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

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

Highs And Lows On The Swift

 "I think I fish, in part, because it's an anti-social, bohemian business that, when properly, puts you forever outside the mainstream culture without actually landing you in an institution."

One can find the Swift in either one of two conditions - nice and low, around 42 to 60 cfs where it's been for most of 2021 or in the 110 cfs or above range. Thee flows are manmade and can occur at the press of a button (I'm not kidding). From the first of the year until June 15th the flow was 42 to 48 cfs. Then it hit 114 cfs where it's been since. It will go down very soon due to all the rain and when the Connecticut River rises with that rain the Swift gets turned down.

Now, which flow do I like best?  I'll take the low flow any day.

1. I love skinny water! I love drifting small dries, wets and emerging patterns over trout that are in less than 10 inches of water. Tiny flies and stealthy casts are in my blood. You have those conditions with a cfs in the 40's.

2. Euro nymphers appear lost with those conditions.  The current is too weak to barge those tungsten bombs that they fish with.

3. Flows over 60 cfs change the Cady Lane section from something that is very wadable in the 40's and not wadable at 100 +. (and I'm not talking about the top of Cady Lane but below the horse farm to the cottages.

4. Brook trout love skinny riffles for spawning beds with just a couple of inches covering their backs.  114 cfs is, in my opinion, way too much velocity for successful spawning.

Top Summer fly

The Summer just works and is #1 on the Swift for me during the warm months.

All the rivers are flowing nicely (maybe too nicely). I've had good results on the Millers and have heard the same about the EB.  BOOK ME!!!

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

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

Natives

 " If someone asks me whether I prefer fly fishing with a "dry" fly or a "wet" fly, I answer simply that I prefer fly fishing and put the accent somewhat suavely on the word "fly". 

 Malcolm Whitman

My first stream born trout was caught when I was about 11 years old because this old retired farmer told me how he used to catch small brookies (natives he called them) from this little trickle out in the woods.  Yes, I did take a can of red wigglers and managed to land two native trout which set me on the course that I've been on for decades.  These fish were 'natives" and not survivors from some hatchery dump.  This stream was a rarity because it was not intersected by any roads, not even an old cart road, just a footpath that was rapidly growing over and it would not be visited by a stocking truck.

I fished this stream yearly and then would add another little gem to my secret collection every so often.  I still go back to these gems just to keep me grounded in reality. Beavers have taken over my babbling brook but the brookies are bigger and more numerous. 

Chasing bows and "survivor" trout (native brookies are the REAL survivor strain) has a tendency to knock you off the rails so to speak. It's good to get back to what trout fishing used to be.

Conditions

Yes, we got rain and the streams are high but are around their average flow for this time of year.  We needed the rain!!

Ken

 Many activities that we do as a pastime have some pithy truisms attached to them and flyfishing is no exception. One is that trout put on the "feed bag" in the late Fall to prepare for winter (false).  The other (my favorite) is "don't bother flyfishing until the leaves on an apple tree are the size mouse ears". Ken

A Swift Brownie

A few years ago I made the observation on this blog that many of the browns coming out of the Farmington were skinny. "Brown Eels" is what I called them.  I did a presentation in the Albany area and many of those folks had noticed the same thing with Farmie browns.  As it turned out another blog, the Connecticut Fly Angler, noticed the same thing when when he described them (browns) as "Pickerel Trout".  Why is that? Maybe the food base in the Farmie is inadequate for the amount of trout that are thrown in (remember, most of those trout are stockers).  The trout in the photo above is a prime example of what happens when predator fish get lot to eat.  The countless brook trout in the Swift provide an ample forage base for the big browns that we have.  Ample forage is why we have monster browns best measured in pounds instead of inches!!!

So Far This Spring.....

Maybe it's the warm days and the low water conditions but I feel that I'm fishing in late May instead of early April.  We need some rain quickly.  The Ware has been good but I'm really waiting for the Millers to get more predictable.  Right now it's at 366 cfs but it was at over 1800 just this past Friday.  It's had a sample stocking in Athol and Royalston but I'm waiting for the lower river to to come alive.  I just have to remind myself: it's early!!!

