A Harbinger Of Spring - Those Tiny Stoneflies

 "Soon after I embraced the sport of angling I became convinced that I should never be able to enjoy it if I had to rely on the cooperation of the fish"- Sparse Grey Hackle

All it takes is two days where the temperature breaks 50 and then you will see them: The little stoneflies will be everywhere along your nearest trout stream. I live on the banks of the Mill River in Northampton and these little critters are all over my back deck and windows.  How they survived the two day warm spell is anyone's guess.  That two day warm spell came with a lot of rain which broke up some serious ice jams that caused some spots to overflow.  Those little stones crawled to the shore and against those odds made it to safety.

I've never had luck imitating the little stones on my favorite freestones but the upper portion of the Swift (Y Pool, Bubbler Run) has been ok because of it's controlled flow.

As I write this I can hear a few Spring time bird songs outside. The season is changing!!!

Thanks for the fly orders.  Keep them coming!!!!

Ken

Streamers And A Caddis

 

Streamers And A Caddis

" 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

I don't fish streamers in fresh water very much but when I get the chance to chase stripers and blues I have a few favorites that I like. 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.

Blues inhaled this fly when I first used it in Florida 3 year ago.

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!!!! (maybe)

I also needed to stock up on some old reliables and one is the simple DMS 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


Ken

A Good Freestone Fly - The Millers Bug

 

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

If you only fish tailwaters like the Swift and the Farmington you will not need this fly unless you are in a tailwater the day after it's stocked (trout will hit anything then). But if you fish freestones like the Millers, EB or the Ware YOU WILL NEED THIS FLY from mid-May onward because it represents one of the biggest meal tickets a good old freestone brown will encounter and that is the large nymph of the dragon and damsel fly species.  

Most of our encounters with this critter are kind of "after the fact", the dried out husks of dragon and damsel flies are all over the boulders that line the river or on boulders that protrude from the river surface.

Why freestones? It appears that dragons and damsels prefer the warmer and less sterile environment that you find on a natural trout stream (so do most aquatic insects but that's another story. The next time you are on a freestone in June check the rocks to see what I'm talking about or check out the photo on the right. There you have the adult fly, which trout don't see to care about, and a couple of husks left on the rocks

I's amazing how that big 2 inch adult can squeeze out of that small shell!!

Trout chase the nymphs and if you are lucky around the beginning of June (on a hot, clear morning) you can see this game in action.  The Bliss Pool on the EB ranks #1. Just walk out towards the opposite bank and you may just see the trout slashing away right at the shoreline. I can say that the EB has the most of these insects with the Millers coming in second. I've actually seen a Millers brown beach itself chasing these nymphs on the island at the Kempfield Run.

What fly to use?  We are imitating the nymph and not the adult. The adult in the upper photo is a wonderful light green but we want to use a drab brownish wooly bugger in around a size 12. Cast it out and let it sink for a few seconds and then strip quickly in short bursts. 

Here's another fly to use and I think it works better than the old WB.

It's at the top of the page and it's the Millers Bug:

Hook - nymph hook size 14 or 14

A little wire at the thorax to weight the fly (not too much)

Tail - Partridge fibers stripped from the stem.

Body - Brown Senyo's Laser Dub (just the right amount of flash)

Hackle - Brownish/tan hen hackle palmered back to front

Head - a few turns of peacock

Yes, I know it looks like a Sparrow fly but I wasn't thinking of that fly when I first tied it (honest).

Tying Flies and Booking trips

I don't think any guide knows the Millers and the Ware like I do. Some may show you the popular spots but I can show you a lot more than that!!  Book a trip!!!!!

Ken

The Holy Trinity Of Floating Dry Fly Materials

 "Its a game we play out here in Montana where we try to spot the out-of-state fisherman. Big brim hat with no drawstring; no buff when its 90+ degrees and blowing in the meadows; neoprene chest waders in the summer instead of shorts and wading socks; 10 boxes of flies on them at all times; every gadget ever made hanging off their vest; huge net catching on every bush; and applying silica using a brush. You nailed it. I always thought the brush concept made no sense." Kozman - Former Ma Angler and now 8 year resident of Montana

Genetic Hackle

Back in the days of BG (Before Graphite) the most common way of floating a dry fly was with the best of the available rooster neck hackles which either came from India or China and compared to the genetic hackles of today it can be said that that old stuff truly sucked. I can remember the local fly tying legend Rodney Flagg telling me how he and a few other professional tyers would be the first to open up a shipment of hackle from India and then cherry pick the best capes from the lot.

