Fly Fishing Information On The Millers, Swift, Middle, West and East Branches Of the Westfield River and the Ware, and Mill rivers. YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR MA. FLY FISHING INFORMATION, the top ranked fly fishing blog in Massachusetts! WHAT FLY FISHERS READ!!
Autumn On The EB
Showing posts with label EB and Ware Rivers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EB and Ware Rivers. Show all posts
The rain came and we can take a sigh of relief. As I write:
The Millers is at 321 cfs, up from 90 cfs
The EB is at 122 cfs, up from 95 cfs. It looks likes it's still going up
The Ware is at 41 cfs, up from 30 cfs
The WB is at 47 cfs, up from 25 cfs
Now, it wasn't that these rivers were dead before the rain BECAUSE my clients and I have caught trout in the above rivers, within the last week, before last nights rain. What this gives us in essence is at least another week of better flows which should maintain the best fishing in years on the above rivers. If it rains once a week we will be fine!!
Book Me
Early mornings and evenings will be the rule for the summer here in central New England. 8 am to 11 or 7am to 10 or 6am to 9 works for me and 5pm to 8pm for the evenings. Contact me.
The Millers - What A Week- June 11 through June 17 may have been the best Millers week in memory and with 34 consecutive years fly fishing this river (more than anyone) that is really a statement. It seemed that everyone was catching trout with everything coming on or near the surface.
Your Comments
Keep them coming!!! I'm getting good feedback every day on this and one reader said that he appreciated people who are generous with their information instead of being tight lipped about it.
You certainly nailed that one Ken. I do a lot of small midge nymphing using Gamakatsu C12BM barbless midge large eye hooks. I fish them in sizes 26 to 30 and always use 5X tippet because I can with the large eye. It has never seemed to affect the amount of takes I get plus I can quickly bring the fish to net and get them released without exhausting them. Joe C., July 8, 2015 Ageless advice from a very good angler!
Mayfly Pointers We are rounding into the first of the major mayfly hatches here in New England. By early May the water temperatures will warm significantly and insects will start their hatching process. The first of the large Spring mayflies is the Quill Gordon.
The QG has the misfortune of being misidentified as it's cousin, the Hendrickson, whose hatch overlaps it.
How to identify it -
1. The QC is slightly smaller and will hatch a few days, generally, ahead of the Hendrickson. But the big clue is that the Gordon has only TWO TAILS and the Hendrickson has THREE.
The QC is one of the very few mayflies that DOESN'T rise to the surface as a nymph and then split out of it's nymphal shell. It SHEDS the shell on the stream bottom and rises to the surface as a fully formed insect. That is why wet flies, such as the quill gordon, the coachman and soft hackles are so damn effective.
2. Look for the first week of May and a water temperature in the mid 50's to get these flies going.
3. Look for a mid day emergence and a late afternoon spinner fall. (make arrangements to be there. This is a special time)!!!!
4. If the river flows are not heavy you will not need to use any weight with your fly. The emerging hendrickson nymph is imitated nicely by a partridge and olive soft hackle. Quill Gordons live in strong riffles, hendrickson in not-so-strong riffles.
5. As with most surface rises during "the hatch" the target of the trout is NOT the freshly hatched dun but the struggling emerger who is trying to break through thesurface. They are very easy pickings!! That is why traditional dry patterns with tails and hackles are being replaced with creations such as Bob Wyatt's DHE emerger and Klinkhamer style flies with a criss-cross hackle. Save your tails and parachute styles for the spinner fall!
Your Comments - Take a minute and go back over the last half dozen posts and read the comments. You will find tons of advice from the readers and all of it is good! Our comment writers are not afraid to name streams and even sections of streams!!!! It really is a "blog within a blog"
River Update - The Swift below Rt 9, in the opinion of many, SUCKS!!! I saw a total of 3 trout looking down into the Tree Pool the other day. In the meantime some Greater Boston trickles have received brook, brown and bows ALREADY. Remember, the Swift is a flagship river in Massachusetts for the wading angler and should get more consideration.
Ken
P.S. I got 2 inches of snow last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"There are lies, damned lies, and statistics" - Benjamin Disraeli
Well, I wasn't going back there and by that I mean the Y Pool. If it wasn't for the deep snow and cold of this rapidly fading winter I may not have fished it at all. Let's face it. It's just too damn crowded up there!.But this deep spot was the only game in town or so we thought. The Pipe and the Tree Pool were supposed to be dead as a door nail and I've heard stories of regulars getting skunked for weeks on end and then just giving up. Time to check it out. After all, it's been a few months since I've fished down there.
Both parking lots on Rt 9 were full at 9am so off to the Pipe parking area where there was one vehicle and he was leaving. I suited up and walked downstream where I found one young fly fisher working the Tree Pool and catching fish!!! I took a small brookie in the first hour while he landed about 6 bows. He had found the trout. He asked me about the fishing downstream and I told him about the brookies and the monster browns. That was all he needed to hear and off he went. I then took two bows and another brookie from the vacated spot and then surrendered the pool to another fly fisher. It was a surprising two hours!! It's best not to listen to gossip but to check it out yourself!
I was told that there is a website that can rank blog popularity and specifically fly fishing blog popularity. A key component of the ranking is the use of the Alexa ranking, a standard tool to measure website popularity. Now, I looked up this site and I'm not on that top 75 list even although my Alexa ranking would put me into the top 20. I'm not there BECAUSE I didn't sign up for that company's service.
I don't think I have to pay for a ranking. It is amazing that this little regional blog does as well as it does. (Note: one blog, ranked ranked eight millionth in popularity with only two posts per month, is in the top 12!!! That's all I need to hear.