Flies

The Partridge and Orange continues to be the top fly this Spring. Sizes 12 through 16 rule the day.  Ditto for the Partridge and Olive and the Possum nymphs.  If you've been out and about lately you've seen the millions of caddis in the stream bushes but no rising trout because these insects crawl to the shore and then emerge. They  (trout) should be after the egg laying insect soon.

Go Fish

Ken

The BIG Flies Of Spring

 

Fishing in rainy conditions may make fisherman seem crazy to the great mass of unimaginative people, but then few fishermen care what they think.”

— John Gierach

Hendrickson/Quill Gordon Wet

We are closing in on the first of the major mayfly hatches of the season ( we are not talking about frenchies or rainbow warriors or gottchas but REAL insects). The first two of the major hatches, especially by size are the Quill Gordons and the Hendricksons.  First off, they are very similar in size and color and that is why they get mixed up.  The Quill Gordons come first and the Hendricksons come right after.  Both have the same color scheme except the QG's are a bit smaller (size 14/16) and have only TWO tails while the Hendricksons are a bit larger (size 14) and have THREE tails.  Both have the grey smokey colored wings. Old time body recipes called for a hendrickson body that was pinkish (urine stained belly fur of a vixen fox was the choice material- good luck with that!) color which will vary depending on the river.  Go with light brown fur or floss.  It works and it's easier!  Also remember that the QG emergers from the stream bottom WITHOUT a nymph shuck and flies away quickly. Hendricksons emerge and then dry off on the surface before they fly to the bushes.

QG and Hendrickson Wet

Tail - None

Body - brown uniflex floss

Thorax - natural rabbit

Hackle - blue dun hen

Note: Because of the style of emergence QG wet flies work REALLY well.

                                                         Hendrickson Emerger

 A mayfly, in this case a Hendrickson, is a beautiful and dainty creature as it rides down the stream   drying its sailboat wings but if you happen upon  this insect as it's    trying to bust out of it's nymphal shuck and break through the surface tension you would see something less dainty and more akin to a human trying to exit a mummy sleeping bag. The insect is stuck in this position until it escapes the exoskeleton prison or is eaten by a trout. This is the most vulnerable stage in a mayfly's life and accounts for most of the "rises" that we see on a stream. It calls for an emerger pattern that will penetrate the surface  with it's head and developing wing but still have most of the body below or in the surface film.

As you can see I've pretty much abandoned the "dun" stage of the insect.

Hook - size 14 dry fly

Body - brown uni-flex floss

Wing - short, fine deer hair tied facing forward   like  an emerging wing.

Thorax - rabbit fur

The Attack On Red Brook

Many of you know the story of this spring creek (a rarity around here) that flows into Buttermilk Bay and is one of the few remaining sea run brook trout rivers in New England.  It has been "attacked" before but TU and the Trustees of Reservations saved it and made it a public treasure.  Well, it's "attacked" again by a development project that appears to have everything from a golf course, a mall and a lot of uppity housing.  And it's a bit sneaky the way that it's being done because they don't want to develop the Red Brook Reservation BUT the land that contains the aquifer from where the water comes from. A large development could greatly effect this stream or maybe even dry it up!

TU and people in Wareham are drawing a line in the sand on this project and they need our help.  Just google up "Waders for Wareham" and you will find it.

I did a quick search on this project and it appears that TU maybe going this alone. Other environmental groups should be throwing in support to stop this project.  The Trustees of Reservations, American Rivers, Clean Water Action, the Audubon Society and the like should team up with TU and the concerned citizens of Wareham before it's too late.

Ken

                                   

Up And Down The Ware River

 

" I like tailwater rivers, not because they offer better fishing, but because they draw  fly fishers away from my favorite rivers which are not tailwaters.

