A Commentators Fly And December Trips

One can buy an $800 Gucci-like fly rod hoping that they will become a great caster.  Someone else will buy a $200 no nonsense rod and cast the doors off of the other guy and catch more fish too. It's the problem with the fly fishing industry; tons of hyperbole, mountains of overblown claims, a zillion new products and techniques that amount to nothing more than solutions in search of problems.        Remember, it's not the arrow. It's the archer!!!!!!   - Me

Frequent commentator Bob Twombly, AKA BT, knows what he's doing and has shared his knowledge about our sport on this blog for years. He tossed a fly to me a few days ago that he calls the "Little Gray Fly. It has taken trout all over this country and everyone who tries one wants more. A true go to fly.

Now, I've lost the recipe but it's fairly simple to tie and it has that retro look which I like.

Hook - sizes 12 - 18 wet or dry or nymph

Thread - Red, 6/0 should do

Tail - a few gray hen hackle fibers

Body - Red thread over the shank with gray muskrat lightly dubbed over the body so the thread shows through

Hackle - Gray hen hackle (this fly works well with brown hen hackle and Bob ties in a rib although he says it's not necessary)

Bob, If I missed anything just let me know.

I can daydream about drifting this fly on the Ware in early May!!!!!

December Trips

We are still fishing all over on the Swift and doing very well. It's been double digit days for my clients with some really outsized rainbows coming to the net. And the weather forecast through next week is DRY and COOL but not COLD. Let's squeeze out the last few hours of that 2017 license and catch some trout. Just contact me!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving
Ken

A Summer Morning, A Happy Fourth And A Lost Rod

Flyfishing does have its social aspects - on some of our crowded trout streams it can get too social -
but essentially it's a solitary, contemplative sport. People are left alone with themselves in beautiful surroundings to try to accomplish something that seems to have genuine value John Gierach

When I passed the Y Pool parking lot at 6:10 am there were a dozen vehicles there already. Tee times start early at the Y!! And from what I've heard there are a lot of fish above Route 9 and NOT a lot below Route 9. The ONE car there at 6:15 is testimony to that. The big, fat stocking on July 1 that we saw last year and the year before that and the year before that is not the case this year. It is slim pickings and a lot of empty water. For me it's PERFECT!!!!!!!!! (I'll tell you of a place where the rainbows are. Just stay calm)

I skipped the usually places and headed down to Cady Lane. I love this spot! Brookies, browns and bows are in the offering but it's the brookies that drive me there. The brookies are BIGGER this year. This morning I got deep into the double digits with a number of 8 to 10 inch fish and a beauty that hit the foot long mark. The 3 inch freshmen stayed off the hook although I could see them on the edges of the weeds. Where else in southern New England could you have this crazy treasure?

The brown came out of nowhere and grabbed the size 18 soft hackle, placed its 14 inch body against the current and then shook the hook. Fair enough because I saw him rise up from the bottom and felt the resistance for an instant. A lost fish but a good experience!!

I was down at Cady for three hours on a Summer holiday and NEVER saw or heard another angler. The only sounds were the riffles from upstream, summer morning birdsong (much subdued from spring) and some cattle mooing in the distance. Cady is a good place to reset the clock. I've been running full bore over the last three months with guiding and the "day job" and I needed CALM. I got it. (BTW, I'll have an word on that day job in a week or so)

Now, where are the freshly stocked trout below Route 9????? Local fish hawk Jim found them and he found them to the tune of 6 bows and 2 brookies (all good fish) on dries in a 2 hour span. If I found them I'd tell you where but he told me so I will not. I visited the place at the end of the morning, caught one bow and saw others. Hint: Explore!!!!!

Steak and ribs rubbed in pepper and salt going on the coals in an hour. Have a Happy July 4th!!!

Ken

P.S. A reader found a rod IN the Millers (???) If it's your rod then just go to the comments and look for Anonymous and his email address.

A West Branch Morning

I believe that the solution to any problem - work, love, money, whatever - is to go fishing, and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should be" - John Gierach

At 6:30 am the car thermometer read 56 degrees. Perfect! At 6:45 the West Branch of the Westfield read 58 degrees. More than perfect! I needed this small break and that small break would be on the prettiest trout stream that I've been fishing which is the West Branch of the Westfield.

This river looks like a miniature version of the Deerfield with similar topography, steep hills that seem to run right down to the river but WITHOUT the crazy flow regimes, WITHOUT the rafting, Without the tubing riff raff and without the swimmers. Nothing against swimmers but I thought that's what ponds are for!

