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 Ken Elmer fly fishing guide on the Swift. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ken Elmer fly fishing guide on the Swift. Show all posts
" A friend told me there's life outside of the Internet and that I should check it out. I asked him to send me a link" - TheFunnyPlace.net
I hit the Swift Thursday morning around 11:00 am to toss some micro streamers (10 and 12), or some micro Bitch Creek streamers to be exact, to see if I could entice some bows to chase them. No bows but some good sized brookies came to play. They were all between 10-12 inches and there were 7 of them and they were found in or near the traditional spawning beds of the lower Swift. I think the run has started and my records state that by mid October we will be in full swing. They are already stacking up below the Rt 9 bridge.
Friday was a good day with my client Matt as we were the first (probably) to fish the Ware this Fall. The 38 degree air made the fleece necessary at 8:30 as we began to swing the reliable partridge and orange. We had four solid hits and landed two, a rainbow and a beautiful brown. The water level is low but cool enough to keep the trout active. We were also greeted with a decent Trico hatch which the newly planted fish totally ignored.
Then we went to the Swift, walked right past the Pipe, and went down deep into Cady Lane to catch brookies on dries. It seemed that the brook trout population down there has thinned out(as one of our commentors pointed out) as the "herd" moves upstream to spawn. That has to mean that the monster browns will begin to move with them.
Back upstream for a few obligatory casts at the Tree Pool, then lunch, then a session at the crib dam before the day was over.
As I write it is raining. It will not be enough and we will need more!
What's the next step? Instead of shelling out big bucks for a "high end fly rod", which will not improve your casting, you should take a casting lesson with a casting instructor. Notice that I said casting instructor and not a fly fishing lesson. One on One time to review your technique and to "retool" you will serve you very well in the future and keep you from being a "one trick pony" on a trout stream. - Me on the importance of casting.
What a morning!!! Nothing on the possum nymphs because the flow, which was low, wouldn't support the drift. I spied the occasional surface rise and switched over to a size 16 partridge and orange and landed 8, all bows. More trout began to hit the surface so off came the SH and on went a tan size 16 parachute. End result - over 20 rose and 15 ended up in the net.
Make note of this: I'm not on the Swift or on the Farmington BUT ON THE EB fishing for god only knows how many trout in a river that hasn't been stocked since MAY.
Lots of fish and switching techniques to catch them is what's it's all about.
Do you want some of this??? Book a full or half day with me ANY day of the week. I saw only one other fly fisher in the 4 hours I was there = weekdays are great!!!!!
We caught trout on stoneflies in fits and starts all morning, periodically switching out one fly pattern for another as the ones we'd been using went cold. Nobody knows why that happens. - John Gierach on Fall like conditions
In my not-so-humble-opinion the BEST fly fishing of the season is starting right now and will continue until we are tired of eating turkey and then with some weather luck, it will continue a bit further. Autumn fishing is great but some people get frustrated because of the lower (usually) flow conditions, fish that have wised up and the stubborn adherence to some disproven theories which will kill your success.
1. It's Autumn and trout will put on the feed bag because Winter is coming
Trout don't read calendars and don't anticipate ANYTHING! Their feeding is dictated by water temperature which controls their metabolism, period. Tom Rosenbaurer, from Orvis, once wrote that trout consume more calories in May and June then they do at any other time of the year. Sure, there's a lot of food available but water temperatures in the mid 50's will get them eating more than temperatures in the mid 40's or the mid 60's. Remember, water temperatures at mid day in mid September may be a bit high, mid day in mid October is usually perfect and mid day in mid November the temperatures are on the downturn. It's still fishable but things are slowing down.