Genetic hackles, feathers raised for the expressed purpose of fly tying, changed all of that. Starting in the 1970's we had an explosion of great hackles all the way down to size 28 and 30.

Was I satisfied with these hackles?  Not really. First, Grade A capes ran about 50 bucks back in the 1970's and that was a little steep for me back then.  Also, rooster hackles would float because of their stiffness after being wound on the hook and not because of any natural buoyancy.  And I didn't want a dry fly resting on it's hackle points anyway. (unnatural).

Caucci and Nastasi present the COMPARADON

It was the mid 1970's when the dry fly changed forever. Say goodbye to hackles, say hello to deer hair (from the mask and the neck) which improved the floating qualities of a dry fly.

                                                                The Compardun

                                                                                 

I have tied more of the standard deer hair Comparaduns than all other dries combined.  They are perfect for sizes 12 through 18. If I want a smaller fly I will will opt for very fine, sparse poly wing material. Poly cleans up and stands up to all kind of abuse.  If I will be fishing some rough and tumble  pocket water I will opt for the "greatest floater" and that is Snowshoe rabbit.  Many don't like to use Snowshoe because it can be difficult to work with.  My advice: practice!!!!! I've seen a size 30 dry tied using snowshoe.  That's extreme but it can be done.

CDC - I use it but not that much.  It's too flimsy. I've taken a liken to "CDC Puffs" because of the profile it presents.

Stay Warm

Ken

 

  

Natural Dyeing - It's Easy

 "If catching fish is your only objective, you are either new to the game or too narrowly focused on measurable results." -Steve Stuver

Grizzly - after and before

I've dabbled in dyeing my own materials for years but with one condition: I have to use all natural dyeing materials and no manufactured compounds. This morning I decided to take my over - abundance of natural grizzly (basic black and white) and turn them into something more appealing. I wanted some grizzly that was of a brownish/golden hue.  Here's how I did it.

I buy my onions is a bag of about 10.  As I use them I save the loose brown outer skins. When I have enough (one bags worth) I'll put them in a pot of water and then wait for it to boil. In the above photo I dyed a 1/3 of a cape and boiled it slowly for 10 minutes. Throw some salt in the mix (I don't because it doesn't seem to make a difference) or some vinegar ( I don't for the same reason as above)

Take the 1/3rd cape out, rinse in cold water, sop up water with a paper towel and then hit with a hair dryer to speed it up.

The feathers come out a brownish gold - just right for Sulphurs!!

In late Summer you can do the same thing with marigold petals.

Speaking of Summer - I can hardly wait!!!!

One ad for the Marlborough Fly show says 21, 22 and 23 of January. Another ad says 22, 23 and 24 of January.  Go figure!!

Ken

The Millers And It's Holdovers

 "If I fished only to catch fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago".

Over the years I've been asked many times this simple question: " Are there holdovers in the Millers? The simple answer is YES and they are basically browns and when we talk of holdovers we are talking browns that make it through the winter which Robert Behnke said was the major cause of trout mortality in a freestone environment (Behnke was considered the foremost expert on trout and salmon). 

Now, does that mean at the end of every winter we have a stream full of holdovers?  That simple answer is NO and there is a good reason for it.  In my opinion, after almost 40 years of fishing this river, you will only see holdover browns in, let's say March, if we have had a mild, easy winter. By mild and easy I mean little of no snow, no icy floods, little stream or anchor ice with milder than average temperatures.  If we have a horribly cold winter with lots of river ice with scoured stream bottoms the browns will not stand much of a chance.

I can look back on the early Spring of 2006 and 2010 to make my point. Both winters were mild with little snow or rain at all so run off was not a problem.  By late March, before the clonebow trucks did their thing, I was catching rising browns that were feeding on hendricksons.  It was wonderful!!!!

Are all freestones like this??  Answer - They can be. The EB, being basically miles of riffles with little good wintering habitat, no doubt has winter kill.  The Ware, even with some very bad flooding a few years ago, has good holdover potential (all those beautiful pools).

So, keep an eye on the weather forecast and another eye on the stream gauges.  Don't miss an early Spring on the Millers!!!

