Old School Tying

 

"When your friend on the next pool tells you that he's just seen a few "Sulphurs" hatching he is really just suggesting a fly pattern, because the name might mean anything from a size 24 Baetid to a size 10 Anthopotamus Distinctus, two insects with very different behavior.- Thomas Ames Jr.

It was back in the mid 1990's when we had a good Spring flood, nothing like this year, but still epic.  It didn't keep me off the Millers but it kept me fishing from the shore and fishing from the shore sucks.  So did the tackle I concocted to get the distance and depth required: a 9 ft 8wt loaded with mono running line. At the business end of this mess was one of a few lead jig hooks  tied up to look and act like shad flies.

Long story short.  I caught a few clonebows and then went home realizing that there is more to fishing than catching fish and if I'm not casting a REAL fly line I'm not flyfishing and if my fly resembles a depth charge instead of an insect I'm also not flyfishing.

I would rather fish with the fly pictured above than with a day glow bead head any day. 

It's just me but probably not you!!

The Rivers - 

Millers - 779

Swift    - 615

EB       -688

Ware    - 242  The Ware is your best bet

Ken

Once Upon A Time........

 

"Give a man a fish and he has food for the day. Teach him how to fish and you can get rid of him for the entire weekend." - Zenna Schaffer

Red Quill

The dry fly was created in Jolly Olde England by a Mr. Frederic Halford. Samples were sent by mail to a Mr. Theodore Gordon in the USA who immediately began to modify them. This transaction changed the lives of both of these men and anyone who else who liked the idea of catching trout on a floating fly.

The first generation of transatlantic flies floated on stiff hackle tips and really didn't look much like the natural aquatic insects they were supposed to imitate. Improvements came quickly in the form of better floatants, thinner tippet material, better roosters and a million other things that has jacked up the price of our pastoral pastime into the thousands of dollars not counting travel and lodging expenses!

The mantra of many of us is: If I can afford it I'll do it. That is music to the ears of me, a former salesman. But my head still spins when I think of a guy I met who was into the sport for less than 10 years but had over 50 fly rods. I told him that they have treatments for that compulsion. 

He just laughed!

The rivers are dropping.

The Worst Spring

    " Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction"-Steve Mathewson

Yes, some of the rivers are receding and some are not.  The Millers dropped 690 cfs in the last two days. At 2550 cfs it's in tough shape but heading in the right direction.

The Ware has dropped 156 cfs over the same time span and as I write it sits at 345 cfs which is fishable if you are a good and careful wader.

The EB and the Swift are a mess!!!

The great news is that there is no real RAIN in the forecast for the next week.

Ken

In Praise Of Browns

 Backcast to the mid 1980s when the Deerfield/Millers Chapter of Trout Unlimited convinced the Ma DFW that the Millers was a BROWN TROUT river and should be managed as such. Our Chapter worked with the DFW to sample the river by electroshock back in the early Fall of 1990 and the results where predicted. We sampled the river and came up with ZERO rainbows (thousands were stocked that Spring) but we came up with a good number of browns even though very few were stocked that year.  We fin clipped the browns that Spring BUT we came up with a fair number with intact fins.  A few of the DFW guys said they looked like wild fish or maybe were survivors from a stocking two years before. In any event the browns seemed to do well in the Millers but the rainbows "not so much"!!!

Anyone who fishes the Millers knows that by Summer the bows pull a disappearing act but the browns continue to want to play.  This should show us that rainbows are a waste of a resource. Browns are the way to go!!!!

The Flood

We are still dealing with high waters but it will not last forever. 

Ken

Colliding Seasons

In "normal" years we hit the rivers by late March, toss leaden flies to stupid hatchery trout and then by late April Spring is upon us with shrinking flows, warmer temperatures and rising Trout!!!

That will not be the case this season. There's just too much water on our part of the planet to recede that quickly and before we know it the shad will start charging up our coastal rivers followed by striped bass.

That's when the real fishing starts!!!!

I'm getting to the point where if the fish I catch was stocked I'd just as soon fire up the grill and enjoy it.  It's probably a rainbow with next to zero chance of survival and can easily be replaced with a stocking truck visit. (you're right, I don't think too much of hatchery bows.)  I give a pass to native brook trout and brown trout because of their ability to survive.

More rain from Wednesday to Saturday.  Tie some shad flies.

Ken