2. All of the natural foods are smaller in the Fall
Not true!!! If your life revolves around mayflies then you will not have the bigger flies of Spring to deal with but you will have isonychia (size 14), Stoneflies (up to 3 year nymph life which means big nymphs in the Fall), Hellgramites (big nymphs that live in that stage for up to 5 years), October Caddis (a BIG October fly), ants, beetles, hoppers, crayfish (the EB is full of them) and young of the year fry that in some streams make up the largest protein source. Also remember that many rivers will get another dose of hatchery rookies that will take any day glow offering that you have.
Actually, I like casting a size 24 BWO on a cloudy October day as much as I like working over Hendricksons!! Isonychia Nymph
Yes, I do fish streamers but not often. But when I do it's been with the Thunder Creek series/style which works fine for me. In fact, my biggest trout this year was taken on the Ware with a Thunder Creek Marabou streamer on a rising river during a driving rain.
I also tie this style on short shank scud hooks and fish it quartering upstream like a nymph. When it gets below me I'm mending like I'm fishing a soft hackle. Fish it slowly like it's a wounded bait fish.
I don't add beads or barbell weights to this fly for fresh water use and you don't have to either or you may make the same mistake as one on-line fly tier did. He tied a small bait fish streamer with a light underbelly, a darker mid section and a dark back just as you should. Then he lashed in a barbell weight, AKA Clouser style, on the TOP of the Fly which means that when the fly hits water the barbell will sink first which means the poor fly will ride belly up (upside down) in the current.
Live and learn!
This weeks showers are only going to help our rivers. Backcast to my previous post and read the comment about the EB and the MB by Gary.
"All I can do is keep reminding myself that Lee Wulff once said, " The last thing you should change is your fly", which is good advice that's easier to follow when you don't have five hundred flies to choose from". John Gierach
First, let's talk about the brook trout. Our Swift River brookies are beginning to color up and it's only late August. They don't appear to be moving upstream yet but that will happen in about a month and that's when you will see a show that's unequaled in New England. Our wild brook trout population in the Swift is almost an embarrassment of riches and even though it's not a hidden mountain rill known to only a few it still has its own charm and magic. The magic being that 15 years ago the brook trout population was nowhere like it is today. We are fortunate!!
I finally made it to the Y Pool for the purpose of fishing it and I believe that it's the first time since February. I've brought some newcomers to the place over the Spring and Summer to show them what it's all about but now I have some more time to hit the place during "off" hours and days. One thing is You will never be alone at the Y!!
My Y Pool strategy is simple: fish it if there's plenty of room (usually there isn't) or head to the Bubbler Arm where there's always room no matter how many times I write about it. And there are trout. Not the pods of trout clearly visible in the Y but trout that appear out of nowhere if you are patient enough. Yesterday I met a guy up on the Arm who said that he hadn't even seen a trout. As he spoke I could see one bow just 10 feet behind him. I saw more after he left and took one plus a brookie of about 10 inches. The photo shows my favorite pattern for the Bubbler and it's a zebra midge knock-off from size 20 to 24. (notice I said knock-off instead of that hideous, overused term "variant". Changing a component of a fly, say color or one of the materials doesn't change the fly. It's still the same fly but just tweaked! If you don't think so just google "golden ribbed hare's ear" and see how many styles and colors pop up.It's still a GRHE!!)
After working the Arm I found plenty of room at the Y so I stepped in and joined the list of those that hadn't caught any of the rising trout that could be seen. At least I got a good hit on a size 24 Dorothea which was a fly recommended by Dan Trella. I thought that it was a bit late in the season for this fly but a few naturals began to pop up and the trout seemed to rise for them. I ended up the next day at the Pipe and the brookies and bows were all over that fly!
The pattern is simple - yellow or olive thread for the body,possum for the thorax and snowshoe rabbit for the wing. Don't get discouraged with tying the wing on this tiny fly. The less material the better.
Speaking of the Swift - I guided two well traveled anglers from New Jersey to the Swift this past week. They were astounded by the numbers of trout that they could see in this river. I explained that the general belief is that the stockings were on the light side this year. They said that we are fortunate to have this river. They are right!!!
