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
12 comments:
Good morning Ken- Stocked bows are fun to catch and photos of them will impress your friends, the ones that don’t fish. I think most serious anglers would agree they are not a standard to judge your skills by. The reality is that freshly stocked trout are no more difficult to catch than Bluegills in a small pool. The stockers that survive the rooster tail-worm and bobber crowd do get smart in a few weeks and can be good sport. I spend a fair amount of my fishing time trying to fool the small wild browns and natives on the Quinapoxet and on most days they don’t make it easy. While out there on one September day a few years back, I caught 15 reasonably sized Rainbows. A quick check of the state website told me the stocking truck was there the day before. It really was great fun, but for me I get far more satisfaction catching their smaller, far more wary wild cousins.
Dean F,
I agree with you on your comment in general but catching freshly stocked rainbows is a fools game. I once guided two gents on the EB of the Westfield where we landed about 50 bows a few days after an October stocking. Lots of fish but no real skill required. The same after an October stocking on the Millers. The trout, all bows, were stacked up at the stocking points and left the impression that this would be a normal day. A huge rain event occurred and ended that dream. Sadly, many flyfishers think that big catches equal proficiency with a fly rod but many are not skilled with a dry fly to make much of a difference.
Heavy rain and some snow for Wednesday. The dicussion continues!
Ken
Up to a foot of snow for the higher elevations of North Worcester County--my stomping grounds, so that will blow out the blue lines for a while, too.
Charles,
In over 50 years of fishing Ma I have never seen such a wet/snowy early Spring. I have not seen the rivers in such poor shape either.
Ken
Good news! The Swift has fallen from a high of 1050 down to 858. Bad news! 2 inches of rain due this week. Two words: oh well.
I've never seen all the major rivers in Western and Central Mass stock before April 1st. Seems to me there is little to no thought process going into the stocking schedule!
Just get them out there and be done with.
Jim in Westfie;d
The first year of covid was an early stocking.
Bob O,
Watch, by mid June we will be in a prolonged draught!!!!!
Ken
Darn...another 1.5 inches of rain late next week. This might be a summer to find a nice pond with plenty of back cast space and try to land my first largemouth on a fly rod. Having grown up in the Carolinas and catching them up to 10 pounds on spinning gear, I imagine a nice largemouth on an 8-wt is a pretty good tussle.
Charles
Dear Ken,
This afternoon the Swift River's flow was 1020 CFS. Because past flows of this magnitude have taken a median of 8.8 weeks to subside, it's unlikely that we will see fishable flows on the Swift before June 5th, give or take a week.
In the meantime I'll tie more flies, rebuild an old rod, fish small streams in the Catskills, and wait for the schoolies and bluefish to arrive.
-Mike
Mike,
Two months until the Swift is fishable!!!!! I'll remember that!!
Ken
Dear Ken,
Let's all hope that Mother Nature and the MWRA prove me wrong!
However, the last two Swift River flows with April maxima of 1,000+ CFS first dropped below 150 CFS on the following dates: June 20 2007 and June 8 2010. Ominous ...
-Mike
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