August Fishing And The Swift's Cream Cahill

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"- Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

Yes, It is the driest Summer since 2010 and it looks like we will beat that evil record before this Summer is through. But all is not lost. Native trout always seem to be able to make it through dry times. If the browns of the Millers made it through the summer of 2010 they will make it through 2016!

What about aquatic insects? They will be fine too. First, virtually all summer mayflies are evening and night hatching insects. The local Isonychia is a good example of a fly that hatches at night but by Fall hatches at mid day. Check out the streamside stones along the EB to see the proof. There will be many nymph cases. The dainty Blue Wing Olive will never hatch on a bright sunny day BUT will hatch on an overcast one.

The Swift is still hone to one larger mayfly that hangs on throughout the summer. It's the Cream Cahill and it's about a size 14 and it has a dusky, beige color. It's never a full fledged hatch but a slow dribble of insects that last until late September. Check our Thomas Ames book Hatch Guide for New England Streams for a good description.

The Swift is the only trout game in town east of the Deerfield River and it is fishing great! Now, one would guess that it would be packed with anglers and if the Y Pool parking lot is any indication that C&R section is packed BUT I guided two beginners on Sunday for 3 hours BELOW Route 9 (from the Gauge Run to the Horse Farm) and saw only 4 other fly fishers. One of my clients caught her first trout on a fly rod - a 14 inch brown!!! We basically had the place to ourselves and it was a great time.

I've always felt that the Swift below Route 9 is superior to the CR above Route 9 as a trout fishery!

Although it doesn't feel like it we have lost 45 minutes of daylight since June 21 - the longest day of the year. By the 3rd week in August there will be dew on the morning lawns and we will know that the season is changing.

August is a beautiful time to fish the Swift. A 3 hour trip fits into any schedule. I'll show you places away from the crowds and where the trout live and if it's a morning trip you can stay and fish all day. What could be better!

Ken

Bead Heads Unmasked And Big Fish Eat Little Fish On The Swift Part 2

I'll never be as efficient or as stylish a caster as I'd like to be. I was fishing with a friend once and we got to talking about casting during a break. I said I always wanted to be a pretty caster (maybe trolling for a little compliment) He said "well, you're not, but you get the fly where you want it to go and that's what counts."John Gierach

In a blog post a few months ago I came out and said that I felt that bead heads flies were attractor flies, one step up from lures.

The logic behind the statement was that when a hendrickson or sulphur nymph comes drifting by a trout knows what it is by being very familiar with the insect. When a hendrickson beadhead or a sulphur beadhead comes plodding by the trout has NEVER seen anything like it in the natural world because of the shiny orb growing out of the insect's head. He will attack it and try to eat it but for other reasons why it will attack and eat a natural nymph or an unadorned pheasant tail. (that's why I like soft hackles - they are so natural.) My thesis is that trout go after the shiny orb instead of the body of the nymph. Could I prove it.?

So, I tied up, or rather glued up up some bead head nymphs sans bodies. Just a bead on the appropriate sized hook with epoxy to secure and hit the Swift. The short story was that I took 1 brown, 2 brookies and had some misses in about 15 minutes of fishing. I used a fly with no body beside the hook shank and caught fish BECAUSE of the shiny, unnatural orb, period.

This makes me question the gazillion bead head patterns with god knows how many different body material combinations that are out there. Does the body make any difference?? Maybe not. Maybe the bead head aficionados may want to give up beads for a month and see what the catch rate is. Depth can be achieved with a little micro shot too. In short, it may be the bead that catches the fish and not the "fly".

The Swift has been SLOW but it is a relief to fish without the hordes above or below RT 9. Two days in a row (Saturday and Sunday) me and my clients were the only ones at the PIPE. We caught bows and browns in addition to the brookies but not of any number or size. The very cool event was today when my client and I saw a 16 to 18 inch brown grab a 6 inch brookie at mid section down at Cady Lane and then take about 5 minutes to swallow it head first. After lunch we came back with marabou streamers which the brookies LOVED but the browns and the bows past up. I will have them ready next time.

It's raining hard at I write this (6:30 pm). We need the rain but watch the flows especially on the Millers and the EB (check the EB flow formula on my previous post in case the gauge is still down.

