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 Fly fishing guide for the Millers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fly fishing guide for the Millers. Show all posts
"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 appears that the size 32 hook is heading to the fly fishing graveyard or to the endangered s.pecies list at least. Not to worry. We will just borrow an old trick used by Atantic Salmon fly fishers and that is the "reduced fly".
Now, you are probably asking yourself " what is a reduced fly?" Simply put, it's a small fly tied on a larger hook. The Salmon gang have been doing this for years when faced with low flows in rivers. The salmon would strike at the "fly" portion and would ignore the large bare hook portion. (trout do the same thing by ignoring the large curved piece of steel sticking out of the butt of the fly!)
I've been tying size 28 and 30 flies on size 24 hooks using this method. In the above photo you will see that the rear portion of the hook is bare and all of the material is up at the thorax. All of that material mimics a size 30 fly. Here's the important point: the trout are not bothered by the bare hook and that larger hook increases hooking success.
It's March and even though snow is in the forecast we are heading towards Spring and it feels great.
"If I couldn't fly fish any longer I would still tie flies" - Me
I've mentioned that quote a million times over the past few years and I truly mean it. It is especially true for ultra dry seasons like this one. It gives us something to do and scratches that "fly fishing itch" that we have.
Here's the story on this very cool streamer wing material. My daughter came back from Michael's Crafts with a bag full of this very fine gossamer synthetic yarn and said that she didn't like it and would I like to have it? Now, I had been hatching plans to commandeer snippets of this material but now it's all mine.
What's it look like?
This yarn is tri-colored, a light blue that fades into a darker blue and then into a dark pink. You can cut off sections of this material and work up 12 inch streamers with it or tie little shiner patterns in a size 12?
It has an absolutely lifelike action and the light blue almost has the color of small eels. Its durability isn't up there with bucktail but it beats marabou and unlike bucktail this material likes to sink.
My daughter couldn't recall the name of the stuff but she said it was dirt cheap. I caught a lonely striper on this material this morning and if the LL Salmon come over the dam this November I'll be waiting for them.
"If evolution is true then maybe certain species of wild fish have gotten wise to us or maybe not" - Me
Backcast 20 to 30 years ago when I would get up at 2:30am, fly through breakfast and then drive like a mad man from Athol to Plum Island to catch an outgoing tide (or an incoming tide) to be there at the RIGHT time. Seagulls were still sleeping in the sand as I made my way to the very lower Merrimack River only to be greeted with 20 other fly casters to chase stripers and blues. Was I pissed at not being among the very first? NO!! And that is because we all caught fish. It was wonderful.
That was then!!! The photo above was from very early Thursday morning (early incoming tide) and you could imagine 20 other fly casters there and that would be the scene from years ago. Now there's nobody and that is because the fish are not there. I saw just three boats out by the jetties and only three bait fishers on the shore. Some of my "contacts" have the same lament. "Forget about putting the boat in the water with the price of gas" is the sorry tale.
Are the stripers gone? Not really. Some of the estuary guys are getting some fish but you need a shallow draft boat to get "out there" which leaves a wading/walking guy at a bit of a disadvantage.
Where are the fly fishers?? I'm thinking that they left the Merrimack for better water. I'll have to find it and there is certainly enough better water out there. I can't say I'm wasting my time because it is certainly beautiful to be tossing long casts just after dawn. All I need is some fish!!
"If you're going to do something tonight that you'll be sorry for tomorrow morning, sleep late." Henny Youngman
If you had only one pattern of dry fly to take care of the vast bulk of your size 12 through 18 presentations it would be the Comparadun, the great creation of Al Caucci and Bob Nastasi. (some may say that Fran Betters created it but that's not so. He created the Haystack, which is close but it's not a Comparadun. The Comparadun can be tied smaller and slimmer , not a Haystack.)
The beauty of this fly is it's floating properties (deer mask for the wing does that) and the fact that it presents the profile of a mayfly without all the other stuff we like to wind on a hook (hackle).