"Where is everybody? said my client for the day as we stepped into the Ware River.  "They're down the road on the Swift" was the quick reply.   And this is always the case. The dedicated Ware River fly fisher should be happy that the Swift is only 10 minutes way and it appears to be just too much of a temptation to hit the Y Pool and the Pipe and the crowds instead of enjoying a very pleasant freestone experience and catching a lot of trout.  Most people know very little of this river except for the Church Street bridge section and that's good for the rest of us.  Many have NEVER fished it and that included Charlie Shadan of The Evening Sun Fly Shop. That condition was rectified last May when Charlie took about 20 or so one afternoon.  He's another convert!!!

                                                        Charlie at it again!!

 

A River Of Bugs

The Ware is an insect factory, pure and simple.  April will bring out clouds of caddis followed by Quill Gordons with the best QG hatch I've seen in Massachusetts being right here. All this is followed by our friends the Hendricksons in early/mid May.  As you all know (YOU should know) the above hatches are all mid day Spring hatches with the hendrickson spinners finishing up by late afternoon. Summer has great evening fishing!!!

The Trout

Bows and browns are the game with the bows waving goodbye as soon as summer heat hits us. The browns will make it through the summer as long as there isn't a drought like last summer.  If the water level is good in the Fall we get fish again.

Book A Ware Trip    

The next three months will be great on this river.  Pick a day and we will do it.

Ken

Not Yet And Bead Chains

"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 actually the point" - John Gierach

Top of the EB Access Road

We are all itching to get out there to the freestones which are the heart and soul of our pastime BUT it's still too early.  " Wait a minute. I drove by my favorite stream and it looked fine" one would say but let's look closer.

A lot of water in central and western Ma is still locked up in ice and snow and hasn't come close to melting yet which will raise the rivers. We haven't had a good spring rain yet which will raise the rivers.  March is known for being one of the snowiest months and that snow will melt and, you guessed it, raise the rivers!!!

Here is a sampling of our rivers showing the current flow conditions and the historical average flow for this date. March 6th.

Millers - Current flow - 493 cfs                   Historical flow 630 cfs

Ware -    Current flow - 120 cfs                       "             "   238

(The Ware looks good but the water temperature is only 33 degrees)

EB -        Current flow - 127 cfs *                 Historical Flow 281

(they are playing with the EB flow)

West Branch Westfield - 94 cfs                      "                "    143

Squannacoock - `111 cfs                                "                "     130

Assabet            -269 cfs                                  "                "    283

The Millers, Ware, EB and the WB still have a lot of ice and snow in their watersheds and even without added rain or snow these rivers will go UP in March and April. The Squannacook and Assabet may have already lost some snow pack, or never had it, and that is why they are running close to normal.

                                                          Looking at the Gorge

The photo to the right is of the deep part of Chesterfield Gorge on the EB AND IT'S FROZEN OVER!!!! I believe you may be able to actually walk through the Gorge but don't try it.

Here's the Lesson

It's way too early to hit the freestones and it's way too early to stock these rivers.  Yes, I know that the truck chasers can hardly wait so have them hit Lake Cochituate or Jamaica Pond for fresh stockers but don't stock the rivers too early.  We have plenty of time to fly fish this year.  BTW, if you are a truck chaser you're on the wrong blog.

Bead Chain Soft Hackle

 

Maybe it was John Gierach that got my head turned in this direction or maybe it's this nagging urge to catch smallmouth on a sunken fly.  In any event I've been banging out some bead chain nymph-like creatures for this Spring and Summer.

My personal best Smallie on the Millers went about three pounds (caught on a size 12 stonefly nymph) and I've caught a number in the two pound range without really targeting them.  I used to clean house on Wachusett years ago by slowly working a weighted leech on a sinking line. I think it's time for a pilgrimage this year.

Let's book a trip!!!!!

