????  Answer = NOTHING!!!  It's just me entertaining myself.  Both flies will work at any time.



Broken Rods Again

Yup, I read AGAIN where another angler broke ANOTHER nymph rod!!! Without a doubt this style of construction has not stood the test of time and we as rod owners practice some careless habits that hastens a rods death and that's why I think it's a good idea to reprint a post from a while ago on this subject.

It was May of 2017 when the end came. The rod broke in mid section while casting a soft hackle on the Bliss Pool. I will say that it was a memorable occasion BECAUSE I was into my 14th year with that 8 foot, 4wt graphite rod and it was the only time a rod of mine broke while in the act of fishing! The rod was built by a club member and I won it in a raffle and its sweet moderate action made it my "go to" Swift River rod or whenever I knew that I would not be casting bead heads and such. ( I leave that task to the stouter rods). I put lots of mileage on my rods, easily more than the average angler, but I am careful with what I do. That's why I'm still fishing 10 year old rods (and catching fish!!)

Operator Error or Material/Design Flaw??

It's almost always operator error and I'm not taking about car doors, trunk lids or ceiling fans but the careless things we do while in waders. (I'll discuss design failure later) Here's a good list:

Candy Cane Rod -

You've seen this and you may be guilty of it too. You are bringing in a trout with your rod held at the high NOON position so that the tip is horribly stressed.  It will break then or 200 casts later and we will blame the rod company but it's really our fault. Now, years ago in the age of bamboo and fiberglass rods were always shorter so netting a trout was much easier. Now we have 10 and 11 foot rods which makes it harder to reach the fish with a net. The result is to Candy Cane the rod. Instead, hold the rod behind you as you extend your net arm so that the rod forms a sloping arc. That way you are fishing a "shorter" rod putting the fish closer to you.

Ultra long rods  can present problems for the short armed, vertically challenged among us.  One solution is to hire a gillie!!!

Death By Beadhead

Before beadheads came around we added weight by wrapping lead wire on the hook shank and then cushioned it with dubbing and wraps of material.  Then we began to see (well, I think so) an increase in breakage especially in the tip section. I knew a saltwater guide whose clients broke four quality loaner rods one season learning to cast clousers!!!  The beadhead fly can hit speeds of 200 mph on the cast! All it needs is to just touch the rod tip and you will have a broken rod either then or later when it finally fails. That's why that special rod of mine lasted so long - no beadheads!!!!

Seating Ferrules 

Make it a habit to check the seating of your ferrules during the day on a river.  A loose ferrule will weaken the wall strength of a graphite or glass rod.  AND DON'T TWIST THEM ON!!! Push together, push apart and that's it. Twisting will also weaken the wall strength and you may have a devil of a time taking the rod apart.

Don't Walk With The Rod Tip Behind You

Two fly fishers were walking along a river, one behind the other. The first one had his rod pointing behind him.  He suddenly stopped walking but the guy behind him didn't and rear ended him breaking the guys rod tip. The rod tip is the most fragile part of the rod and I want to know where it is all of the times. So, rod tips first!!!

Or Material Design Flaws And The Problem With Warranties 

As I said most rod failures are due to operator error but one has to take a long look at the design of many rods, especially the nymph variety. They are stretched out to 10 feet and over 11 feet in some models. They are incredibly light with sensitive tips and if what I see on internet searches is to be believed they have a fairly high failure rate. It appears that they just don't stand up to fly fishing.  Here is my suggestion: If you want a new rod then search the web for everything about it for breakage (those forums are loaded with info.) and if you see more than two complaints about breakage then find another rod company.

So what's wrong with warranties? Actually everything!  Let's say you buy a rod for $800 and it breaks in half on the first day out (this happens, check the web). You send the rod back with $50 and wait for the repair or replacement. In the meantime you are saying things like "$50, that's reasonable".  Did it ever dawn on you that part of that $800 price tag may have been made up by factoring in the cost of the warranty.  Maybe you are paying on it twice! Remember, the rod companies are NOT going to loose money on you!!!

 

Operator Error or Material/Design Flaw??

It's almost always operator error and I'm not taking about car doors, trunk lids or ceiling fans but the careless things we do while in waders. (I'll discuss design failure later) Here's a good list:

 

Or Material Design Flaws And The Problem With Warranties 

As I said most rod failures are due to operator error but one has to take a long look at the design of many rods, especially the nymph variety. They are stretched out to 10 feet and over 11 feet in some models. They are incredibly light with sensitive tips and if what I see on internet searches is to be believed they have a fairly high failure rate. It appears that they just don't stand up to fly fishing.  Here is my suggestion: If you want a new rod then search the web for everything about it for breakage (those forums are loaded with info.) and if you see more than two complaints about breakage then find another rod company.