I've been tying and fishing the standard and traditional tie for 35 years (representing a hatched mayfly) but have gone over to a Bob Wyatt emerger style tied on a curved hook but still using the deer hair. It's super effective but not as "pretty" as the Caucci/Nastasi fly.
BTW, I've done very well using artist brush fibers for tailing material for years. Find a large wide brush that that has WHITE, fine fibers that you can touch up with a sharpie.
I don't use this material as much as in the past because of my love affair with emergers but I will work some up just to have them.
Funny
I got a chuckle when I saw that the author of a blog referred to is fishing companions as his "fishy friends". It appears that the author didn't realize that the adjective "fishy", in the American vernacular, means that something is suspicious!!! Enough said.
The Flows
Millers River - 1560 cfs
EB - 572 cfs
Ware River - 414 cfs
Swift River - 442 cfs
Yes, it's been rough. The water is very high on our major rivers and this non stop, NW wind, makes it feel like February at times. Keep the faith and hit the Blue Lines!!
P.S. Need soft hackles?? You know where to get them.
"Fly fishing is a magic way to recapture the rapture of solitude without the pangs of loneliness". - John Volelker
3/22 - The clonebows are in the Swift.
There is one thing we know for sure and it is that no central Ma rivers have been stocked yet. We may see some stocked next week but don't count on it. And even if some are stocked they may be very difficult to fish with the current flows:
The Millers - 1210 cfs and that is very high. If you just NEED to hit the Millers play it safe and fish below the mouth of Orcutt Brook, especially below the new bridge since it is usually fairly safe to wade.
The Ware - At 184 cfs this river is rounding into form. I like anything below 200 cfs and this is just right for swinging soft hackles or dredging caddis pupae. Watch the flows after a heavy rain!!
The EB - They are playing with the flow by holding water back at Littleville. It's now flowing at 702 cfs BUT THAT IS BELOW THE DAM and not upstream towards the Gorge. That water, without heavy rain, should get into that 250 to 350 cfs area. Remember that this section of the EB is one of the last of the major rivers to get stocked in the Spring.
The Swift - It's at 184 cfs and that means they are dumping excess water out of Quabbin. I haven't personally checked the flow out in person but if it's coming over the dam in the Spring you will have what we had a few years ago when smallies, pickerel and perch found their way into the river. (we don't really want that).
If catching fish is your only objective, you are either new to the game or toonarrowly focused on measurable results. - Steve Stuver
Every river that has trout will have certain areas that will be crowded. Now, these spots are crowded for a number of reasons: easy access is one. It's a stocking point is another reason and also the misguided belief that this is the best holding water, therefore we only will fish here (Y Pool and The Pipe). Basically our fellow anglers will forsake 80% of a river and jam themselves into the remaining sections. It's a big mistake!!
The photo to the right is of the upper EB just below the Gorge. I will step into the river looking downstream and start crossing over to the left bank. This is dicey when the flow is 300 or above. I like 200 cfs.
This is where I caught my first EB trout years ago. I never see anyone fishing here and I'm fishing alone all the way down to The Bliss Pool.
This pocket water is perfect for swinging a large soft hackle or a tiny marabou streamer. You will always have plenty of backcasting room fishing on the left side but no room fishing on the right.
A 5wt rod of 8.5 to 9 feet is perfect. I've done well with larger dries here especially in the evening.
Now, If the EB flow is above 300 cfs you may want to drive down to the Bliss Pool, cross over to the opposite side (much easier crossing here than upstream) and start walking upstream and hit those good spots up there.
All that Ice and Flies for Sale
I really can't remember such a COLD month like this past February. A lot of our freestones can actually be walked across and hopefully this will not harm the fish and the insects that live underneath. We don't need a major thaw with tons of rain because that could cause those dreaded ice dams which can ruin a section of river. An easy thaw would be nice.
We lost a true fly fishing friend with the recent passing of Alan Petrucci, the author of that well crafted blog "Small Stream Reflections". Alan was a lover of small "blue lines, great classic fly patterns, great photography and great looking sandwiches!