Ken

"Marginal" Rivers, A Word On The Swift, And Some Advice

"All of the romance of trout fishing exists in the mind of the angler and is in no way shared by the fish" Harold Blaisdell, The Philosophical Fisherman

Backcast to when I was a starving college student four decades ago. I'm being dropped off at Phillips Brook, a small stream that runs from Ashburnham to Fitchburg on a very early Saturday morning. It has some natives and gets stocked in the spring but this is the 3rd week of June. "It's too low and warm and it's been fished out" said the local expert but I went anyway with my stout fiberglass rod,box of standard wets and no waders (starving college student,remember). I spent about 7 hours fishing that diminutive stream and took over two dozen trout, mostly bows but also some of those natives. I pulled that trick again for the next few years until moving out of the area and that trick was fishing a stream AFTER it's supposed to be fished out and doing well.

Now, back to the present. There is a stream that flows behind our house that has some native fish but mostly stocked trout. Fuller's book "Trout Streams of Southern New England" has this to say about the Mill River:"It's waters in Williamsburg flit nicely in an array of pools, riffles and easy rapids, but the stream does suffer from high summer temperatures". That statement is usually the kiss of death for a trout stream but it isn't so. I've caught trout there in the summer and know of others who have done the same. The DFW surveyed the river two Septembers ago and found trout and other cold water critters. The waters are not "warm" but actually surprisingly cool in the summer. One local college stated that the "cool" water during the summer extended much further downstream than thought (there goes conventional wisdom for you). In other words, this marginal river is not marginal at all.

These kind of streams are all over the State and you know where they are. They get hammered in the spring for the easy fish and then by Memorial Day they are vacant. Go early in the morning or at dusk to catch the trout that are there. Cool zones exist everywhere in a trout stream. Go find them!!

The Swift has fish. Not a lot but enough to make it interesting. The news of a 27 trout day by a local fish hawk didn't bring out the crowds which left the Gauge to Cady Lane with few fishermen yesterday. My guy did well and was the "top rod" for the 3 hours we were there.It was his first trip to the Swift too!! Scuds and a Swift Serendipity did the trick.

Advice- Please do not ask me if a certain stream has been stocked. I don't chase stocking trucks and you shouldn't either. Every stream will get its fish in the next two months so chill out and fish anyway and everywhere.

Advice - Take pride in your fly tying. This is the art form of our sport and should be treated as such. A well crafted fly is a pleasure to create and to look at and it will also catch trout. Resist the temptation to "dumb it down" by creating concoctions that can't represent anything found in the natural world. You can do better!

Ken

All This Dry Weather - An Update

As you probably know the Swift went UP again on Monday and this time it may stay up for a while. We are in the midst of a drought and this drought has lowered the Connecticut River to where Quabbin has to come to the rescue. That condition will only end with RAIN but the first serious rain is a week away. The see-saw flow has scattered the trout and it takes them a few days to get their act together again.

The EB is at where it was last year but holding it's own and still holding its brookies. It actually got some water last night from a T'storm that passed off just to the west of me. From the Rt 143 bridge the low looks very low but down in the gorge the river is narrower and has plenty of flow. The trick is to get their early (sunup) or fish the evening. This weekend will find the place overrun with swimmers from 10 to 6 pm or so. We will own the place again by Tuesday.

The Millers - It's low and I haven't the heart to fish it until the flow gets up over 100 cfs. This is the lowest it's been since the dry year of 2010. The trout survived then and they will now but I'll wait a week or so.

Have a good Labor Day!!

Ken

September - What The Rivers Are Doing And A Lost Camera

I managed to be on all three rivers over the last week and for the first time this season I'm looking for a little rain for the EB. All is not lost and in fact I like the flow flow because of the dry fly possibilities. If swinging sunken offerings is your game than the going will be a bit rough. But the water temperature is in the mid 60's at mid day but lower very early in the morning.

The photo above shows the great isonychia nymph which is all over this river. A quick, darting swimmer this nymph acts like a stonefly by crawling up onto rocks to hatch and then flying away usually around dusk. There are plenty of imitations that you can find online so I will not bother with the recipe. The dun is dark colored with smokey grey wings (unusual for this time of year) and trout will take that surface imitation EVEN THOUGH it doesn't ride the surface like most other mayfly duns. Don't leave home without them!

The other photo is of the great Hemlock Pool. As the Eastern Flyfishing Magazine article pointed out it also has another name: Les's Pool. I believe I met that man years ago when he was a driving force behind TU (when it was a driving force) in Massachusetts. I'll call it by the latter name going forward. Anyway, fish this pool and the riffles at it's head. The gate is still closed so it's a 15-17 minute walk to get there but well worth it.

