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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
6 comments:
You have said many times in this blog that a simple change the DNR could make is put the browns in the rivers and rainbows in ponds and lakes. No change required overnight to the hatcheries, but better use of their product. I like this easy adjustment
Good morning Ken- I have fished a small stocked free stone near my house for 15 years. Every spring the state dumps in Rainbows which never survive past early June. This river is a very short drive from my home, and once the Rainbows are gone I still fish it for Fall Fish. I love to fly fish and I don’t always have the time to drive out to trout water. Last summer, I began to catch small, 7” Brown trout on that river. A quick check of the stocking website and sure enough the state had put them in there. I’ve fished that water for 20 years and they have never stocked Browns there. I caught them all summer long continuing through the fall and winter. As recently as yesterday I got two, they are now in the 11”- 14” range and seem to be doing just fine. I’ve had the place to myself and have not seen another angler there since the last of the Rainbows in late last May. BUT that will be coming to a very abrupt end because sadly, in a few days the state will stock Bows which will draw in the catch and keep crowd. They will undoubtedly take their share of these Browns. That’s a shame because I believe that Browns have a real shot at becoming wild in that river. I’m strictly catch and release and who knows, maybe at this point I’ve educated enough of them that they won’t be so easy to fool? Or maybe the state will introduce more Browns with another late spring stocking? I’d like to think that someone at the DFW is paying attention to our pleas for more brown stockings on water where they have a chance of taking hold.
Dean,
You nailed it. The browns will be harder to catch by the catch and keep crowd so let them have the bows. There is a river in central Ma that has always been stocked with browns in late May. You will find it in the stocking report.
Ken
Good morning Ken,
My friend and I are considering the Millers next week if flow is decent, any fly recommendations for mid March? Early morning start fish all day. Is Holtshire Rd bridge still a decent location after all the construction?
Are you still guiding?
Hope all is well
Neil,
I do not recommend am trip to the Millers. As I write the flow is at 2200 and rising which is flood stage. I would not fish the Millers until the flow is at least down to 600 cfs.
It's mid April, not mid March.
It's been 2 years since the bridge redo. Everything is fine.
I don't guide anymore.
I feel fine
Ken
How’d March end up there?
I was watching the flow, didn’t realize it went up to 2000, with no further rain, how long does that usually take to drop?
Ah well might hit kettle ponds on the Cape.
Thanks…
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