If you haven't seen Alan's work then just Google up his blog and feast your eyes on over 12 years of great reading.
This has been a bit of a hard winter with the passing of Swift River stalwarts George "wooley bugger" Cunningham, Bill Ricardi and now Alan Petrucci. We need to feel and see Spring quickly and we need to fly fish.
Read some of Alan's blog posts and then find a "thin blue line" to fish.
" The two best times to fish is when it's raining and when it's not" - Patrick F. McManus
My Partridge and Magic has been selling well over the last month. Remember, this is the soft hackle that appears to have a yellow body until it gets wet and that's when it turns this wonderful light orange which is almost translucent. It worked again on a second trip to the EB. You can order them from me on my website by ordering the Partridge and Orange and then sending me an email saying you want the Partridge and Magic instead. They are all the same price and the same size as the P&O.
Booking the Ware, Swift and the Millers.
The Ware and the Swift should be stocked this week and the Millers got their fish last week. Pick a river and we will hit it.
Scrambling Eggs
Watch where you are wading whether or not you are fishing the Swift or our numerous "thin blue lines". Clean gravel in fairly shallow water is off limits to us because this is where trout spawn. If you wade in the river wade in the weeds, the muck, the leaf litter or on plain sand. And after the spawning is done and the trout go to who knows where, continue to stay off the redds until around February.
Stir Fry And My Ugly Feet
When I'm not fly fishing or fly tying I'm cooking and that's the way it is and this September saw me getting reintroduced to Stir Fry and those wonderful Asian spices. It also gets me away from the charcoal and gas stoves for a bit and do some REAL indoor cooking.
(should of gotten a pedicure for that photo!!)
The Flyfishers Guide to the Millers
There is real only ONE GUIDE TO THE MILLERS and you can get it right here. (it's on the web but I have it at my finger tips.) I published this downloaded Guide 15 years ago and have given it away for the last 12 years or so. It has dozens of pages with dozens of photos and descriptions of the best pools and runs. Believe me, nothing comes close. Just email me and I'll send it right out.
"Lawyers are like nuclear weapons. By all rights they shouldn't exist, but if some people have them, then you'd better have one too, just in case" - John Gierach
I haven't been to the Y Pool since April and my longest stretch at the Pipe was for a half an hour because there was only one other fly fisher there until the place filled up and that's when I left. Cady Lane has been lonely although I never feel lonely down there. Fewer visible fish mean fewer visible fishermen and that's a fact of life. Catching fish is important and catching difficult fish is VERY important but catching fish in a beautiful place is what I enjoy. Cady Lane can do that, the Gauge Run is another place and the flats from Rt 9 to the Duck Pond is another. I've written about these places for years but the Y and the Pipe are the magnets and that's where people will end up and I think that will never change. Let's not forget Bondsville either!!!!!
What Flies Are Working? Well, soft hackles always do but I've I've been doing well with a size 18 PT hybrid with a olive colored plastic seed bead at the head. The bead adds virtually no weight but just gives it a certain look and with a peacock collar the bows, from 16 to 20 inches, like it too!
Roaring Rivers
As I write BOTH the Millers and the EB are at 1040 cfs. Most freestones from the Pioneer Valley westward are flowing very high but freestones in EAST of there are running above average flows but are totally fishable. The Swift and the Farmie, being tailwaters, are under control and will see the usual hordes this weekend. Get there very early or better yet, stay late.
A Helpful Hint
I must have been a picky eater as a kid because I can remember my mother saying "Eat your dinner, don't play with your dinner". One can say pretty much the same for flyfishing: "Play your fish, don't play with your fish"! Avoid the conventional wisdom that requires one to play the trout with the rod held low and from side to side. A hooked trout wants to go DOWN where it can wrap your leader around anything that's in the way. The trout does NOT want to go UP. Make it go UP. Make it thrash on the surface which will exhaust it in no time and this is done by keeping the rod UP and using the bending and flex of the rod to work against the fish. We forget what Lee Wulff said years ago and that was that the rod is an important element in your drag system. You should use it!!!