Above all, observe the fish. Better yet, observe the trout as if you were a predator that needs to catch it, not just a participant in a game. Edited-for-action fly fishing videos, especially ones with hard-rock soundtracks and rambunctious high fives, won't really prepare you for approaching big, spooky trout. Watching your pet cat will give you a better idea of how a predator moves when stalking it prey" - Bob Wyatt, What Trout Want: The Educated Trout And Other Myths
I don't like to do product endorsements because it fuels the "buying instinct" of a lot of anglers which is "the more that I own the better I will become". An $800 fly rod will not make you a better caster than a $300 fly rod but a $300 fly rod with two hours of casting lessons with an instructor will!
Having every tool imaginable dangling from your neck may be impressive in the parking lot but how often do you REALLY use or need them? There are things that we really need and when purchasing we should always go for VALUE and not marketing hype. That is why I give a "hats off" award to Fly Shack and their line of Saber barbless hooks!
Most of the trout flies that I tie are on these hooks. They have that dark, no glare finish, are super sharp and extremely strong. Currently they seem to stop at size 20 but that still covers 90%b of my fly fishing. (their barbed hooks are available down to 26). Now, here's the kicker- THEY COST $6.99 p/hundred!!!! How does that compare with, let's say, the company that offers $80 leader clippers and $250 fly fishing pliers? Their barbless hooks sell at $8.95 p/25!!!! That's 35 cents per hook vs 7 cents per hook and you cannot tell them apart. These guys will be at the Marlborough in January. Check them out and check out the hooks!
As usual, I get NO discounts, merchandise or favors for passing this info on to you.
"Do you need a 50-fish day dredging the depths with three jig-head nymphs drifting under an indicator? Or will half a dozen trout rising to dry flies prove equally fulfilling? - John Shewey, Editor In Chief of Fly Fishing Magazine, September/October 2016 edition
I'm adding two new rivers to my list of rivers that I guide on. First is the North River on the Shelbourne/Colrain line. This is a beautiful stream flowing out of Vermont and into the Deerfield River. It is small,cold and clean with native brook trout plus enough stockers to keep it interesting. It is a series of riffles, runs and pools that will lend itself to all techniques. I'm thinking May and June evenings near it's confluence with the Deerfield Mill River Williamsburg
for some good dry fly fishing.
The Mill river has been my April to June playground because: It's a cold stream and holds its trout well through the above months AND still has trout in August although a drought will make it too bony to fish well. (If the flow is up we will catch trout). It is seldom fished and has some deep runs and holes that keep their trout. It is a great stream to dry fly fish (think a size 14 Adams, picking the riffles and pools with a short line) and working a nymph suspended in mid current can be deadly!
The North River Shelbourne/Colrain
These are small watersheds and a 3 hour excursion should do it. You'll also know where to go when you do a solo trip. So make a note for early Spring and we will get on these great little rivers!
End of Year Trips
Hey, you still have some unused hours on that 2017 license. Lets go to the Swift where we can ply some of the lesser known and fished sections. I did well there just this week. If the temperatures are 30 or above you will be very comfortable in water that is warmer. We can even start later in the morning on a colder day when it's more pleasant. It's all up to you!!!
"Or maybe one day you hit the cosmic hatch. If there are enough insects on the water, trout will sometimes feed so eagerly that they'll lose some of their caution. Not all of it by a long shot, but possibly just enough" - John Gierach
Welcome to the land of feast or famine. A week ago we hoping for rain and now we have it and more and maybe more on the way. Here's the river rundown at 5:00 am on 10/30:
Millers - 3330 CFS!!!!! Last week it was as 140. This river will not be fishable until after Thanksgiving if then. Don't ask for a trip until the flow is below 400 which could be next May!!!
Swift River Bow
The EB - "The river that was not stocked this Fall" is at 1870 cfs and I don't believe the accuracy of that figure because the sister branch, the West Branch, is flowing at 3360!!! In fact, all of the Western Ma. rivers are at official flood stage!!
The Swift - It hit 80 cfs overnight but is now down into the high 50's and dropping. That increase in the flow overnight was not from a dam release but from pure rainfall!!! It's very fishable.
The Ware - In the 300 range and will drop soon. It never got into flood stage!!
The Farmington - (Why am I writing about the Farmington? That's easy! Someone has to. Unlike others, when I say that I "report on rivers" I mean it!!!) The Still River, the tributary, is flowing at 3100 cfs and that says it all!!! The WB of the Farmie is around 360 BUT Massachusetts rain is flooding into the reservoir (1550 coming in but only 360 coming out.
Your BEST source for conditions on the Farmington is not this blog because I don't spend a lot of time down there. The BEST SOURCE is from UPCOUNTRY FLY FISHING which is updated twice weekly with flow conditions, insect info and some good fish tales.
Another Swift River Bow
Fall Flies
I love this time of year on the Swift. The brookies are ganging up, the water is low and zillions of midges (diptera) make the flow below the Pipe an actual soup!!
I have my favorite flies (as do you) and my favorite flies are SMALL and are meant to represent insect larvae or small scuds or small eggs.
My Swift River Killer Bug made the grade but it will not replace some old staples. One of the old staples is the RS2 Sparkle Wing.
This fly is dirt simple to tie. I use scud hooks from size 18 - 24, brown, olive or black floss or thread for the body, some midge flash for the wing stubs and black thread for the head (using a black sharpie does the same thing).
Things didn't really seem to get going on the Swift yesterday morning until we threw this offering on!!!
I'll feature some Fall favorites in the next week!!!!
