Fishing A Top Fall Fly, Watch Where You Wade And Something Good To Eat

                " 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.

Ken

The Beauty Of Home Rivers And Their Memorable Trout

 

 "If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads your doing  something wrong" - John Geirach

I have fished Montana, the southwest corner of North Carolina,

Western NY, Northern Georgia for all that they offer and New Brunswick for all that it offers and that is Atlantic Salmon.  I've done well there, not like the halcyon days that we all read about but in something akin to the average trip from someone that drives hard or flies fast to spend some time on a river that is not impossibly crowded and has some difficult fish to fool. The last few words of the last sentence say it all.  If the fishing runs are chocked full with wading fishermen that look like an old photo of an "opening day" I'm not interested, Period!!

I've caught fish under these conditions BUT the REAL memories are of fish caught in local rivers that fill my mind with memories and dreams.  The MILLERS holds a lot of those memories like the misty July evening where the river exploded in rising browns. I took about a dozen until I lost my comparadun and couldn't tie on another in the dark.  There was another Millers brown that I chased for five months before it was fooled by a #14 partridge and orange that was draped over a mid stream rock.   There was the 2 foot long brown that slowly rose to my dry and then slowly sank, not to be seen again.  The same thing happened on the Swift but that brown was caught (luck).

Why have a bucket list and a fist full or airline tickets when all of this fishing is all around you?  American Flyfishing Magazine highlights many, many streams all over the country that are not destination rivers (read crowded and or overrated) but are close by and underrated?  I've had great fishing on the EB over the last 15 years with lots of caught trout and very few other anglers!!

The Swift And It's Browns And Brookies

The browns have been ganging up on the Swift and the brookies will be right behind them.  It would be interesting if the bows were not stocked in the Swift this Fall just so we know if they really make a difference.  The most successful trout in the Swift is the Brookie because they can reproduce in the river. The Brown is the next best because it can survive the longest (20 lbs are proof of that) and the bow fills in the holes and that's it.

Book Me For September, October and November!!!

Ken

A Duck Pond Tale And Things I'd Like To See

 "If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're doing something wrong". John Gierach

By 6:30 am the Y Pool lots were filling up (close to 20 cars) but that was not my destination.  Neither was the Pipe or the Tree Pool.  As always solitude is part of the mix for me and I knew where to find it: The Duck Pond Flats.  Now, I'm not giving away any State secrets because everyone knows where I'm writing about.  It's the flats below the Route 9 bridge all the way down to the lip of the Duck Pond and it's almost always underpopulated at certain times of the day.  Mornings until 10ish are good because everyone and his brother is going upstream because it's supposed to be better fishing (it isn't) up there.  I've found that afternoons can be busy because the C&R, by then, is too overcrowded and the overflow hits the flats.  By dinner time it empties out and you will have a lot of fishing room on the flats.

Now, with decades and decades of fly fishing under my waders, I can honestly say that the sight of a rising trout puts me in hunt mode.  And I'm not talking about random risers that seem to wander around aimlessly looking for something to eat.  I like trout that have picked out a holding lie and stay there ambushing any insect that goes down the chute. When aquatic insects are near/on the surface you will see the rhythm of the rise and adjust your casts accordingly. You also have to make accurate casts because the trout, especially browns, are not likely to move out of that feeding slot.  You have to put the fly THERE. This is how I learned the surface game while fishing the Squannacook years ago and then continued the lessons on the Millers.  It's weird, but it's not the game with the Bows of the Swift!

Watch these fish!  They will rise and then move away to a new location and then rise again.  They are not like browns or even brookies that seek cover, conserve energy and let the food come to them.  It's been almost 2 months since the last stocking and the bows are still fining away next to my boots.  They are basically tame fish.

Now, here's the story of a wild fish.  I was fishing the Flats when I noticed a rise to an emerger next to a log.  It was a 100 feet below me and I decided to take my time approaching it. It rose, and rose and rose again all in the same place.  I was about 25 feet away when I cast my size 12 partridge and olive soft hackle 4 feet above the rise. He instantly rose to the fly and in a minute or so a native brookie close to a foot long was in the net.  

On the Swift it's the brookies and the browns that will stake out a claim to a spot- not the bows as much.