The Swift got what it deserves - 1400 trout stocked this afternoon. 10 nets full of BIG trout at the Pipe and I will add that hatchery workers waded into the river to scatter the trout and they did a good job at that. Trout were doing their after stocking "rising" aka gulping air all over the river. Cady Lane got stocked as did the Gauge Run (finally). Dido for above route 9 although I didn't witness that.
We have one day of catch and keep on the lower river. Watch for violators and report them. The number is at the top of my home page.
My NESN show is finally up on the NESN home page:
Google NESN "new england fishing season 2" and you will find it. Any feedback is appreciated.
Before the stocking we fished the Bubbler Arm to no avail. Caught a brookie by the Hemlocks that scared off the bow that we really wanted and the went down to the flats above the Duck Pond. That's were we landed a monster chunk bow on a #16 partridge and olive (what else!) that was 18 inches and on trout growth hormones. What a fish!!
After that we fished for some "new" fish that made the reel scream with the high water we fished in. I thought the flow would let off with all of the rain but not so. That may happen on Monday.
It was a good day. My client had never fished the Swift before and now he is converted. A GOOD DAY!!!
Fly fishers - Have a grand 4th of July. We deserve it!!!!
" It is wrong to take advantage of someones misfortune unless you are in sales and the other person is also in sales" - Me
NOTE: NESN is airing a show on Central Ma. fly fishing with yours truly. 6pm tonight!
The fly fishing on the Millers has been unreal in May and June, only two days old, is off to a great start. Let's face it, a freestone has a special charm that a tailwater can only dream about. Both are dependent on stocked fish but tailwaters were created by the hand of man and are about as natural as an artificial Christmas Tree! Freestones change with the seasons and present natural challenges that you will not see on a tailwater unless they turn the water down to a trickle like they do sometimes. I fish tailwaters in the Winter and in bone dry Summers but my heart belongs to rivers like the Millers, the EB, the Ware and the WB. This weekend my client caught browns and bows up and down the Millers. Yesterday morning I took 3 browns in an hour with my CDC soft hackle casting to rising fish.
Summer Start Times
To take advantage of the coolest time of the day I will start guiding sessions not only at 8 am but at 7 am or even 6 am if you request it. 8 to 2pm can become 7 to 1pm or 6 to noon. Three hour sessions can go from 8 to 11 am or 7 to 10 am or from 6 to 9 am. Evening start times do not change. This will last until mid August.
Saltwater Tips
Last March I mentioned that I was doing some corrosion tests on freshwater hooks that I used in the Salt. From a total rinse to no clean up at all all the hooks are still strong and sharp. I did the same test with a cheapo cast aluminum fly reel and had no corrosion. Frequent commenter BobT wrote about how his father fished for stripers with an old Medalist and performed minimal cleanup on it. He also mentioned seeing photos of baseball great Ted Williams bonefishing with a medalist and Rodney Flagg always used one on Joppa Flats stipers. There's a lesson here: don't get oversold when you want to get your feet wet in salt water fly fishing. BTW, the cheapo reel is a Cabelas Wind River that set me back $30. I landed good sized stripers and blues this past year and that drag doesn't miss a beat.
More Saltwater tips
Try to avoid using stocking foot waders. If you fish the surf and tidal streams your boots will load up with SAND and you'll never clean them up. Wade wet or get a cheap pair of boot waders = problem solved.
If you fish tidal rivers or the surf go with a FULL SINKING LINE instead of an intermediate sinking line. An intermediate will work in sheltered bays, flats and small tidal rivers but will not get it done when the tide is roaring or the waves are crashing. Even a clouser will be out of the strike zone if an intermediate line is your choice.
Dump any thought of a tapered leader!! You will not need it. I use 6 feet of straight 12 to 15lb mono
and it has never failed me. I've thought about a 25lb shock tippet but until I lose a fish I'll pass on that.
A 9 foot 8wt will suit 90% of your New England striper needs. The Newburyport area has been the home to a lot of schoolies in the 16 to 24 inch range lately. That's when I break out the 6wt (full sinking line of course) and have a ball. There's a guide in that area that uses a 4wt!!!!!!!