I was intent on devoting a few hours to some runs that earlier in the year, during high water, just screamed for a dry fly. Today,at 80 CFS, the flow was perfect. It would be a dry fly morning!

My first stop was the Wright Run which local legend Gary turned me onto. The bushy Elk Hair Caddis (mine are tied with deer hair) took a bow and a brown from the riffles down through the gentle water. One trout came up to inspect the offering and then snubbed me (I take it personally) and then would not rise again. Then I went down to the Old State Bridge and had another trout perform the same act. This is a great spot but I just don't seem to do well in this section.

I met another flyfisher who was leaving who took a giant bow that he had been working over for a few weeks. "Were you nymphing" I asked? "No, got it on a streamer" he replied!! Let's hear it for the retro techniques!!!!

The last spot was the "Hole in the Woods" where I landed a good 16 inch bow and lost another trout to a bad knot! I was on the water at 7am and off by 9:15. I needed that time in a nice place without the crowds. I'm lucky to live close to good water. Actually I may have designed it that way. I couldn't think of living beyond a 40 minute drive from good trout water and I don't!!

Ken

Making The Most Of Two Hours - Autumn Dusk On The Swift

The modern depictions of fly fishing in print and video are accurate as far as they go, but they usually run heavy on gratuitous fish catching and light on the long silences that characterize the sport" - John Gierach

The Y Pool lot was packed at 4pm as usual but I had another destination in mind. I fished this spot a few times during the Summer and introduced my friend Brad to the stretch but drew zeros each time. "Summer" doesn't work here. This is where the brook trout and bows come to play in October and I would be the only one there! Well, almost.

Lenny knows how to fish and that was on display yesterday as he took at least 8 HUGE bows from ultra skinny water plus broke off a monster brookie that snapped his 4x tippet. (that's right, no puny leaders here). He certainly outgunned me which is fine except that he was using a caddis emerger that he found on MY BLOG. I, of course, didn't have any on me (Note to self: tie some caddis). I did well using my half & half with 6 beautiful brook trout and one big chunk bow.

It was great to spend the last two hours of daylight doing what I love to do but bittersweet in knowing that it will be "dark" this time next week and "evening " fishing comes to an end. The main thing is to get out there and enjoy these Autumn days.  I've always felt that the brilliant foliage of October is for the leaf peeping tourist. Autumn comes into it's own in New England when the color fades and we get, as one old timer told me, the "deer woods" with their subtle shades of grays and browns.  Couple that with a day in the 50's with willing trout and you are in heaven!!


Here are the "missing caddis"

Hook - dry/wet or scud size 14 or 16
body - grey dubbing, natural or synthetic
hackle - a few barbs of partridge
collar - brown ostrich

Some of you may have noticed the yo-yo levels on the Millers. This is really normal for this river in the Fall.  As long as the flows are below 500 cfs we will be ok.

Ken

Soft Hackle Variation

As many of you already know I like the idea and look of a trout fly that has a bit of color contrast in it's construction. My Hot Spot has that light band of contrasting color in the middle of the fly. This fly catches the attention of the trout and has been very successful for Swift River trout over the years. So has the Turkey Top with it's white wing case. Now I've tried that principle on a soft hackle except I'm doing it with mylar instead of dubbing or feathers. It's simply a soft hackle with a wing case of a single strip of mylar. It's maiden voyage was Sunday morning and it worked!!

Hook - size 14/16
Body - could be anything but I used stripped peacock (I have stripped peacock on the brain for some reason)
Wing Case - thin strip of mylar
Thorax - buggy dubbing
Hackle - standard soft hackle

Tie as usual but tie in the mylar before the thorax. Fold the mylar over the thorax and then wind the hackles. The fly will have that TINY bit of "on and off" flash that will get the attention of Swift bows without spooking them like the Grouse and Flash seems to have been doing over the last few years.

January - Yup, it sucks!! So we fish one day a week if the weather holds out and dream of the month of May. I'm also dreaming of a trip to Florida from Friday through the middle of next week.

Ken

Thunder And Lighting On The Swift

At noon it was close to 90 degrees and by 5:00 pm the temperature stayed steady with a spike in humidity. I wanted to fish but where to go. The forecast spelled t'storms which would cut out the longest drive to the Millers. I had a score to settle with those rising 'bows on the Swift and I figured that the hot weather would keep the swimming crowd on the EB longer than usual. The Swift was the choice. (55 degree water on THIS day had an influence on the decision).