Ken

Thinking Spring, Leaders/Tippets And A Favorite Pattern

 

 

There is so much BS out there about leader& tippet material...the factor I care much about with respect to tippet is the limpness factor for throwing dries...I like a few "s" curves on some casts. Most of the flyfishing specific tippets are fine SA/Orvis/RIO/Ump and others . I do stick to small spools on tippet because I dont want to buy a lifetime supply sized spool and have it go lousy...Over the past couple years I have been using mostly just 4x or bigger on most everything except some small dries. Out in MT this year we were on 2x and 3x at all times-caught tons of fish including roping some #16PMD dries to 3X.
I have stopped using flourocarbon for many years. Flourocarbon takes about 10X as long as monofilament to biodegrade and no matter how it is disposed of its most likely going to have to biodegrade for this reason alone I have sworn off flouro and truth be told I have always thought that we fishermen are kidding ourselves if we think the fish cant see it or even have a clue what it is and what the danger to them is. Until we can interview a fish...we will just be guessing. BobT, commenting in 2018

All it takes is two days of temperatures that have been higher than anything in the past month and the piscatorial juices really start to flow.  This happens even if you have been fishing and tying all Winter.  There is just something about Spring. We could still get one or two more snowstorms but the end is in sight.  Hang in there.

Book Me

There is an uptick in requests for trips for this Spring. A big chunk of May got snapped up so don't wait too long.  And remember, freestone fishing works during the mid day until around mid June and that's when it swings over to an early morning/evening fishery.  I've had great Spring days on the Millers but my best fishing has been in the evening, just right for a 3 hour trip!!!

 

A Favorite Spring Fly

Yes, I wrote about this fly not too long go but 

it pays to go over it again. My DSM caddis is my favorite Spring caddis pattern.  Swing this pattern when you start seeing those splashy rises. It's the sign that caddis are being chased by hungry trout.  Sizes 12, 14, and 16 cover everything.

Think Spring

Ken

It's Been 44 Days Since.......

" Trout are among those creatures who are one hell of a lot prettier than they need to be.  They can get you to wondering about the hidden workings of reality. " John Gierach

The Kempfield Pool

The end of the unfinished title to this blog is "the shortest day of the year".  You can see the difference in the late afternoon because the sun is teasing us by staying up a little more each day.  Spring is coming - don't worry.

The Rivers

If I could control the weather, the heat, the cold and the flow of water I would insure that freestones never got too warm, too cold or too dry.  Freestones are how we measure the REAL quality of our rivers AND the environment in general. Normal weather will supply the conditions for New England trout to make it through the summer. Last summer was the exact opposite.

Tailwaters are my default option when freestones are off their mark or if my schedule keeps me off the freestones in the evening (the BEST time). Tailwaters are almost always kept cold artificially which can kind of blow your mind as it did to me down in Austin Texas. The Guadalupe River flows through Austin and you can catch trout on a 100 degree day.  That's a little too manmade and engineered for me.  Just remember that many of these tailwaters, before the creation of the dam with the bottom release, were marginal trout streams if trout streams at all. 

 

This brings me to the EB. This may be our most valuable river because from it's source in the Berkshire foothills to  Knightville it runs without encountering a dam and given enough rain it fishes well all season.  Now, people like to say that it's the most beautiful river (it is) in Ma. while others have declared it totally overrated.  It is not overrated at all it's just as the season change your angling approach has to change too.  Don't think that you can fish the same mid day hours in July that you fished in May.  Like the Millers to the east it's an early morning river and an evening river and not a tailwater.

Start tying flies for the freestones making sure that they include plenty of soft hackles, heavy stoneflies and plenty of caddis.  Yes, bring some wooley buggers too.  Then contact me to hit the freestones (and the Swift)

Wait A Minute!!!

The Fly Shop of Redding California just did everyone a favor.  They are offering their base line of fly rods (H2O Freshwater Fly Rods) at only $169.00 AND with an EXTRA TIP at no charge.  I mentioned a little while ago that these graphite rod companies would be wise to offer the extra tip the way bamboo rod makers have been doing for years.  The Fly Shop states that "it's a built-in guarantee that'll keep you fishing on the  stream instead of waiting for the UPS truck."  Sounds like a good deal.