This has been a good Spring. Don't miss the rest of it. Book me! I have 6 rivers to choose from!
4/20/18 - It appears that the Swift got stocked yesterday - Ken 4/21/18 - Lost streamer wallet on Ware or Swift (see comments)
Ray Bondorew (RaysFly) said... Ken--Good to see a word or two about the Hornberg. I've fished the Hornberg for years and it's one of my old favorite and reliable patterns. In northern New England it's a prominent and well known pattern tied in a wide range of sizes and variations. In southern New England it's not that popular. I've always fished it dry on the drift with the retrieve bringing it just below the surface. Never thought to weight it and fish it deeper in the water column sizes. Have to tie and try a few weighted ones. Thanks for the tip!
Ray Bondorew Author of "Stripers and Streamers"
A Short Swift Trip
Patriots day gave us 2 inches of driving cold rain which blew out most of our major trout streams - except the Swift! I've heard during March that there were trout in the upper reaches, something that can't be said below Rt. 9 but good news from the Y Pool and the Bubbler Arm. Time to check it out.
I love the Bubbler because it is QUIET. It's hard to get packed in there and I can say that the 20+ years I have been fishing it I usually fished it alone or didn't have an angler within 100 feet of me. It's also the land of sight fishing and by that I don't mean just seeing fish but LOOKING for fish. That's what i did!
I got there at 8:00 am, three anglers were in the Y Pool but the Bubbler was empty. Taking a S-L-O-W walk I didn't see a fish until half way and then they were there - all rainbows and some seemed to be actively feeding.
On went a size 18 Zebra Midge which produced NOTHING in a 100 foot sweep of a section.
Next was a size 22 pinhead and that ended the drought. I took two good bows just drifting that fly past stationary trout that made aggressive moves towards that fly! The fish were in the 13 to 15 inch range.
I worked my way down to the Y were I found regular Gary and another braving a nasty wind over the dam. Gary had caught a brookie but that was it. I dropped my Pinhead into the fray and in a half hour had two strong hits but missed both. I was freezing and after two hours I packed it in. So did everyone else!
Pinheads work on the Swift, the Farmie and any other tailwater/spring creek that you come across. The best sizes for me are in the 20 to 24 range and although I've tied them down to size 28 they just don't seem to do the trick in the very small sizes. 20 to 24 puts them into the size range of most of our black fly larvae.
\ DHE Emergers Author Bob Wyatt nailed it when he realized that it is the emerger that most trout are after and not the adult dun. He also nailed it with his DHE Emerger, a fly that trout just have to eat.
This imitation mimics the pre-adult stage of ANY mayfly that you will encounter. A few wisps of pheasant tail for the tail, floss, thread or dubbing for the body, buggy dubbing for the thorax and then deer hair for the wing stub. (substitute CDC for smaller sizes) One can skip the pheasant tail fibers but I think that it helps the back end of this fly sink which is what you want.
It has all of the feeding triggers that trout fall for and is a perfect Hendrickson imitation.
Don't worry, REAL Spring will be here soon and despite the lousy weather people are booking trips into June and July already. Don't get left outside!!!
"I've heard people say that any trout here without an adipose clip or an elastomer tag/dye mark is wild, and that is completely inaccurate. Most of the trout stocked in the Permanent Catch & Release/TMA are indeed marked by the state (about 10,000), but the other well over 30,000 stocked trout are NOT marked in any sort of way." Upcountry Fly Shop setting it straight for the Farmington,5/17/17
Commentator "Kozman" turned me on to this style of tying the venerable Hornberg a few years ago. I love this fly because it looks like REAL trout food. The shape and the colors just gives one a lot of faith when it's on the end of your leader. I love fishing this fly on May and June evenings when caddis are dancing on the riffles and stone flies fill the air but I shied away from adding any weight to this classic. That changed three or so years ago when I took his advice and worked some up for the Ware. They did well in the heavy Springtime flow which was good to see because this wide bodied, flow resistant fly, normally doesn't like to sink. Even with the weight it requires an upstream presentation in heavy water.