So what's wrong with warranties? Actually everything!  Let's say you buy a rod for $800 and it breaks in half on the first day out (this happens, check the web). You send the rod back with $50 and wait for the repair or replacement. In the meantime you are saying things like "$50, that's reasonable".  Did it ever dawn on you that part of that $800 price tag may have been made up by factoring in the cost of the warranty.  Maybe you are paying on it twice! Remember, the rod companies are NOT going to loose money on you!!!

I like an honest warranty that covers materials and workmanship only. The fly fishing industry sailed over the Falls when it offered  "no questions asked about the dumb ass way you mishandled the rod" kind of warranty. Maybe we would appreciate the craftsmanship more and take better care of rods if they were not so easily replaced!  

 

Ken

The October Caddis

 

The October Caddis

"Fishing for landlocked salmon is like scale-model Atlantic salmon fishing: all the frustration for a fraction of the price"- John Gierach

"They were all over me." October Caddis that is! This is a true event on autumn trout streams especially on the fertile freestones that we like to fish like the Millers. This orange/brownish caddis can fill the air but it can also disappoint if you don't know it's life cycle. This insect is not going to rise through the water column followed by slashing trout most of the time. It prefers to hatch on the shore and then fly away. Maybe that's why the Partridge and Orange is so good around now.

Are there dry fly opportunities with this insect? Yes, but it will come with the end of the mating swarm near evening when most fly guys decide to pack it up. The above fly works because it looks like a spent insect and incorporates the materials to achieve that look.

This is really a freestone fly and is not common on tailwaters. The Millers and the Ware are best for this fly.

Hook - size 14 standard dry

Body - orange/brown rabbit dubbing

Wing - clump of orange/brown hen hackle fibers (an underwing of CDC will work to float the fly longer

Hackle - brown grizzly size 14-16

Head - brown rabbit dubbing

One can fish this fly dry and then wet. It works both ways. 

Back At It

 

"I'm not against golf, since I cannot but suspect it keeps armies of the unworthy from discovering trout".  - Paul O'Neil

It has been a strange Summer for me on the trout fishing stage. First, I did very little trout fishing because I just grew very tired of playing with clonebows. One gets the feeling that most bows stocked in May are dead by Labor Day.  I fish for brook trout in the Swift because they are not the cookie cutter brookies that the DFW stock in other waters but the REAL THING: stream born brook trout!!

I love brown trout because they can tolerate less than pristine environments and provide us with with that summer evening surface activity that a freestone fly fisher dreams about.  They get "wild" by early Summer and are a challenge on early Fall evenings!!!!

Now for a recap of this Summer. Caught some trout, caught some stripers, caught some blues and managed to break my right ankle (medial malleoulus) which will put me on the IR for the rest of the season.  

Good time to brush up on my birding!!!

Ken

The Millers And It's Smallies

 "The fish bite twice a day - just before we get there and just after we leave" - Unknown

The Millers is a great smallmouth River and anyone who has been there can vouch for that.  Lots of "Snapper" bass in the 6 to 8 inch range are always willing to do battle with you but you may be looking for something more.  If you want larger smallies you have to ditch your trout flies and go with something bigger and heavier to get down to where these fish live. Here are a few tales of some encounters with big bass on the Millers.

The photo above is of a women I guided one hot, humid June day.  The scene is at the Bridge Street Pool in Erving and I set her up with (you guessed it) a size 10 black wooley bugger which is simply a great fly. It had a weighted body to get it down to the depths of that pool and it worked because after a 10 minute battle she cradled and released a 15 inch smallie. BTW, this pool gave up the largest SMB I've seen on the Millers that tipped the scale at 4lb!!! The hardware fisher had a single hook lure and easily released that fish.

Let's go upstream to the Kempfield Pool (just downstream from where Whetestone Brook joins in) and I'm fishing a black Marabou Leech when something BIG smacks it and tears off downstream. There is no happy ending to this story because it threw the hook after a 10 second battle but not until it tore off about 50 feet of line off my reel.  A big brown??  I think it was a big smallie.