The Millers - I love this low flow and I love the fact that darkness falls at 7:30 instead of 9:00. You don't have to wait f o r e v e r for surface action. Again, water temperatures are fine. Even the rainbows made it through the Summer. Don't forget to bring some large light colored flies so you can see them in the failing light. They have worked the last few times out.

The Swift - Every thing works at the Gauge down through the Tree Pool from 30's to #14 soft hackles. Also, weekend evenings have been sparsely attended by fly fishers in this section. On Wednesday evening I saw only two other anglers which appears to be the norm over the last few weeks. Spend an evening down there before our evenings are gone.

I have some open dates through late September and October. October Fridays are mostly open (weird) with a few weekend dates available. First come, first served.

Summer is winding down with Fall right around the corner. Fish the next two months before everything shuts down (except the Swift).

Ken

9/12 Update - The lower gate on the EB is open so you don't have to endure the 15 minute walk to get to Les's (formally called the Hemlock Pool) Pool. It was windy as hell which made dry fly fishing dicey but worth it. I rose 4 and landed 2 in the 3 hours there. Long floats through the pool brought 3 up with 1 hooked and then 1 in the riffles at the head of the pool. Ok under the windy conditions. Probably could of caught more with a nymph BUT I like dries. Rises were on and off and If you see a rise cast to it.

Update #2 - The lower gate was closed on Wednesday evening BUT was open on Friday morning. Go for it!!

This Just In: a camera was found on the way to the Y Pool. Email me and I'll connect you to who found it.


Ken

Millers Update

The Millers is ready to fish. Water levels are great, the days have been perfect and the browns were scheduled to hit the Bears Den this week with the lower C&R getting its share next week. As you know by now I'm no fan of rainbows in the Millers and although I support the brown stocking I would rather like the browns to be stocked along with the bows throughout the stocking season instead of the "all at once" scenario.

Better then that, I'd like to see browns stocked ALL OVER THE RIVER, like other rivers, instead of just in the C&R sections. We know the old story about how browns, because they survive so well in the Millers, will accumulate toxins. Therefore they must be stocked in the C&R sections. WHY NOT MAKE BROWNS A CATCH AND RELEASE SPECIES and stock them everywhere on the Millers? One excuse I heard against this is that people will not know the difference between a brown and a bow (yes, I've heard that).

The Millers is a brown trout river, period! The VAST majority of it's anglers are flyfishers, period! Our anglers survey two seasons ago proved that. The browns draw the flyfishers, period, but miles of river have very few browns. The DFW should stock what we want, period!!!!

Have fun this week!

Ken

The Millers - Finally!!!!

It was fun to finally throw something much larger than something in the size 20 range. The Swift served me well over the winter BUT it was time to cast something "normal" like a 5wt and a fly with some heft to it. The Millers has been dropping and on Sunday morning made it's way into the 500 cfs range. Good enough!!

This trip was more of a scouting expedition. I hit four sections on the lower river and managed four of the 'bows that the DFW gives us. The fishing pressure was light with Wendell Depot having about four other anglers. The trout that I caught seemed to be holed up in certain areas. You would fish a section hard and get nothing, move 15 feet and then start getting hits. that's early season fishing on this river!!

Tomorrow is May 1st. By mid May the browns will go in and the real fishing will start. The 'bows will keep you happy until then.

Ken

Some Soft Hackles To Kill The Time

What's going on? A week ago we had only remnants of snow piles to deal with. Then a new storm comes through and dumps six inches on us with a cold blast that had preserved that snow. In the meantime we tie flies and I have soft hackles on the brain. Here are a few: A brown soft hackle is what I call it and it's a good early season soft hackle especially when Hendericksons start moving around. The color of this fly is perfect for that insect.

Hook - size 12 standard wet or dry hook
Body - brown floss(hard to find)or brown ultra fine dubbing.
Rib - copper or gold wire
Hackle - natural turkey flat tips. Place a SMALL bunch on top of the hook, points extending beyond the eye about 3/4 of the hook Shank. Secure to the hook and fold and tie back towards the tail. Trim butt ends and dub in a thorax if you want.

I included a photo of a worked over turkey flat.

The next is a generic Sulphur/Cahiill/any light color soft hackle.

Hook - size 12/14 standard wet or dry hook
Body - yellow floss
Hackle - light brown hen hackle (thorax is optional.

So, that's what I've been doing this week. Word has it that the Swift was stocked last week. I'll try it late tomorrow afternoon if it's not snowing!!!!!

Ken