Ken

Browns And Brookies = More Bang For Your Buck

 

" FYI, I've heard people say that any trout here (Farmington) without an adipose clip or an elastomer tag/dye mark is wild, and that is completely inaccurate. Most of the trout stocked in the Permanent Catch & Release/TMA are indeed marked by the state (about 10,000), but the other well over 30,000 stocked trout are NOT marked in any sort of way". Up Country Fly Shop, May 2017

A plump Brown from the Swift

I once was giving a presentation to some fly fishing group and the question came up as to whether or not many of our trout streams had populations of native (born in the stream) trout.  I said that yes, many of the streams have  populations of native trout but in most cases the numbers are too low to matter as far as a fishery is concerned. Then I dropped the bombshell:  "If we stopped stocking for five years the catching of a trout in most New England rivers would be an event."

One guy thought I was nuts and to that I responded "What's your favorite trout stream?" He said the Squannacook. I then said "What happens if we don't stock it for five years?"  We both knew the answer.  Catching a trout would be an event!

Those Poor Bows

Let's face it.  Our trout streams are an example of "Put & Take" and that includes any sections that we designate as "Catch & Release"(the last two years the DFW stocked thousands rainbows in the Swift in early July and then fielded complaints that the trout disappeared.  They actually went looking for them!)  The problem is the reliance on rainbows for stocking.  It's a very short term solution for those who just want to catch fish and not worry about how they are doing it.  And rainbows have a hard time making it through a freestone summer.

Success By Accident

Sometimes things just go correctly as they have on the Swift, not with the bows but with the brookies and with the browns. The place is loaded with naturally reproducing brook trout and absolutely outsized browns who get outsized (15 lbs plus) by feeding on the brook trout. It's been said that the browns do not reproduce in the Swift and they are just average stockers that then eat a lot of BT and get REALLY BIG!!!  I could live with the idea of planting a population of apex predators (browns) and cutting the rainbow stocking in half or more. Brookies thrive in the Swift. Browns, although they may not reproduce, grow to be big  OLD fish in the Swift. Also, Swift browns are fatter than Farmington browns. I'm not the only one to observe this. Are there too many fish stocked in the Farmy or not enough biomass for the trout to feed on?

BTW, in my experience the EB is the only freestone river in central/western Ma that holds onto its bows through the Summer. A bow or two may sneak through the Summer on the Millers or the Ware (browns do) but you can clean up at Les's Pool drifting emergers on an August morning or at the Bliss Pool on a sublime Summer evening and have your fill of bows.

THINK ABOUT ALL OF THIS!

It's 5 degrees outside. Four days to Ground Hog Day!!!

Ken

 

 

   ' 

 

A Favorite Millers Spot And The San Juan Shuffle Hits The Swift

 

One of the things that this blog has always done for 15 years is to be free with information on what rivers I fish, what sections of the rivers that I fish and what flies are working for me  This is what flyfishers want to know so I provide it.  Now, conventional wisdom will say that giving this info will make spots more crowded. Not so, especially the freestones. Orcutt Brook and the Kempfield (Millers) can get crowded on weekends but the rest of the river is lightly fished. Same with the EB.  There's one spot on the Millers that gets low pressure but is a great place to fish - The Arch Street Section.

This is a wide open portion that is a dream to fish. Tons of backcast room, fairly easy wading and lots of fish. The river widens out through this section meaning that the flows become less severe.  Even a 500 cfs flow is wadable here if you're careful.

Soft hackle emergers rule the day here for the tons of caddis that call this section home.

How To Get There

It's easy! Take RT 2 into Erving Center and take Arch Street, go under the RR tracks, go past the bridge over the Millers and hang a right. There are a few parking spots in this half mile area (it's never full) and the river runs right next to the road.

If I were writing this in mid May I would expect some short lived crowded conditions but this is early January and in the next four months many will forget that they read this piece.  Remember, fish this section starting in May.

Jerks On The Swift

Swift regular Bill R. told me this sad story last week.  He was up fishing the overflow arm of the Y Pool when he noticed two young guys in the middle of the Hemlock Section (at the crossover) kicking up the bottom with their boots. This is  very destructive practice that started on the San Juan River a dozen years or so.  It kicks loose nymphs and larvae that the fish begin to feed on and I believe that some states have made it illegal.  The problem with the Swift is that these morons were kicking up the bottom of the river that is prime brookie habitat.  "They must of killed a thousand brook trout" lamented Bill. He hustled up to that area but the culprits were gone.