What was the score that had to be settled? I was skunked on Saturday by trout that seemed to be cruising around picking sulphur emergers when they felt like it. I dreamed of seeing a steady rise. I got THAT and some scary weather.

5:45 found me below RT 9 ready to work some riffles as the skies began to darken to the west. The riffles showed some active surface working trout. The appropriate low lying dry was tied on and I was quickly on to a good fish. It got darker accompanied by the tell-tale booms of thunder but more 'bows were landed.

Don't believe the old saying that trout will stop rising when lightning is in the immediate area. I rose my last fish when the sky exploded above me with a bolt of lightning and that crackling sound that says "get out of here". I did. The skies opened up by 6:45 with buckets of rain with more lightning. I was on the way home.

I took eight rising bows in that short time. All casts were in the 15 to 20 foot range with a sulphur emerger fished on the surface. The score was settled.

This river is full of fish and when I say "this river" I mean below RT 9. It amazes me that so many people still fish only above RT 9 when downstream is so much more interesting. The bait boys have become a fading memory and in a week it will be catch & release. Besides, the hardware guys fish in only one place: the tree pool. The rest is ours!!!

Time to go check out the Millers. That will happen very soon!!

Ken

Defending Myself - Here's My Millers Resume!

Last night I got a call from a friend who asked me to check out a website. "Make sure you're sitting down" he said. What I saw was humorous at first but then began to set me off. The unnamed writer(they're always unnamed) mentioned "a well known Millers River guide" who has a Millers River Online Fly Shop (guess that's me)and derives income from it. Well, he got that right. Now for the bullshit:

"A person that I personally never seen involved with any groups to make the Millers River better, help stock the Millers River, be part of cleaning up the Millers River or for any other productive activity involving the Millers River other than his selfish gain".

To the nameless writer who didn't bother to fact check. Here's my Millers River Resume:

President, Deerfield/Millers Chapter of TU 1987-1990.

Signed the original petition for C&R on the Millers.

Organized volunteers to work with the DFW in electro-shocking sampling on the Millers in 1989 and 1990.

Conducted a joint effort with the Millers River Watershed Council to sample the ENTIRE RIVER for oxygen content for two years running.

Conducted creel surveys to support brown trout stocking of the proposed C&R sections.



Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, Millers River Watershed Council 1993 to 1996.

Organized the above mentioned oxygen study.

Conducted two "clean up" days along the Millers.

The MRWC found the source of an illegal spill on the upper Millers. Our work was rewarded by a court ordered check for $7500 which was part of the penalty.

Worked on the MRWC DAM SURVEY - an inventory of every dam in the Millers Watershed.

Got the MRWC involved in the Atlantic Salmon Spring stocking of the Miller.


President and Vice President of the Millers River Chapter of Trout Unlimited 2003 2006.
Realized in 2002 that the DFW had stopped stocking browns in the Millers because of "pcb's". I told them that issue was addressed and resolved in 1991(I was there!) and that ending the brown stocking without public notice may have been an illegal act. They agreed to continue stocking browns in 2003.

Organized, with Ken Simmons of the DFW, the first TU/DFW brown trout stocking in the two C&R sections. Actively involved in this effort until 2008 when I moved out of the area.

So there you go, unnamed writer. That's 25 years of environmental activism in that watershed, which I'll measure against any other effort, and I'm still at it. And stop saying that the Millers was a polluted river "20 years ago". You know nothing about the Millers 20 years! Nothing!!! Your comment is insulting!! Why would TU volunteers and the DFW fight for C&R classification, let alone stock, a polluted river 20 years ago!!! What are you thinking??????

Unnamed writer - come out of the shadows and send me a private email. My address is on this site. Show me and my readers what you're made of. Maybe you'll be enlightened. If you don't "come out" then SHUT UP!!!

Enough of this. Time to scout the Millers!!

Ken

Beating The Drum For The Lower Millers

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I seem to do this every year around this time and that is to beat the drum for the Lower Millers. Twenty years ago I had Wendell Depot and The Bears Den practically to myself. Now they are popular destinations and that is a very good thing but many fish nowhere else on this river. The Lower Millers is pretty much the same lonesome place that it was back in the 1980's. This is where I caught my first Millers trout in 1985. It's a great place!!!

Where is it?? I consider the Bridge Street Pool as the start of it because from here downstream there is no real road access until you arrive at Millers Falls. The railroad is the only real access which means that you have about 5 miles of hoofing it to work the entire area. The above photos are of three GOOD pools that are within .6 miles of each other.