Things I'd Like To See

Cut the number of bows stocked in the Swift by half and replace that number with the same number of browns divided by 2.  Let's face it, Connecticut and NY have good brown trout rivers with some natural reproduction. Yet we have to recharge the rivers with clonebows at least yearly because these fish don't last.  And they really are tame!! 

Book Me

The Fall is approaching. The freestones will cool off and we will get some rain.  Pick your October and November dates now!

Ken

 

Tricos Made Easy

 

Size 22 Trico Spinner

The largest Trico swarm that I ever saw was on the Millers at the Upper Trestle Pool one August morning. The morning sun shining off the tiny wings looked like someone had dumped a 100 lb bag of mica shards from a low flying airplane.  I'd like to say that every brown in the river hit the surface that morning but nothing happened.  Tricos are everywhere on the Millers as I've seen hundreds caught in spiderwebs  at the Arch Street Bridge.  In fact, most trout streams have them but not in the epic numbers as the Farmy and other lucky streams.

Some Basic Tips

1. August is the month for this fly. Some places have a July emergence and some rivers have good numbers right into September. And it's a long hatch so  your chances of missing it are slim unless you're there at the wrong time of day or know little about this fly.

2. It's the spinner stage that gets the attention of trout and trout fishers.  Size 20 through size 26. Here's a trick that works on all small flies: Tie your size 26 on a size 22 hook as seen above.  You will have more hooking power with a larger gap hook and the trout don't seem to care.

3. Two long tails are all that you need even though the natural has 3. I use the finest of mono tail material for the tails.  The wings are the most important element of the artificial.  I've seen EVERYTHING used for the wing but the best material is ultra fine post wing material.  CDC looks good but doesn't stand up with the constant false casting  that's required. Also CDC gets slimed easily and then becomes next to useless.

3. A standard dry fly hook will work as will a light wire caddis pupae hook.  Tie in the tails and then tie in the SPARSE wing material on the oversized side (you'll cut it short at the end) at the thorax position.  The body is nothing more than black thread and the slightly oversized thorax (I use black rabbit) is used to fan out the wings. The basic mistake in tying this fly is that the wings are too short. The natural has wings that seem large in proportion to the body. Trim the wings on the long side.  The ultra fine post wing material is visible on the water but you can always fluff up some of it to improve visibility and it dries/cleans up great with silica powder.

The Flow On The Swift

It seems to have settled in at 129 cfs which should hold there until we get some REAL rain.  129 is very fishable but the fish need a few days to adjust to it. They seemed to have adjusted this morning with 7 brookies and two bows coming to the net but the rainbows have spawned a question with me.  It has been about 1 1/2 months since the big stocking but these bows are still acting like freshly stocked hatchery fish - all schooled up and chasing each other. The brookies are holding in feeding positions near weeds and the browns ambush out of nowhere but the bows act like dopes and are sitting ducks for blue herons and ospreys. A comment from NH mentioned this last week and I think he has something.  I should reread that book about rainbows called the Totally Artificial Fish!!

Pray for rain - lots of it.

Ken

  

 

The Evening Rise - Book It! And The Swift

"Living only a few miles from the East Branch, Elmer is one of the most diligent and passionate fly fishermen you'll encounter on this river. You will find him there not only in May and June, considered by most to be the height of the season, but also on late summer evenings, waiting by himself until the sun hides behind the western ridge to catch one more brown on a dry blue-winged olive, and at freezing late fall dawns, netting a few more rainbows on soft hackles before ice and snow cover the pools" - Christophe Perez - Eastern Fly Fishing Magazine, September/October 2014

Yes, it's only the beginning of May but we can not forget about JUNE. This is the beginning of the EVENING RISE season, the witching hour of fly fishing. I'm not talking about 9 to 5 fishing on a tailwater but the time when things come alive on our freestones. Fish them at Noon and you may leave disappointed. Fish them after supper and you may not want to leave. You'll certainly want to come back!!

By mid June the major insect hatches have left the mid day theater and have swung into the evening and we anxiously await our March Browns and Cahills to arrive on the scene. Our fly fishing literature is full of scenes where wise fly fishermen stake out a run or pool and wait for the SIGN - the RISE. Soon the water is full of rising trout as the sun begins to sink below the western ridges. It has ALWAYS been my favorite time!!

Things to look for -

1. A cloudy, overcast day will mean that you will have rising action earlier than if you were fishing a crystal clear day especially if you are chasing browns.

2. A box full of comparduns and DHE emergers in sizes 14 through 16 will be all that you will need in the vast majority of evenings.