If you see anything like this call the EPO's. Their number is on this blog.

Hot Winter Stew

Italian sausage, green peppers, onions, chopped spinach, chopped tomatoes, lots of ground black pepper, Garlic and oregano, all slowly cooked in vegetable stock served with bread. Try it.

Book Me!!

Ken

The BWO - The All Season Dry

 

"Fly-fishing is a magical way to recapture the rapture of solitude without the pangs of loneliness" - John D. Voelker, aka, Robert Traver

BWO - Size 22

It's early January and shouldn't I be at the tying desk knee deep in heavy weighted nymphs and large super ugly streamers?  The answer is no simply because I don't like tossing heavy weighted flies that land like rocks or streamers that look like nothing that swims in the river unless that river is on Mars! Sorry, but I like the aesthetics of fly fishing. That's why I like soft hackles and the fly on the left, the Blue Winged Olive, aka the BWO.

Find a day in mid winter where the air temperature crosses the 40 degree mark and you will see these little guys on the Swift.  The Y Pool will have them and so will the long flat above the Duck Pond. It is a reliable winter insect. As Spring rolls around you will find them at Cady Lane but their real season is the Autumn (a cool, overcast day is perfect!)                                 Millers by Mormon Hollow

It's not just the Swift that has them around here but the little tailwater will have them all year. The Millers and the EB have had monster hatches in the late Summer and Fall and when I say "monster hatches" I mean insects that are so thick you almost inhale them! About 10 years ago I took a short scouting trip in March to the Millers at the Holtshire Road bridge.  The water was high and discolored but the air had  BWO's and the eddy just upstream from the bridge was full of rising trout.  The river had not yet been stocked!!!  The most concentrated hatch I've seen around here was on the EB in mid October.  I took fish on dries from Les's Pool, Slant Rock and the Bliss Pool.

In the next few months I will review some of my favorite rivers right down to specific runs and pools with maybe a few stories to go along. 

I'm still Guiding!!

Ken

The Scud And What Is "Sight Fishing"

 "A subspecies of the "big fish guy" is the local loner who haunts ordinary rivers, peering into deep holes and undercut banks looking for the fat, hook-jawed old brown trout that turn up from time to time even in water that's not known for big fish. These bruisers are rarely if even seen because they shun daylight, fatten up secretly after dark on fish and rodents, and because most fishermen don't believe they are even there and so don't hunt for them." - John Gierach (Hunter, I'm talking about YOU)

I don't believe for a second that the average trout stream has a lot of scuds in it.  Some do but most don't so why do they work? That semi-shiny exoskeleton screams of protein and calcium that is a mainstay of most subaquatic creatures from mayfly nymphs to crayfish to snails and ALL fish love to chow down on them especially in the dead of winter when many other exoskeleton aquatic creatures are under the rocks of buried in the silt.  That's why I never leave home without them.

I love a size 14 to size 18 scud with a olive tan body that's loosely dubbed and then picked out around the thorax before the carapace is tied down and ribbed with finest copper wire that you can get. ( I once bought some 32 gauge wire at fly shop that was thick enough to use as a laundry line. NO GOOD! I have some from a tiny transformer, VERY GOOD!!I don't tie weight into the fly but use the tiniest split shot 8 to 10 inches above the fly.

If you can't order them from my site (I have a problem with it for that fly) just send an email with the number of flies (size 14, 16 or 18) at $1.80 per fly. Use a check or pay pal me .Free shipping!

Sight Fishing???

The photo on the right was taken on the Swift about 15 years ago about a 100 yards above Route 9.  A typical Swift rainbow finning away in shallow water about 3 feet from me totally ignoring my presence (he must of known I was there) and certainly oblivious to to the dangers that surround him like ospreys, herons, otters, mink and the like, not to mention us.  In a normal environment (freestone) he would not be an easy target in open water but would have been behind a rock, log or weed bank.