Bridge Street Pool - This is a great place and is usually the first place that I show people below Wendell Depot. Classic riffles that lead into DEEP holding water. If I had one place to fish on a May or June morning this would be the place.

Cable Pool - About a 1/4 mile below the Bridge Street Pool is the Cable Pool. The few fly fishers back in the 1980's knew what was meant by the word "Cable". This place was crisscrossed by cables with sliding gates for kayak training. The cables are long gone but the pool/run is still there and it is perfect water.

Morman Hollow Brook - Morman Hollow Brook flows into the Millers about .6 of a mile below the gauge at Bridge St and the pools in this spot are beautiful. The trout are there along with the largest smallies that the Millers has to offer.

Take a break from the crowds and spend a few hours here. It's worth it!!

Ken

The "Revisionists" Are Out There - Renaming Of Millers River Pools

It started in 2004 when a "local" decided to "rename" some famous pools on the upper river (Bears Den) of the Millers. It was strange BECAUSE these places ALREADY had names that stretched back a half century!!!! I thought that baloney sank without a trace but it's back with an internet presence. Out of nowhere came the name "McKenzie's Pool" in place of the "Gorge Pool". Where did that name come from?? I had 20 years of fishing that river(at that time) and I had never heard of it. Neither did any of my local fly fishers friends who fished with me "back in the day". The late Bob Roleau, a local commercial fly tier and instructor NEVER called it "McKenzies Pool". When researching my Millers guide I fact checked the name of that pool and he said "It's the Gorge Pool and we called it that back in the late 1930's" Rodney Flagg of Flagg's Flies backed him up: "My dad and I fished the Gorge Pool in the 40's and 50's until they stopped stocking the river". Red Sox great Ted Williams and Heavyweight Champion Jack Sharkey, who fished this river in the 40's and 50's, would NEVER recognize the name "McKenzie". They would know the name "Gorge Pool".

The McKenzie label and any other labels are 21st creations. They lessen the legacy of this river that goes back at least 80 years and add unnecessary confusion to new generations of fly fishers.

Why do they do it?? Your guess is as good as mine. Me? I like a sense of local angling history. It's important and I don't feel the need to make it up. It's like renaming the Y Pool on the Swift and calling it "Kens Pool". We fished the Gorge Pool long before anyone tried to rename it!!

I'm glad to see that the Gorge Pool is now a favorite section. Since I first wrote about it in 2008 I've received many emails about this place. I've brought many fly fishers there too. If Ted Williams were still alive he would know where I was talking about. "McKenzie Pool"??? Ted wouldn't know where that was!!

The above photo is of the GORGE POOL!!

Ken

A Swift River Update

What a difference a year makes!! Last year, on this week, I fished the upper Swift (bubbler run to above the Y Pool) and caught about 60 trout in 4 outings. My one trip this week resulted in a total strike out. I didn't see a fish in the bubbler run and saw one fish taken in the "Y". In the parking lot I talked to an old "regular" who said that he caught trout in the overflow arm of the Y Pool. The trout were circling the outside edge of the ice. One minute you'd have a hit and then have to wait a while before they circled around again. I don't like the Y Pool and certainly don't like that circling setup.

The "Pipe" has been dead according to my sources which are pretty good. I think that this cold, snowy winter has sent the trout into wintering quarters - deeper spots.

Things should get better as March turns to April. They will start stocking, of course, and holdovers will stop hiding.

I can't wait.

Ken

If A Tree Falls Into The Kempfield Pool.......

Word had it that a giant pine blew down into the Kempfield a week or so ago. My first thoughts were that it had hopefully fallen into the quite water below the mouth of Whetestone Brook and NOT ABOVE IT. That would ruin the best spot on this stretch. Thankfully it landed below the mouth of the brook across from the large boulders marking the beginning of the slow water. In fact, it probably IMPROVED the flow by channeling floating (flies) material away from the south bank and closer to the north bank where the approach is ALWAYS best.

The browns are in at the bears den and folks are catching them. The lower section gets their browns on the 14th but we have been catching holdover browns and stocked rainbows regardless.

Hit the river. It's prime time for the Millers!!!