I'd really like to see a resurgence of this fly, weight or no weight.
Flows Are Getting Low Study the map to the right. Red means a serious low water condition, Orangemeans the flows are below normal. First, we haven't had a lot of rain in the last month but at the same time we didn't have the rapid snow melt of years past. The short story is we haven't had much rain and may be looking at a drought. The long story is that this condition could be totally gone in a month. We will see. (Note: the cluster of red dots belongs to the screwy Deerfield and the Connecticut Rivers, forever burdened as hydro rivers.
Your Trip All of the rivers are being stocked as I write. I can put you onto some famous rivers and some that people really don't know much about. It seems that most of my clients don't want to be fishing shoulder to shoulder and I can really understand that. So we will go to spots where you have plenty of river to fish without gangs talking about equipment, technique, hot flies and whatever. Book a trip with me to find out-of-the-way places on famous streams and then great spots on the lesser known streams. After a trip you will know where to fish in the future!!!!
A Millers Afternoon "Make hay while the sun shines" the old saying goes and that means fish the Millers when they have held water back for the Canoe Race and before they release it. At 3:30 yesterday (4/12) the Millers had dropped from over 1100 cfs to 700. That's still high but perfect for my old reliable setup: a 9 ft 6wt with 6wt full sinking line. This was the standard high water, Springtime rig back in the 70's and would still be popular today if the tackle industry hadn't convinced us that sinking tip lines and other toys were better performers. The goal in fishing heavy flows is to get the fly down and a fast sinking line and 4 feet of 3x leader is all you need. The fly itself doesn't even need to be weighted and contrary to to conventional wisdom this line is not hard to cast and certainly casts better than anything with split shot! You can nymph with it and you can swing flies with it as long as your rod has some zip to it.
I tied on that hybrid Hornberg, now referred to as the "Kozman", and began to pick up fish at the Bridge Street Pool. Three bows and a brown (holdover?) and another three that were dropped. Not a bad 1.5 hours and I enjoyed this "old school" session.
As I write (5:30am, 4/13) the Millers is at 600 cfs and should drop during the day SO FISH IT IF YOU CAN!!!! This time Saturday morning this river will be north of 1500 cfs and that flow will last at least a week. Hit it today and use a wading staff!
I think of fly rods the same way Bill Belechick thinks of position players. Can you play guard AND center? Can you play tight end AND be a long snapper or whatever. Versatility!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've got a closet full of rods but I haven't bought a graphite rod since 2008 because everything that I have works plus I spend too much $$ on bamboo which is great to own and just admire. It's fun to fish with it too!
Ok, the stocking trucks are rolling and have hit area ponds and lakes (stocking lakes keeps the bait boys off the rivers, somewhat) and the Swift River. There will be some easy fishing at the Swift until the trout earn their graduate degrees in about a week.
The other rivers look like this for 3/22:
Millers - 675 cfs, current flow 1060 cfs yearly average
Ware - 187 cfs 360 cfs yearly average
WB Westfield 134 cfs 299 cfs yearly average
EB Westfield 344 cfs 464 cfs yearly average
Swift 52 cfs doesn't matter!
My prediction - things will get a bit worse in the next week as the snow begins to melt and the rivers begin to rise AND get colder (snow melt chills down a river). That may even keep the stocking trucks off the bigger freestones for a week or two which is not a bad thing. In the meantime tie some big, heavy stoneflies such as the one pictured above. Also tie all of the weighted buggers that you want. Remember, March is still very early to hit the freestones. I remember OPENING DAY years ago on the third Saturday in APRIL when the rivers were cold and flooded. Such is New England. And remember, heavy snows in the winter are no predictor of late spring or summer flows. I've seen rivers almost dry up after very snowy winters!!!
Where's The Rust?
