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
18 comments:
Hi Ken,
How do you fish those tiny flies? I fish some pretty small ones at times, but usually have them as a dropper below a visible dry fly so I know where they are. Otherwise I don't have confidence I will detect a hit. Hope all is well with you.
Regards, Sam
Good to hear from you Sam!
I like to fish them in riffle water with little or no slack line sometimes using weight and sometimes not. The Pinhead fly reminds me of black fly larvae that love living in the riffles like the Bubbler Arm and the Pipe Arm.
Ken
Tiny flies - hate em! Will fish down to a 24 Griffiths but at least its on top so I have a shot at seeing it.
I love ken's tiny pinheads trailing behind a nymph (beaded or not) or even behind a streamer. It generally gets less tangled than using smaller flies as the tag fly IMO.
I was at the Swift on Saturday and the brookies are coming back . . .
I fished the upper portion of Cady Lane (where the parking lot is) and took a fat, 16" brown that fought like hell and then took a 14" rainbow that gave up faster than the French Military. I didn't spy a single brookie.
However, as I made my way down past the cottages, and to the bend at "Pink Flamingo" rock, I started to catch, and see, LOTS of brookies moving up river. Size 18-20 olive Hare's Ears with a 6X tippet did the trick.
Tom from Boston
Tom,
I don't think the brookies are moving upriver this early but you can certainly see "clouds" of them down in Cady Lane through the boat landing which is where most like to "winter". They will begin a slow march upstream this Summer.
Ken
Hi Ken. No new posts since 5/3. Are you still with us?
Still here but decided to take some time off. I'll start up again in June.
I was concerned, it's good to hear you are well Ken ❤️
I hope you have been out fishing, Ken. Most of my time lately has been on freestones, though I have been to the Swift a couple of times also. The Ware in Palmer yielded a couple of nice sized rainbows along one bank, and a couple of small browns along the opposite one. A small stream 10 minutes from my house has been a lot of fun also, mostly 9 - 11 inchers, but also a hefty 15" rainbow that fought like crazy. Mostly sub surface fishing, but the other night a great hatch was taking place with many trout taking advantage. They were not pushovers, however, and I only caught a few of the active fish.
Best Regards, Sam
This may be premature but it appears that one of our favorite blogs has died.
Anonymous,
Not yet!
Ken
I hope not too, but Ken deserves a rest. He tried to "retire" it last year. :) All my best, Ken and hope everyone is having a good summer!
Ken - pay no attention to the skeptics. Hope you are well and back to publishing soon!
As Mark Twain said: 'The report of my death was an exaggeration.'
Another overused and embellished Twain quote! I agree with Falsecast… let’s be patient while Ken takes a much deserved break!
Excellent conversation. The best quote that fits Ken is from The Terminator: 'I'll be back'.
Love it, and love the swift. I recently ventured to the upper east branch. Did very well, surprisingly there are a good number of Brookies, 1 of which was 12 inches.
Post a Comment