Millers Sunday

I guided a fellow from New Hampshire on his first Millers trip on Sunday. We started at the Bridge Pool in Farley where he lost two good fish. After a while we headed upstream to Erving Center and fished below the end of the C&R. Again we had a good fish on but it throw the hook. Finally we made our way to the Kempfield Pool where we were greeted with a good number of rising browns. My client caught his first two trout on dry flies!! The first holdover brown was an easy 18 inches, the second just a bit shy of that. They both fell to a size 14 BWO dun. After the guiding session I went back and caught one of the two remaining browns that were still rising. They were all dark, beautiful fish!!

It was a good way to start the season.

One note: there's no such place as the Power Station or Power Pool on the Millers. The real name is the Kempfield Pool and it is a name that was used in the 1940's and that is documented. The "Power" label was thrown at this beautiful stretch about ten years ago by people who park near an electrical sub-station and fish from the WRONG side of the river.

Ken

The Millers - Now is the TIME!

Hit this river NOW!! The last two years have been crazy with flows that broken records over the last two Summers. But this dry April has gotten this river down below 500cfs which is PRIME as far as flows are concerned. The browns go in on the first two Fridays in May but the bows have provided plenty of sport. Even the hendricksons are getting into the act on the lower river.

Temperatures will be in the '80's this weekend. It should be great!!!!! See you there!!

The photo is from the Cable Pool on the lower Millers.

Millers River Browns - Before And After

I was wading through my photo collection while waiting for the Millers to become wadable and ran into these two photos of browns from the Millers. The photo on the left is of a brown taken about two years ago in late May. It was stocked about three weeks before. Notice the light color of that fish. Now check out the other photo. This brown was taken in late May of this year and is surely a holdover fish. All of the browns stocked in the Millers will darken up as the summer rolls on and if luck is with them they will survive the winter and will have that dark golden hue the next season. The neat thing is that I'm seeing more of the darker browns as the seasons roll by.

The Millers is at the 1000cfs level as I write. Still too high for the kind of fishing that I like. I'm thinking that the 500 level will be reached by July 1st. Until then it's the Swift River.

Ken

The Kempfield Pool Again

Thursday night, June 4th, found me back at the Kempfield Pool on the Millers. I shared the stretch with Al from Mansfield and we both caught fish. Everything was perfect. The water level was in the 300cfs range and the bright sky of mid day became blurred by cloud cover by 6pm. I fished dries and took 8 browns again and broke off 2 more. The largest, taken at the head of the large rocks at the beginning of the main pool, was a dark holdover fish of 18 inches. The killer fly was a size 16 dark olive cdc comparadun. I left at 8pm feeling very good about the last three hours.

Back at the car I met a fellow from Worcester who was knocking them dead just below the Wendell bridge. Al had fished the Upper Trestle Pool earlier and caught fish. GET OUT THERE AND FISH!!!!

BTW, the above photo is of the Millers River in Erving just above Farley Flats. The top part of the visible river is the end of the C&R section and the lower river is just above the trestle at the flats. The photo was taken at the top of Rattlesnake Mt. after a nice hike. One does not live by flyfishing alone, at least most of the time.

Ken

Millers River Evening - May 29

It was 5pm when I hit the Kempfield section last night. The forecast called for t-storms around dark so I knew that my trip would be weather shortened. The river was higher then last week but still wadable. I began, as usual, by drifting a large, dark softhackle at the top of the island, then through that beautiful glide down to the large pool at the end of the section. I took four large browns, all between 14-18 inches, using that method. The last two on the wet fly were caught at the large rock at the beginning of that large pool. They took advantage of the deep water and it took a while to get both of them in.

Large dark caddis began to show so my tactics changed. Off came the softhackle and on went a large bivisible dry called the Millers Bivisible. (see 1/12/2009 post for photo and tying instructions) This is a great fly to prospect with because of it's visibility and floating properties, great for casting through the riffles in lower light. There were very few rising fish to be seen even with all of the insect activity but that didn't stop the browns from smashing my caddis offering. Another four browns came to the net. The riffles that run along the island produced three of the four browns, all on short upstream casts.

It had clouded over when I called it quits at 7:30. The deluge began when I was half way home to Northampton. All told it was a good night. I got to enjoy what the Kempfield Run is famous for - upstream dry fly fishing to eager browns!!

Ken

Millers River Snapshot - Holtshire Bridge

I thought I'd spend a little time talking about the Millers River as we endure the long wait until the river is at a decent level to fish. One of the first places that receives attention in the Spring is the Holtshire Bridge Run.