Ken

Minimalist Dry

 In the early seventies, Idaho guide Bill Cowan used a similar, if even more minimalist, fly called the Hank of Hair - no body, just a deer hair wing with the butts clipped into a sort of thorax.  It appeared in a 1971 issue of Flyfisher Magazine but never caught on for some reason.  I expect it was just too simple for commercial fly tiers to take seriously or most fly shop customers to shell out good money for. - Bob Wyatt

I'm a fool for simple, minimalist flies.  Less is always better and this fly is a good example of that belief.  It first worked when I tried it out last Summer and it will be a mainstay in my fly box going forward.

The above fly is tied on a #16 curved emerger hook. The body is nothing more than one layer of thread (I don't think you even need that).  Use fine deer hair for the wing and clip the butt ends down close.  It is the fly's  thorax.  

You can make it size 20 or smaller by using snowshoe fur instead of deer hair.

Time to get your 2022 license  and then book me!!!!!

Ken

Rating The Rivers And Reproducing Trout

 "Stocked trout are as wild as a Chihuahua sitting in aa pink velvet handbag" - Fennel Hudson

The Ware River

Well, we do this little exercise every Fall to give an overview for the past season.  Yes, the fishing is still going on but it is winding down.  Let's start at 5th place and go from there.

Fifth Place - The West Branch of the Westfield- I don't know what happened out there this year but this beautiful river was a clunker this year.  High water had something to do with it.  I'll be back next year for sure.

Fourth Place - The Millers - I've fished this river for 37 years and this was the worst year due to the constant roaring current starting around mid June and continuing now.  I've had a number of October afternoons over the years with a flow of 250 cfs but not this year.  I'll be back next year.

 Third Place - The EB - It wasn't a disaster out there due to this river's ability to rise like a rocket BUT then sink like a stone.  There were plenty of fish but high water sort of killed my late season dry fly excursions. Swinging soft hackles helped save the day on the EB.

 Second Place- The Swift- I'm being generous here. This river gets a pass most years because of its cool and tame flow which draws fly fishers from all over the Northeast.  The big problem, especially this year, was the disappearing rainbow act.  And now we are into tattooing bows to see where they go. Stop the Madness by  stopping our reliance on rainbows!!!!  We should be looking at species like browns, that have a chance of getting established, as the DFW in Connecticut and New York do. (BTW, the sulphur hatch was off this year.)

First Place - The Ware River

Yup, this river did everything right this year.  It got high but corrected itself quickly. The Quill Gordons arrived on time and trout took advantage of them. And there are other places to fish on this river instead of just only below the Church Street Bridge.

The flows were good and the trout were willing.  It's number #1!!

Book Me - The Swift is fishing well with brookies on the redds but more importantly it's drawing big browns to go after those eggs.

Three and six hour trips are available!!

Ken

Soft Hackles, What Size And The State Of The Rivers

 "I fish because I love to.  Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and I hate the environs where of people are found, which are invariably ugly". Robert /Traver

I guide on five different Massachusetts rivers and this is one fly that works on all of them BUT on one river size really matters. Size 16 works on all of them but really works on the Swift (the Swift is a tailwater and tailwater insects tend to run smaller). Sizes 12 and 14 fill the bill on the larger freestones like the Ware, Millers and the EB.

They work all season but work best in the Fall on the Swift during the brookie spawning run. Those egg stealing bows can't get enough of them.

The Rivers

As of 8/28-

The Ware - 79 cfs- a very fishable flow.  Go upstream from the bridge especially in the shaded pools around the bend.  It's always good.

The Swift - 51 cfs - It's been at 51 cfs for a few weeks now.  Spread out and don't forget the Bubbler Arm

The EB 593 cfs - I think this reading may be on the high side due to flood water release just above the gauge. The Gorge section is probably lower than that.  This place was fishing very well before the last flood.  just be careful.

The Millers - 904 cfs and dropping.  It's dropped 556 cfs in three days and that is great. We should hit the magic 500 number by Sunday afternoon.

Book A Fall Trip!!

Ken

 

Thinking Of Dries

 

Thinking Of Dries

"For me, the study of aquatic insects and their transformations is engaging in an of itself. It also increases my understanding of the river, the fish and their prey. Learning where the food is will help you find the fish". - Thomas Ames, Jr. from Hatch Guide For New England Streams

Dry flies have certainly changed during my fly fishing years.  Decades ago hackled dries ruled the waters but hackle proved over time to be inferior to things like deer hair and snowshoe fur and fine synthetics.


