We all have our favorite fly hatches. The Sulphers on the Swift and the BWO's are two of mine on this Massachusetts river as are the Quill Gordons on the Ware. The Millers has so many caddis and then you dump in the stoneflies and the mid summer cahills and you can have more than you can deal with. But the hatch that can raise my blood pressure is the Damsel Fly hatch.
There is nothing dainty about this hatch. The adult insect is BIG and a beautiful pale green color BUT it's not the focus of our efforts. The focus is the drab nymph which emerges along the shoreline of our freestones and then climbs onto rocks and logs to hatch. This is not an early morning event or an evening event but a mid day event on the sunniest early June day you can find. When you see the hatching insects on the shore it is time to FISH!!!
The Millers is loaded with them. I've seen trout beach themselves down by the Kempfield Pool trying to catch these nymphs. The EB has the most and a small (size 14 curved nymph hook from Sabre hooks) can give you a double digit day. The best thing is to get into the middle of the Bliss Pool on the EB and cast to the opposite shoreline. During a heavy hatch you can see trout slashing around the shoreline because that's where the nymphs are!!
What to use? Remember the hook style I mentioned above. Tie a bugger style fly in brown or grey, cast to the shore and give it a short quick strip or two.
Forget the tailwaters because the damsels don't like them. It's a freestone game.
Check out the photo above. You can see the beautiful adult insect and two of the casings of the nymph on the rock.
Keep tying!!!!!
Ken
13 comments:
I have encountered them on the Deerfield
Dragonfly casings. They are another good pattern to use.
One of my successful patterns on the Swift is a simple olive/tan marabou size 12 3xl nymph hook. Take about 20 fibers and make a tail shank length then rope the remainder along the thread and wrap to head and tie off. Might be mistaken for a Damsel?
Ken was just actually getting my damsel nymphs tied in preparation for this event. Damsels move BIG trout and can often be the best chance to search for " personal best" status fish!
Pau Fay
Paul,
I've tied some up with bead chain eyes. I like them!!!
Ken
Fabulous photo and an instructive commentary!!!
I ran into them once and fish were slamming adults (maybe egg layers?). It was indeed in June. I have not seen it since but that one time was something.
I encountered that damsel action at the millers in the boulder section (downstream from the RR tracks) , but before the bend to the kempfield. I went back for 3 days and it was pretty consistent. I had no idea what was happening because they are very violent rises and splashes. Not like mayfly or caddis rise. I wasn’t even sure it was a fish at first. Just as Ken said, brown wolly bugger was all you need. Cast it to the bank and slow retrieve and big hits.
I went to the swift to try for some midge fishing and it ended up having been stocked. I learned this by the number of cars below rte 9. Fish are not spread out at all yet and one guy was saying he didn’t see any and nor did I above rte 9. I have to say I found heard of fresh stockers, but it took a while. Where you say? All the way up the spillway into the shallow water below the dry river bed. I had to scaled the gorge hill to get down there, but I took my 10 in short order and left. I am sure they’ll spread out. Weird that non of them seemed to go up the bubbler arm??
Happy Spring, Ken!
Falsecast (Andrew),
You foiund those trout up at the end of the dry bed because that water warms up quicker than the actual river water does. (basically dead water that will warm up quicker) I've had great fishing in this spot with midges while the rest of the river seemed dead. The late Bill Ricardi used to wipe them out in this section in the Spring.
Ken
I was at the Swift early on Saturday morning. The Y-Pool was just the hold overs (I saw one person go to the Spillway around 7am. Plenty of hold overs down stream of the bench too. I found the stocked ones 50 yards above the Rte 9 bridge up against the steep bank (eggs and small streamers). There were also some in the rocks above the Duck Pond. They didn't stock too many, but that is ok.
Was Bill Ricardi the regular above rte 9, had a bad knee, a big nose, a bit of cantankerous temperament, but a wonderful guy and great swift angler? He also fished the Ware quite a bit. I haven’t seen him in the past year or so and wondered how he was. If it’s him, I am sorry to hear it and offer my sincere condolences. I really enjoyed him and his personality. Maybe, I am wrong and it’s someone else. I only knew him as Bill.
Falsecast,
That was Bill
Ken
Those fish up the spillway are probably not recent stockers... you can find fish up there around this time of year even when the river hasn't been stocked yet. They seek protection under the ice some years and stay/move up for the warmer water as Ken stated.
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