Now, some may refer to it as "Orcutt Run" or "Orcutt Pool" from the name of the brook that enters just above the bridge. The Orcutt label is fairly new. I like the name that we used 20 years ago which is Holtshire Bridge named for the bridge that spans the river on Holtshire Road. Anyway, it's a popular place by any name.

If one is new to flyfishing or is a little unsteady while wading this is a very good spot for you. First, it has an even, almost glass-like flow for almost 200 yards which insures good lines of drift. Second, it's sandy, cobblestone bottom insures easy wading when compared to most of the river. Third, it is heavily stocked with rainbows and some browns. That's the upside. Here's the downside. It can be VERY CROWDED!! It is also somewhat shallow and even though it has ample aquatic weeds to shade the trout it is wide open to the summer sun without any needed shade from trees. The bottom line is that it is one of the few places that is unreliable for mid summer evening fishing because the trout have left for cooler quarters. One would think that the mouth of Orcutt Brook or the brook itself would provide refuge and that may be true but your best bet is the very tail of the pool. Trout hang out in the fast water below and then work their way up to the pool at dusk. It's your best bet for summer fishing on this section.

The photo above was taken on Holtshire Bridge looking downstream. To reach the tail of the pool just follow the railroad tracks which run on the north side of the river.

If you don't mind the crowds then check this place out starting this month through June.

Ken

A Visit To The Farmington

Trout Fever is driving me crazy!!! The Millers is weeks away from being fishable and the Swift is running close to 600 cfs. What's a flyfisher to do? HIT THE FARMINGTON RIVER!!! I took a drive with my girlfriend to the village of Pleasant Valley, Ct. on Saturday, March 7 to check the place out, namely the fabled Church Pool. That was all that it took. I spent the next week waiting for Saturday to roll around, tying early black caddis and BWO emergers to add to the arsenal. Finally, I found myself waist deep in the slow water of the lower Church Pool yesterday morning at 9am. There were probably a dozen flyfishers spotted in the three hours that I was there with only four trout caught between them during that time. Most were working the surface imitating the dark winter caddis or the occasional BWO that floated by. I had one trout chase my caddis and it must of been my winter slowed reflexes that let it get away.

The Farmington is a great river and although I've had better results on this stream in the past it was just nice to be basking in the early Spring sun while working my fly rod.

Brown Trout Heaven And The Fly Fishers Guide To The Millers River

Fly fish the Millers River NOW!!!!!!!!!! From a drizzly late Friday afternoon and a clear, sunny Saturday morning almost 20 browns were taken on two different sections of the Bears Den. Only one was taken on the dreaded WB. All the rest came to a soft hackled fly. Plenty of rising fish made it a great weekend. Remember, the Fly Fishers Guide to the Millers is yours for just $10.00. Send that and your email address and I'll email it to you. Ken Elmer, 121 Pleasant St, Athol Ma. 01331 will do it.

The Millers has lots of browns and lots of action which will last through the summer.

Ken

Brown Trout - the only trout we need

Ok, time to vent a bit. The above photo is of a fellow that I guided on the Millers last May. In his hands is a nice brown trout. It was caught in the upper C&R (Bears Den) section of the Millers. It is a species of trout that provided excellent fly fishing throughout the Summer and into the Fall but only in the C&R sections. Why is that? Well, the DFW will only stock them in the C&R sections. The rest of the river, prime brown trout water to say the least, is only stocked with rainbows. Rainbows are a false fishery on this river. Throw them into the Millers in April and May and watch them disappear by mid July. If we had to rely on that species for a season long opportunity we would be casting for bass by the 4th of July!! The DFW thinks that we are only after some kind of immediate gratification, a lot of sunny May afternoons where we fish for a species of trout that are bent on extinction soon afterward. Why is that? The official word is that browns survive TOO well. They will pick up toxins and present a health hazard to people who want to EAT them. Guess what? The VAST majority of people who fish the Millers are FLY FISHERS who practice CATCH & RELEASE!!! Guess what else? The DFW's own studies show a dramatic reduction of PCB's in fish samples taken from the Millers!! What else is true? The river is posted, as are many rivers in this state, with consumption warnings about brown trout and other species.

Only 25% of the trout stocked this year in Ma. will be browns. Connecticut will stock over 50% browns in their waters. Why is that? Why waste resources in freestone rivers on a species of trout that are ill equipped for those environments? Fly fishing for trout is the only angling segment that is growing. General license sales have been down for years yet the charade that the angling population wants a lot of easy 'bows in the Spring continues.

The Millers and other freestones need Brown Trout, period!!

Ken