Now, let's wade upstream to the very head of this section.  There is a HUGE boulder near the middle of the river (you can't miss it) and across from that boulder is a series of large brown rocks.  I put a large, heavy stonefly nymph against one of those rocks and had a massive hit which took line from my reel as I ran after it.  There was a flyfisher fishing right at the bend in the river and he netted my fish.  Was it the mother of all Millers brown trout?  Nope, but a 16 inch smallmouth!!!!

Then there was the time when I was fishing just below the Holtshire Rd bridge to a steadily rising fish that was tucked right up against one of the bridge supports.  Nice brown I thought as it sipped in my comparadun.  Wrong again. It was a smallie of around 14 inches that went airbourne before running out of gas after a good run.

I've caught others in that river but these are etched in my memory just like the brutes I've lugged out of Wachusett Reservoir.

There are many mid sized rivers in eastern and central Ma that have smallmouth bass and are begging to be fished.

Ken

Thank You, A Very Good Fly And Relief From The Heat

"Remember, fairness is a human idea largely unknown in nature" - John Gierach

When I decided to take a break from this blog back in May I took the chance (in my mind) that the readership would disappear.  Not so!! Page views dropped a bit but not that much ( they must be reading the old stuff).  Page views are strong and so are the comments.  THANK YOU!!!!!!

Check out the fly above.  It's got bead chain eyes, a soft hackle collar, a dubbed body and a marabou tail. It's tied on a size 12 nymph hook and it imitates a dragon fly nymph, a crayfish, a stonefly nymph or a scalpin. Yvon Chouinard of Patagonian fame has caught bonefish on a pheasant tail.  This fly would do it too!!

Yes, the July heat and humidity sucked but it broke Saturday night which will put some life into our freestones but it also sent me to the kitchen to work up some pasta sauce which I have been avoiding because of the hot weather.

Cut up some garden zucchini, sautee in olive oil which some oinion, throw in some soy sauce, lots of black pepper and some diced tomatoes.  Cover with parmesan and have fun.

I'd like to take a trip to the Ware River to see if I can duplicate what happened 2 years ago. I went about a 1/2 mile upstream from the usual strting point and with a soft hackle fly took about a dozen CRAPPIE which was awesome!!!!!

Try It!

Ken

The Highs And Lows Of July

 

"Something to think about - If you fish the wrong fly long and hard enough it will sooner or later become the right fly"  - John Gierach

It's been a horrible July if you are a Northeast flyfisher but it's been a great July if you like to kayak which I don't. As I write the rivers are at this level:

Farmington at Riverton - 1170 cfs (too high)

Millers - 1910 (way too high)

Westfield - 1050 (too high)  wait until it's at 500

Ware - 318 (high but ok)

Swift - 48 cfs (absolutely perfect, for me anyway) Try to hit this river on week days and the earlier the better to avoid the kayak crowd. If weekends are your only option then get there VERY EARLY (before 8am) before the fishing is ruined.  You can always go above Route 9 but it gets crowded early.

I included the photo of the big brown just to remind you that the trout are still there.  Now, here's a question - does the Swift produce bigger browns than the Farmington?  I think yes. We know that it's a much better brookie fishery and a better bet for quality fishing while the Farmie is running high!!

Go Fish

Ken

What's Up?

 

"I don't really know how to tie a fly until I've tied a hundred dozen of them".  John Gierach

So I decided to take some time off from what we like to call "flyfishing for trout" or what is more accuratley described as "flyfishing for dumb ass hatchery trout".  After 50+ years I have had it.  My fishing this year, and most of last year, has been for STREAM BORN fish and that has left me fishing the non-stocked "thin blue lines" when they have enough water to fish and the Swift River.  Wait a minute, the Swift is stocked dumb ass hatchery trout.  Yes, but where I fish it's all mostly NATIVE BROOKIES and that's what I want!!  My three best days on the Swift have produced 27 brookies (all of dries), 16 brookies and 15 brookies.  I have waded right past rising rainbows and just didn't care.  My opinion is that any stream that is stocked with clonebows is a degraded stream.  Those fish do not survive, for the most part, to make it to Labor Day. I just read an article where the DFW doesn't really know where their Swift River 'bows go even after all of the shocking surveys.  Note to DFW: Stop stocking the Swift with rainbows and protect the brookies and the monster browns.  (the same article stated that the goal of the DFW is to enhance the "put and take" fishery in this State - enough said!!!!)

 When rivers get low warm I switch to smallmouth which are a great fish and are always there to entertain!!  And yup, I've been chasing stripers with limited success but it's been fun!!!