Now, someone may say that I was practicing "sight fishing" but you are only doing that when the fish that you see are only "half seen" because they are hiding. They are not acting like cattle in a field like most Swift rainbows do Or like many tailwater bows do.  A rainbow in the Millers or the EB would NEVER allow me to take that picture because they get wild quick!!  The browns in the Swift and the above rivers learn quick and don't sunbathe in open areas to become the quarry for birds of prey.  Also, rainbows that mill around in tailwaters just don't seem to feed as much or at least feed like other trout in freestone rivers.  It's the tailwater paradox.  

My solution - stock more browns in the Swift and fish more freestones.

Ken

Just What We Need, Another Midge Pattern

 

"Think of trout as predators (that’ll can be hard at first)" - Comment left on another blog (Of course they're predators! What the hell do you think they are, vegetarians???)

Battleship Midge 

I woke up Saturday morning around 4:30 am from a dream about midges or more accurately from a dream about small flies.  The stage was the Bubbler Arm and the Y Pool of the Swift. It is a winter day but the mid day air temperature would kiss the 40 degree mark and trout would be dimpling the surface. My fly selection is a mix of surface flies and emergers mimicking generic midges, black fly larvae and Winter Caddis all in the size 20 to 26 range. This is basically the only time and method that I use to fish this section of the Swift unless the salmon have come over the spillway.

There is surface pattern that I like under these conditions. The Battleship Midge (my creation) floats like a skittering midge or Winter Caddis and the CDC wing catches the wind and gives it natural movement.

Hook - curved scud style from 22 to 24

Body - black 12/0 thread

Wing - Dun colored CDC tied in like a tail and then cut about half a fly length

Hackle - Dun or black size 20 dry fly hackle. Clip the bottom of the hackle

                                                                             Olive And Starling Emerger

Hook - size 20 to 24

Body - fine olive floss or 12/0 olive thread (brown thread of floss works too)

Hackle - Black Starling

Fish this on a down and across swing

Good Old Pinheads

This is my favorite black fly larvae pattern. These guys love fast riffle water and there are spots on the bubbler which is perfect for them.  Another good spot is the Pipe outflow.  In fact, the total length of the outflow from the hatchery to the river has MILLIONS of them and they are constantly being flushed into the Swift.  Size 18 through 24 on a standard dry fly hook works for me.

Don't forget your 2021 license

Have A Merry Christmas!!!

" Fishing with a fly seems to have gone in the opposite direction: It has become a needlessly complex and expensive pastime where anglers choose from hundreds of fly lines, high-tech rods, and trout reels with drags that can stop a truck. We all know that palming the rim of a reel with a simple click drag can stop any trout or salmon, but the industry has become dependent on building insecurity in the minds of their customers — if we aren’t outfitted with the latest gear and au courant signature fly, can we really be enjoying ourselves?"-Yvon Chouinard

I guess Yvon is trying to tell us that we have too much STUFF and he is right.  In my early fly fishing years (50 years ago) bamboo still ruled the roost with many of  the "good" fly fishers and these guys would fish these same bamboo rods year after year and would not think of tossing one and getting a new one.  It may be the relationship one can develop with a natural substance as opposed to something plastic.   Now, does that say that you can't appreciate graphite? No it doesn't if the amount of "classic" graphite that I've seen on the rivers is any indication.  It seems like every month I see someone with an Orvis Trident, a model that's decades old but a model that Orvis hit a home run with.  It's a great rod and I can see why someone would never give it up.

So just remember, this years new model may not make you a better fly fisher.  Only you can do that.

Still Fishing?

You better be!! You still have about 240 hours to squeeze out of that 2020 license so get at it.  Much of the snow that buried the Swift Valley will melt this week  BUT then freeze up to create slippery goings at the access points. A wading staff and studs will fix that.  Scuds have been the fly of choice on the Swift.  It's the same thing every winter.  BTW, I'm still guiding right through the winter!!

Have a Merry Christmas

Remember, it's not what you get but what you give that counts.  May you and those close to you have a merry and safe Christmas!

Ken