3. Absolutely NO NEED for a rod lighter than a 4 wt, period. A 4wt works fine and a 5wt may be better.

You owe it to yourself to get on a river like the Millers, Ware or the EB by 5pm. Swing soft hackles until the shadows grow and then work your dry fly magic. It's the BEST time to fly fish.

The Swift

Well, it looks like they decided to stock the Swift. I'll believe it when I see it.

Ken

Jazzing Up Your Mops And Spring Will Come

" I've gone fishing thousands of times in my life and I have never once felt unlucky of poorly paid for those hours on the water." William Tapply

Nothing looks worse than your standard mop fly. You know what I'm talking about - a one color mop finger with a bead head. There is no creativity here and we know it! We can do better with a little imagination!

Remember, what comes out of our vises is supposed to look like a living creature because that's what trout like to eat. They don't want to eat squiggly pieces of cotton that are lashed to a hook but will snap at them due to, well, territorial rage. Let's make something that looks REAL and ALIVE!! And it's going to be easy!

First, you'll ditch the bead head and use BEAD CHAIN EYES. Nothing looks more alive than a fly with eyes. (check out saltwater streamers if you don't believe me) Tie them in on top of the hook shank to get the fly to ride hook up and below the hook shank for the standard effect.

Second, put a collar on this fly of either buggy dubbing or dub on some marabou to get an even buggier effect.

Third, use a sharpie to add to lifelike color to the creation. I like brown.

Forth, notice that the top fly has a collar of large partridge. Do anything that you want. Remember, I've caught trout with this fly on almost every river that I used it on. (the river where it failed was on the WB of the Westfield. I'll fix that this spring!)

Ken

A Fly For Every Occasion

One of their favorite fall patterns around West Yellowstone was a two inch long, heavily weighted stone fly nymph. They demolished brand new graphite rods with it. They pelted themselves in the head, shoulders and body with it. They cursed the fishing style required to fish it. And, of course, they caught fish with it. When I fished alongside them with my floating line and sparse soft hackles, I caught fish too, sometimes less but oftentimes more. I was having more fun, though. The angler who noticed this first was Paul. "You stay right in there with those little flies, don't you?" he said once to me as I released an upper, teen-sized brown - Sylvester Nemes in the Soft Hackled Fly Addict

Here I go again beating the drum for soft hackles. As readers of this blog know the SH is my favorite subsurface fly because it represents virtually ALL insects from the smallest of mayflies and caddis to huge stonflies.

It was only about 15 years ago that I found myself on a stretch of the EB on a morning in late May. A friend of mine gave me a BIG tarantula dry which immediately became my indicator after I dangled a large partridge and yellow only 18 inches off the bend of the fly. When I mean large I mean size 8! The tarantula caught a fish or two but the partridge and yellow rules the day as I fished some of the heaviest riffles I could find. I switched over to a partridge and orange and the party continued. Needless to say the trout liked that fly which was about the size of your larger stonefly nymphs.

My fly box has soft hackles from size 8 to 18 with 12 and 14 being the sweet spot. My hackles are from partridge, hen and starling. Don't mess around with tiny bags of feathers but buy the whole skin.

Hen is totally underrated as a soft hackle feather. It is very inexpensive and looks great as it moves in the water. I bought a beautiful olive hen cape at the Deerfield Fly Shop which should last a year. Starling is great for smaller flies but it can be difficult to work with because it is so fragile but it makes nice little BWO nymphs so you must have it!!!

I intend to experiment with making larger soft hackle flies up into the size 4 range but that's another post.

Ken

Different Dry Fly Strategies And The Otter

"Tailwaters are what Thomas McGuane called "the great theme parks of American fly fishing," with their more or less stable water temperatures and artificially inflated populations of insects and fish. They are irresistible for all kinds of reasons, but all of those trout breed the peculiarly postmodern sense that anything short of a 20 fish day is a bust, so when things are slow there's the temptation to lie about numbers or to vaguely allow that you are "getting your share" - John Gierach

Each year I have a number of people who take my 3 hour dry fly outing because out of all the techniques in fly fishing this is the one that puzzles them the most. Presentation, the avoidance of drag and matching the hatch can all seem overwhelming when it is simply not. Here are some simple rules that must be addressed.