I've been fishing the surf in a warm climate (someone has to do it) for a week now and carrying on an experiment that started a few years ago, namely, testing the corrosive resistance of freshwater metals in a saltwater environment. Now, I have traditional saltwater fly fishing gear but I've been using streamers tied on 3XL freshwater hooks and I've been catching fish. These streamers have been used in the salt for 2 years and show no metal rot!! They are still sharp and hard. Secondly, I'm using a very inexpensive fly reel (Cabela's Wind River reel) made from machined aluminum which resists corrosion. It's the second year for this reel and there's no rust and everything works fine. All I do is a freshwater rinse after fishing. BTW, this setup is a 6wt with a full sinking line with an 8 1/2 foot rod. I've been catching blues in the 16 to 18 inch range and it reminds me of catching schoolies with this rig on the North Shore. Lots of fun. Word has it that bigger fish are on the way so the 8wt will come into play.
Book Now
Don't wait too long. I have a calendar that is booking up quickly but since I guide 7 days a week plus offer 3 and 6 hour trips I can always find a spot for you. Plus I guide on more rivers than anyone around. Contact me!!!!!
‘A miserable concoction of wire and wool, a thing anyone could make in less than a minute, and which to the human eye has not the slightest resemblance to any living creature’. Frank Sawyer on his Killer Bug
The WB of The Westfield
I was suiting up on the banks of the West Branch of the Westfield when this pickup pulls up. "Any luck" the driver said. I said I was just getting ready and then asked the same question to him. I caught him! Been after him for two weeks". The "Him" was a rainbow about 22 inches that was caught and released and he did this on one of the most beautiful streams in western Massachusetts - The WB.
This river is truly a "branch" of the Westfield unlike the so called "East Branch" which is really the main stem of the Westfield (ask the Army Corp of Engineers, they'll tell you). The EB carries twice as much water as the WB which doesn't make it a branch at all. But even with half the volume it is just as good a trout river as the EB and maybe even better. First, this watershed runs through a fairly narrow valley meaning that the river is not that wide and spread out so it keeps its depth. Second, being a fairly narrow stream it benefits from the shade canopy. Maybe that's why it runs so cool in the summer.
Yes, Rt 20 runs along its length but you don't have the steady stream of bathers, bikers, hikers and dog walkers that you get on the popular EB.
You Are Alone
If solitude is your style this is the river. If you meet anyone it will be a fisherman. I have fished for hours and seen nobody.
The Fishing
This river reminds me of the Deerfield but drawn down to scale. Bows and browns rule the roost and it is the summer home of main branch trout seeking relief from the heat. A drawback will occur when we hit a mid summer drought but that occurs on any freestone.
The Wb is a gem and is not too hard to find. Take a brake from the EB and try the WB. Standard offerings used in central New England will work here.
" Most of my guiding clients have one request besides catching trout - "I don't like crowds" is the constant theme and crowds can be avoided even on the Swift. We just avoid the Y Pool and the Pipe unless we are the only ones there which is rare. Being crowd free is easy on the Millers, Ware and the three branches of the Westfield." Ken
My friend Lenny has spent the winter spey casting along the Deerfield with good results I would suspect. "I haven't fished a nymph in months, just streamers". That got me thinking. I plan to spend a little time in Florida in March and I am low on big briny streamers. It's also going to give me a chance to tie a unique style of streamer - the Hud's Bushwacker style!
Check out the photo and take a good look at the hook. No traditional streamer hook here but a PLASTIC WORM HOOK (the worm is plastic, not the hook) in a 2/0 size. The fly is basically all wing and no body and the wing actually forms a weed guard for the hook.
The question is will one be able to get this hook in a trout size, say a size 4? The bushwacker tying style certainly has its benefits over the traditional style - more material movement and the ability to create the slim body profile that many bait fish have.
I think that 2/0 might tempt one of those Swift River browns!!!!
I also needed to stock up on some old reliables and one is the simple Emerging Caddis. First used at the junction of the Cold River and the Deerfield 30 years ago this fly just gets it done.
Hook - size 14-16 standard wet or dry
Body - grey dubbing of either rabbit or synthetic
Wing - sparse grey partridge
Head - black ostrich
Fish this critter near the surface especially in the riffles
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