Now, I stopped tying to "pattern" years ago and now tie "suggestively" which means that the size and shape are the most important elements in creating a dry fly with color coming in a distant third. The style of dry fly is important too.

The Comparadun - This is the F150 of dry flies!!! Simple, rugged, takes a beating and keeps on catching trout. It's half dry fly and half emerger because that body sits right down in the surface film instead of dancing on hackle points. In fact, the more waterlogged the fly the better it fishes. That deer hair post can be seen a mile away.

The main ingredient to this pattern is the deer hair used for the wing. The ONLY deer hair that you want to use is from the mask (face), legs and ears. Body hair is too long and course for those size 14 and smaller flies. If you like you can touch up the wings with a sharpie but it really isn't necessary.

My bodies are all ultra fine synthetics. They are stronger than natural fur and can position that deer hair very securely.

I use deer hair down to size 18 or 20 and then make the switch to fine synthetics.

A close runner up (and closing fast) is Bob Wyatt's DHE (Deer Hair Emerger). This stuck-in-the-surface-film-generic-pattern works because it looks like EVERY mayfly or caddis that is trying to break through the surface film. You just have to change the sizes.

Think of the times you've seen mayflies in the air and trout rising but you can't see mayflies on the water and if you do the trout may ignore them and take something else. That something else is an emerger stuck in the film. They are the easiest prey that a trout can consume. The DHE does the trick and is simple to tie. Scud hooks, mask hair, some 140 denier thread for the body and course hares ear for the thorax will do it all.

Wyatt's book, What Trout Want explains the whole thing!!

 

Rain - Just In time

Guess what? After the wettest July on record we have had a very dry August. Today (8/19) we are expected to get .85 inches of rain which will bring things up for this weekend. Enjoy it or book a trip for this Fall!!

Ken
 

 

 

 

 

My Blue Wing Olive - Don't Leave Home Without It!

 "Nobody fishes there anymore, it's too crowded" - Paraphrasing Yogi Berra

This fly is the King of Autumn on our central New England Rivers. Although one can see this insect on almost any cool, overcast day through the Spring and Summer, Fall is when it takes center stage especially on the EB, the Swift and the Millers. 

Backcast to 2009. It had been a very wet Summer which had the Millers flowing around 1000cfs all Summer.  Even the Swift was chugging along at 400+ on July 4th.  The EB was up and down in the extreme all Summer but began to settle down to a steady 150 - 200 flow by the end of September. I decided to take the day off and spend it there. The weather forecast predicted a heavy rain the next day so I figured I had a one day window for decent conditions. The temperature was in the low 50's and the sky was laden with heavy clouds - perfect BWO weather.

I started at Les's Pool and worked my way up to Slant Rock and finished at the Bliss Pool. In short I took over 30 trout all on size 22 and 24 BWO and missed more (of course). 

My BWO is tied as an emerger without the outrigger tails found in most conventional flies. The trout go nuts for this half floating/half submerged offering. My wing material keeps it floating.

I have a BWO/Millers story for another time.

The Rivers This Morning 

The Ware - 72 cfs (a good flow for unweighted flies)

The Swift - 51 cfs (same old flow, fish above the Duck Pond and/or Cady Lane)

The EB - 178 cfs (Fish early or fish late, avoid the tourists at mid day)

The Millers - 482 cfs and falling - finally below 500 cfs.  Fish this river!!!

All the above rivers have been doing well and this blog isn't afraid to tell you where you can have a good day.  It's all stocked, public water, Right?????

Book Me

Ken

Fish Friendly Photography

  "Fishermen are born honest, but they get over it" 

Ok, we've all seen the photos of the vanquished trout - laying on the wet shoreline and totally motionless. Photos are snapped, high fives are tossed around and then the sacred C&R ritual is performed and fishing is resumed. But we may have sentenced a trout to death by photography!!!  Many anglers take WAY to much time shooting pictures instead of releasing. I've seen trout go this route on the Swift and drift downstream to die. (The worst are the people taking selfies of themselves and the fish.) I will call them out on it and sometimes it works but...