1. Where Do You Fish? This is really important because all rivers are not the same. If you spend most of your time fishing on tailwaters you will be presented with much different conditions than on freestones. If you read the quote at the top of the page you will you will understand. Tailwaters are made to be stable with flows and water temperatures and you can have surface feeding during the height of a hot summer day almost any time. Freestones have their flows and temperatures fluctuating constantly from cold, flooded conditions to low flows and high temperatures. Where you can score on the Swift with dries all day long you may have to settle for the "Evening Rise" on a stream like the Millers or the EB. In 2009 I fished the EB from Memorial Day through Labor Day with nothing but dry flies and caught a lot of trout BUT all of the fishing was done from 6 pm through dark. That's when the trout began to "look up" because that's when the insects began to hatch.

2. What Kind

Of Rod? - I can dry fly fish all season long with a 3wt to a 5wt on any of the rivers that I fish, tailwater or freestone. A 3wt matched with a double taper works great on the Swift because that double taper lays out sooo gently which is what you want on that intimate stream and it's ability to roll cast will keep you out of the bushes. A 4 or 5wt can launch the long casts and bigger flies that you may need on bigger rivers like the EB, Millers or the Ware. It is a misconception that you NEED a 2wt or lighter for the Swift. I've caught many of its trout with a 4wt while fishing dries in the tiny size 20's and never felt over gunned. Just an average wind will mess up a cast with a ultra
light line. Trust me.

3. What Kind Of Fly? - Matching the Hatch can be reduced to two elements: matching the size and matching the profile of the fly of choice. COLOR is the last element to consider because one fly tyer's
version of light olive or sulphur is probably totally different than anothers' version. And remember, the rise of that trout that you are getting into position for was probably to the emerger stage and not to the adult imitation that you carefully crafted and that emerger is of a different color than the adult. Now, for those that can't agree with this fact please consider this obvious point: your dry fly has a big piece of curved steel sticking out of its butt which which the natural doesn't. (Note - maybe profile isn't that important either. Bob Wyatt and his book,What Trout Want: The Educated Trout And Other Myths is a must read on this subject)

The Otter - I spent 2.5 hours yesterday morning braving a stiff wind and dealing with a Y Pool otter who totally spent about 20 to 30 minutes tearing up the pool. I knew something was up when I was making my way across the river and saw about 8 bows racing downstream past the Hemlocks. It took about 30 minutes for the trout began to show themselves and I got 2 hits and landed one. Bill said that the beast spent all day Monday doing the same thing. If this year is like all the others the otter will leave the pool in about a month or so or when the rest of the river gets stocked.


Ken

Sunday Morning, Balmy, Nobody There And Charlies Place

"But once they begin surface feeding a dead drifted imitation produces no response whatsoever. An active twitch, however, not only calls attention to the fly but successfully imitates the surface sprint of the natural." Thomas Ames, Jr. describing the actions of the Winter Caddis

It felt like the first week of April instead of the last Sunday in January. 41 degrees at dawn will do that.

I was rigged up at 7:30 am and was surprised that when I drove past the Route 9 lot to find NO CARS. I drove another 1/4 mile to the DEFAULT parking area and I was the first car.  So far so good! When I made my way to the infamous Y Pool I was the only one there and that continued for a bit over an hour and a half. I would of thought that the balmy temperature would have clogged the place but not so.

I fished this pool, like I said, before  another angler made his entry and that was almost an hour and a half. The result was 4 bows, two on a swift killer bug until the rising trout went over to the winter caddis where I took another two.  Then that stopped and I switched to a Size 24 sparkle emerger which resulted in another two and another half dozen dropped fish. Bill, a regular,  talked me into a size 30. Two more hits and then I had to leave.

Hats off to the young guy below me who did what  has to be done to take about 6 fish within an hour on dries!!!  Good work!

Where Are The Fish?

That seems to be the most popular question asked on the Swift this month. I think it's safe to say that the extreme cold that we had earlier in the month sent the trout in search of DEEP water for some added warmth.  That's where you'll find them. A mild February will move them around.

Charlies Place March 4th.

 Mark your calendars for Sunday March 4th as I will be at Charlie Shaden's Evening Sun Fly Shop from about 11am to 1pm giving a presentation on the Millers and the Westfield branches.  BTW, Charlie has mentioned that he has a great supply of Hungarian Partridge skins at the shop. This is good news because this bird is becoming a bit scarce.


Ken