Thanks for hanging on since May.  I haven't died and am still fishing and tying flies.  I actually feel like writing again.

Ken

My Tiny Flies

 

Pinheads

If you like to fish tailwaters like the Swift and the Farmington you will need the tiny flies that we like to call midges. Actually they can be Diptera (true flies), tiny Mayflies, tiny caddis flies, tiny aquatic worms and so on.  

Hot Spot

The sizes that I fish are in the 18 to 24 range.  I don't need to go down to the 28/30 range to catch these fish.  I may tie a small fly on a larger hook (28 fly on a 24 hook) which seems to fool them at times.

These flies are effective all year long, especially in the Winter although I've had great success on the Swift's Bubbler Arm on hot Summer days.

Both of these flies were invented on the Swift River!!

Ken 

The Flies I use

 

"Fishermen who care too much about the size and numbers of fish they catch are insufferable on good days and as hurried as overworked executives on slow ones".  John Gierach

I don't really believe in "super flies", those semi-mythical concoctions that are supposed to work all of the time.  Many are designed to catch the attention of trout and flyfishers (an attractor) such as the rainbow warrior and not to imitate a natural stream born food item such as your basic drab nymph.  Size, shape and movement are the most important elements of fly design which is probably why the cursed wooley bugger catches so many fish.  I've been high sticking buggers upstream for a few decades and tie them with some weight and a little flash and always in black, olive or brown.  

Drifting buggers so they get down deep makes a lot of sense. They represent a food source that's found near the bottom but are often fished as a mid level streamer being pulled against the current like a baitfish which is not as effective.  That will attract freshly stocked trout but as trout wise up after being stocked that strategy begins to fail.  I remember June and July evenings on the Millers where  a small (size 12) bugger was the ticket until around dusk when I began to see rising trout and then the game changed to light colored soft hackles and then to comparadun flies when the light dimmed.

I would not venture onto a tailwater like the Swift at mid day or later during the early summer without a good supply of the fly pictured in this post.  A soft hackle Sulphur is deadly when the Sulphurs are hatching. High sticking or swinging this fly will get it done. Size 16 is the best.

Remember one thing - early season success, many times, is the result of fishing over new (dumb) fish with flies that mimic nothing that is found in the stream.  You will do well until the season changes and the water flow drops.  I LOVE LOW WATER. Many of our tight line brothers and sisters HATE that condition because those depth charge weighted nymphs sink too fast and get caught up in the weeds. A soft hackle emerger plays in that mid current zone which is what you want!!

Ken

Stoneflies And The Millers

 

Fish sense, applied in the field, is what the old Zen masters would call Enlightenment: simply the ability to see what's right in front of you without having to sift through a lot of thoughts and theories and, yes, expensive fishing tackle."John Gierach

The Millers River is loaded with Stoneflies. When I first started fishing this river back over 30 years ago I was absolutely astonished by the sheer number of stonefly casings found on the rocks along and in the river. Not to be confused with the damsel fly (that's another story) the Stone becomes the main insect for trout hunters from late May through June on the lower Millers from Wendell Depot downstream. It's never been the star of the show upstream in Royalston (Bears Den) like it is miles below.
(photo by Thomas Ames, Jr.)

The Stonefly nymph is more valuable to the fly fisher than the Dry version. Any stimulator/small muddler type will get the job done imitating the egg laying adult. The nymph is one of those aquatic insects that hatches not by rising through the water column but by climbing rocks that protrude above the waters surface or rocks along the shoreline just like damsel flies, many caddis and Isonychia nymphs. This environment is characterized by riffles. Fish the riffles and pocket water in late May and June by dead drifting this fly on a short leash!!

I've featured some stones in the past but my favorites always fall back on a larger nymph that has a yellow/brown cast to it. No need to go nuts with hackle and other things when building stones and I've found that good old ostrich works well imitating gills and legs.

Hook - size 10 nymph hook with some weight added.

Tail - some partridge fibers

Body - I use a synthetic yellow dubbing with some sparkle built into the fibers. Synthetic holds up well to rocks and trout

Gills - light brown ostrich palmered around the full body or by the thorax. I prefer the thorax style.

Wing Pad - I've used everything from duck quill, turkey quill, bunches of pheasant tail fibers and so on. The one above has a pad of Thin Skin which also works (golden oak is the color of the thin skin)

Added Feature - Run a brown sharpee down the back of this fly and you'll have created much of the color scheme of this insect.

All the streams are getting into good shape.  Get out there!!

Ken