How to take a Trout Photo

First, time is critical. The whole event, from netting to net release should take much less than a minute

Second - the net and the fish should never leave the water. Appealing photos often come through keeping the fish partially submerged and perhaps slightly downward.  Consider leaving the fish underwater the entire time.

Third - worried about dunking your camera? Get a waterproof case or a waterproof camera.

Fourth - go barbless all of the time because it saves time and wet your hands before removing the hook. (I'm constantly amazed at the number of fly shop catalogs and magazines that STILL publish photos of barbed flies for sale.)

Fifth - And don't lay the trout on the ground.  If you insist then hand over your license!!

Where to go

Try the EB.  It's perfect!!!!!

Ken

Fishing July in April Conditions

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

Here is a Saturday morning photo of the Quabbin spillway with basically no water flowing out of "the pond".  The water level is about 2 feet from the spillway apron.

This means that with 2 feet of hedge room and with the Swift flow reduced from 100 cfs to 55 cfs we will have a normal Swift if we can only stay dry. It's about time!!!

Can't say the same about the Millers which reminds me of July 2009 where the river crested at 1000 cfs and kept rising through August.  It's at 3000 right now!!!!!!

The EB is becoming tamed with a flow in the high 400 hundred range.  It will fish well this coming week.

                               

                             There's always a slight summer lull in fly tying but not this year.  The word must be out on  the effectiveness of soft hackles or maybe people just like that style of fishing.  Anyway, it beats carpet bombing the river with tungsten depth charges!!!!

      Ken

 

 

                                            

  "If  you're weary, sick but still ambulatory, fed up, overworked, angry, frustrated, heartbroken, need to think things over or need to stop thinking things over for a while, you should definitely go fishing and you should go alone so you don't bother anyone. But then fishing, like most other human pleasures, is better when it's done out of love than when it's used as a painkiller."  John Gierach

June represented the best and the worst of the trout fishing calendar.  Anyone who could tear themselves away from the Farmie and the Swift and fished at the right time of day did well on the freestones The Ware and the EB held their own with the Millers picking up the slack during the second half of June.  These are true New England trout rivers!!!

Right now it is too hot and the flows are too low on my favorite streams.  We are having another G.D. drought so I'll wait for some RAIN.  I'll drop by the Swift after July 1 to see what the DFW gave us for our change-of regulations stocking and then enjoy a nice July and August stalking sippers, chasing stripers and anticipating Fall.  One thing I will do is avoid the crowds. To get what I mean go back to the previous post and read the comment about crowds by  one of my readers.

It was T.S. Elliot who coined the term "prenatal darkness", that time of night when the stars and the planets still grace the night sky but there is that faint glow in the east signaling the start of a new day. From the last week of June to the 2nd week of July  I would find myself at 3:30 facing upstream at the Upper Trestle Pool or at the Kempfield Pool as trout rose EVERYWHERE.  This action would last until dawn (5:30) and then would come to a hard stop.  What I was witnessing was "behavioral drift" - the habit of some aquatic species of insects to pack their bags and migrate downstream.  It was the best dry fly/emerger fishing that I've had of the Millers.  A small (size 20 to 22) buzzer suspended 4 or 5 inches below a tiny indicator or just (at times) a Griffiths gnat was all it took.  If you thought that a mile long nymph rod and a half ton of tungston  would be your weapon of choice then think again.  Your fishing day would be over quicker than a knife fight in phone booth.

We Need Rain!!

Ken

Big And Bushy

 "You get over these small loses the way a lizard grows a new tail, and you end up remembering the great uncaught fish as vividly as you do the caught ones - and just as fondly too, because there's a part of every fisherman that roots for the fish."  John Gierach

Here's my favorite later Spring and Summer searching pattern.  It looks like a half dozen different flies but most importantly it floats like a cork and works very well in fast water like you see at the EB.  

A typical EB evening starts around 5pm with this fly in the heavy water.  It will probably be the biggest morsel those trout will see on the surface and they will attack it.  As the sun begins to set the standard hatches start up and I retire this beast until the next time.

Hook - size 10 dry or light wire nymph hook

Tail - deer mask

Body - bright synthetic dubbing (I like yellow)

Hackle - cream, grizzly or badger

Wing - More deer mask

Drop a soft hackle off the back or fish it solo.

The Rivers

The Millers is perfect at 205 cfs and the Swift is fine at 114cfs. Pick your spots on the other rivers.  Remember, the the hot spot of May can be as dead as a door nail right now.  Search out SHADED DEPTH early in the day or at dusk and pray for rain!!!!

