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