Ken

Bet On The Baetis

 "I have not failed. I just found 10,000 wats that won't work" - John Gierach

This fly may account for more full stomachs on your average trout stream than any other insect.  The word "Baetis"  is a catch-all for at least a half dozen different mayflies with the Grand Blue Winged Olive, mostly known as the BWO, leading the way.  All of these species lumped into this group have a few things in common - they are small, love to hang out in the nymph stage in weedy areas, like to drift around and take their time emerging and they are a ball to fish.

Size 18 to 22 will work. The body should be olive or brown thread with a fur thorax (mine is a light olive).  Tails are optional.

Find a steady but slow flow that may be a few feet deep.  Use a long leader of 12 to 15 feet in a size 6x.  Drift this fly down and across keeping the line fairly taunt.  This method works well especially in the very early morning when you have that activity called "behavioral drift", namely the whole baetis population decides to check out new neighborhoods.

These insects will rule the stage from now through the Fall.

Have Fun!!!

Ken

Lucky So Far

 "The purist fishes exclusively with a fly rod, which means that he owns a spinning rod and sometimes uses it, but he doesn't talk about it much...and stores it separately from his fly tackle." - John Gierach

So far, so good!! We get blasted by a heat wave but then we are greeted with a weather front that drops the air temperature by 20 degrees. As I write (5:30am) the air temperature in Trout Land is only 46 degrees.  What is equally important is the fact that our stream levels are holding their own and this is the key to everything. If the aquafers are fully charged then there will be ample cool  water seeping into our rivers and the trout will find thermal refuge that we will not find with our hand held stream thermometers.

The Swift

The Swift went up on the 15th to 114cfs and has stayed there. I was discussing this with Brian at the Deerfield Fly Shop and we are leaning towards a very dry landscape in the northern Connecticut River watershed which keeps the tap running out of Quabbin.  That should not last much longer.

BTW, there's a lot of talk about the scarcity of trout in the Swift.  That will end with the July 1st stocking BUT there's plenty of trout there now. One of the doubters saw his first "pellet hatch" and said "where did they come from?" A couple of my newbies took their first trout EVER recently from that river.  There are fish there.

Hatches

Sulphurs rule the day on the Swift. Size 16 to 20 in a soft hackle and size 20 to 24 in a dry will work although the soft hackle, if fished as an emerger, will out fish the dry.

The March Brown can be found on freestones in June and early July like the Millers. Look for them in slower water with soft, silty bottoms.

Remember, fish the freestones in the very early morning or in the evening right into the dark. If they (browns) are rising then they are feeding and that's a good thing. Get the fish to the net quickly and that means using a fairly stout leader.

Tenkara

I'm getting a steady pulse of requests for tenkara lessons and we are catching fish using that wonderful method.  Contact me!!!

Ken

Summer

 

"When you begin to understand the technique of the wet fly, the search for places where fish are lying becomes fascinating. The more you practice it, the more you realize that it is far from being merely a question of promenading a train of flies under water." Charles Ritz, A Fly Fisher's Life 

Mid June has arrived and it's not too early to declare that the Summer fly fishing season is upon us. and with that comes the reemergence of that old time dogma about summertime trout fishing.  None of that dogma applies to tailwaters but only on natural flows.  Let's take a look at some "truisms".

"Don't fish when the water temperature is above 62 degrees". This nugget actually goes back to the early 20th century when the trout season ended in early July.  Trout, especially BROWN TROUT, can acclimate to a warmer flow IF some thermal refuge (cool water) can be found to carry them through the day.  They will become active after sundown and still be feeding at dawn.  One of the best dry fly experiences that I've had was on the Millers at 4am on a hot July Weekend.  Everything was rising but stopped at 5am.

"You will stress out the trout if you fish for them"- This sounds true but it really isn't.  You can get a trout to take a fly only if the water temperature would promote a trout to feed.  Optimum feeding temperature for a trout is between 55 and 65 degrees. Above and below that range their metabolism will lessen and so will their feeding.

I mentioned "Thermal Refuge".  These are the tribs, springs and seepages that all freestones have. I stay away from the obvious ones during the day during the Summer just to give the trout a break.  My best example of this occurred on the Squannacook years ago.  It was a hot, humid Sunday afternoon and i decided to walk the river below the Harbor.  There was a swampy area that I used to avoid but not on that day.  The swamp drained into the river with a trickle of water about the length of a pencil. Downstream from that mouth there were about 20 browns forming a conga line in that cool water. I never fished for them and sometimes after a heavy rain they would move out into the river but come back when the flows got low.  

I've also broke off trout on an early summer evening only to catch them again an hour of so later.

Fish very early or late or go to the tailwaters!!

Ken

The Rivers

 "Fly fishing is solitary, contemplative, misanthropic, scientific in some hands , poetic in others, and laced with conflicting aesthetic  considerations. It's not even clear if catching fish is the point." -   John Gierach

It was a good month of May on Massachusetts rivers. Trout were on the attack and we had some good hours on the EB, The Ware and the Swift if you knew where to look.

We worked the EB this past Wednesday from 2 to 6pm with a flow at 311 cfs.  The Bliss Pool rewarded us especially when we put on a green caddis larvae.

The Ware has been top notch but it pays to move around.  Below the Church Street bridge is not the only place to fish. There are many good sized browns in that river.  Try River Run a few miles upstream.

The Swift has been on and off the last few weeks. There have been a number of zero days but some days where 18+ fish have been taken.

I hooked and lost an 18 to 20 inch brown in the bubbler arm on Thursday.  It's still there so go for it.

Let's give the Millers a few more days.  It's still over 800 cfs.

As you can tell I'm not one of those writers who will never divulge the spot on a river that I fish or let alone the name of the river. People work hard in this world and having some time to fish and knowing where to go is important to them.  That's what this blog does.  I know of two bloggers who used to read my blog and would then pepper me for more details, "where, when, what time and what were you using." Then they would draw a blank as to the river on their blogs.  An outdoor writer should not make himself and his buddies the center of attention.  It's the river that gets top billing and then the fish.

Book me.  The fishing is great!!

Ken

Sulphur Season And Weird Awards And The State Of The Rivers

 

I enjoy fishing too much to risk my life at it.  Death can really cut into your fishing time. - John Gierach

My Favorite Sulphur Pattern

It was two years ago when I witnessed one of the best insect hatches I've ever seen on the Swift. For most of June and a lot of July the birds (Cedar Waxwings) would start swooping along the river around 10am picking off these delicate yellowish mayflies by the thousands.  I had birds come so close to me while chasing these bugs that I could feel their wings beat  close to my face.  One angler actually got hit in the head by one of these crazed birds.  It was wonderful!!!

Yes, you can toss a dry fly BUT you will have more success with a small (size 18 to 20) soft hackle.  It is the fly to use BEFORE the hatch and is the perfect emerger pattern during the hatch (remember, most surface disturbances that we see are not trout taking insects on the surface but insects just below the surface.

The State of the Rivers

Here is where we are at 6am, June 1

The Ware - 353cfs (this was the best river for the month of May)

West Branch -328cfs

Swift             -46cfs

Millers          - 1110cfs

EB                -534cfs

We have a dry and hot week coming up so we can be thankful for the water.  The Swift is fine, the EB will be fine in 24 hours, give the Ware and the West Branch until Friday and who knows about the Millers.

Beware the Awards

"The worst is when they email out of the blue to ‘congratulate’ you. Usually, they’ll want you to pop an ‘award badge’ on your site; which, embedded in the code, is a follow link. Sites like Feedspot are the absolute worst for this.

What is feedspot? It’s a site that claims to be legit but they will keep hounding you to put the badge on your site and they even replicate your content on their site without permission. I’ve emailed them several times about basically running my full blog posts on their site which they claim helps them with traffic. They still haven’t removed my site from their's!" https://thebloglancer.co.uk/  

I've seen these "awards" before and I stay clear of them and their offers. They will award anyone including cat blogs, baby boomer blogs, amigurumi blogs (that's yarn art), Christian book review blogs and such with a garish gold medal which appears to be a tracking device.  It's funny but some of these "ranked" blogs have very little activity with  little or no new content.

This blog has had a steady growth pattern for years. Growth, in my mind, comes from page views and READER COMMENTS!!!

                                                 Praying Mantis

No, I didn't tie this critter, I just like the looks of it.  I wouldn't fish it either. I'd be afraid that I'd stick it in a tree. 

Book an evening trip!

Ken