Early Season Strategies

 

Sinking Lines, Secret Weapons And Book A Trip

"There's no greater fan of fly fishing than the worm" -Patrick F. McManus

Back in the day, back in BG (before graphite) it seemed that nobody with any sense would fish one of our larger rivers during the Spring high water without a sinking line. And I mean a SINKING LINE as in a Cortland Wet Cell 2 as opposed to a sinking tip line by any maker.

Sinking lines get you DOWN so you can short line, tight line and high stick your brains out but still make traditional casts to swing streamers and soft hackles and such. And don't believe the conventional wisdom that these are a bear to cast because they are not. Picking 50 ft of line out of the water may be a task but who does that anyway. Most of our fishing is withing 25 feet.

The key is the length of your leader material (notice that I said "leader material" and not leader) which should be about a 5 foot section of 3x for those high water, heavy fly conditions.

These lines are cheap and you should have one loaded onto a spare reel "just in case". It has saved the day for me on the Squannacook to the EB and especially the Millers over the years.

BTW, the Wet Cell family of sinking lines does all my Salt Chucking too.

Thin Blue Lines

Spring is the time to hunt along these streams.  Look for ones that are NOT on any stocking list because a trout out of one of these streams may be the prettiest trout you'll ever catch.  So before you line up on the Farmington or the Swift or crowd out the Orcutt Section of the Millers try a Blue Line.

I love bead chain eyes BECAUSE they actually look like the eyes of a large insect or crayfish plus they add just the right amount of weight to beat heavy flows. I tie them on small buggers meant to imitate dragon fly and damsel fly nymphs and they work. In fact, many years ago when I worked the shores of Wachusett Reservoir for smallmouth it may have been my top fly.

Go to a local hardware store for the beadchain.

Folks, I'm booking up this Spring for the Millers, EB, MB, Ware and the Swift. Just email me and the date is yours!

My Experiment And Browns Of The Ware

                 "The best times to fish is when it's raining and when it's not" - Patrick McManus

This is the time of year when we let the creative juices flow as we sit down at the vise. It happens every year and some times the results will actually work while at other times you will find yourself on a stream looking at one of these mid winter creations at the end of your leader and say to yourself: "What was I thinking?"  I don't think it will happen with this fly pattern. Say hello to bead chain again!

This fly has a built in trigger and that is the set of big eyes. Dragon fly nymphs as well as Damsel fly nymphs have this attribute. So do sculpins and crayfish and if you venture into salt water flats with this fly you will mimic a number of crabs.

Now, another key to this fly is the reduced weight of the fly. Bead chain will sink a fly but not like a bomb like lead or tungsten will.  If I need more weight I'll put on a micro shot a foot above the fly. (I'm ridding myself of using lead which should not be in the environment.

This Spring I'll be putting the mini buggers aside and going with this concoction which I believe will catch fish.

Back on January 18 2022 I posted the recipe for this fly so just backcast a few posts to find the instructions.

Browns 0f the Ware

One evening last Summer I took a ride to the Ware River and fished not at the Church Street bridge but maybe close to 3/4 of a mile upstream. One has to walk between the corn field and the river and the first thing you see is that very few, if any people, travel up here.  The second thing you notice is that the pools and runs up here are deep and brown trout friendly.  I swung soft hackles and tossed a comparadun and that fly took two browns that amazed me by their size which was in the 4 to 5 inch range. The year before the DFW tossed in a bunch of 8 inch browns. My little guys HAD to have been born in the Ware and I was happier catching them then catching 14 or 16 inch fish that were dumped in.

Maybe the DFW should take some time off from sampling the Swift to death and check out the potential of this neat river. BTW, it is reasonable to believe that 90% of the fly fishing on this river is done within 200 feet of the Church Street Bridge.  SPREAD OUT!!!

Flies For Sale

Order now before I get really jammed with orders.

Guided Trips

Everyone has their favorite days or weeks to spend on a river and when yu finally get around to booking a trip you find out that someone else has scooped up that date(s). BOOK EARLY!!

Ken

Marabou Is King For Streamers (And Don't Forget The Sharpies)

 

"There's no such thing as a "best fly" or a "guide fly".  After the hatchery truck rolls away just about ANY fly will work and everyone is an expert.  Give it a month and you will see that presentation is King.  The well placed fly wins every time.  Remember, there are some fish hawks out there who only fish a few patterns but they catch the most fish." - Ken

The Painted Brookie

I have a love/hate relationship with streamers.  Standards like the mickey finn, with it's body of yellow and red, just don't seem natural to me because they are not natural (it's an attractor). Also, the wing material be it bucktail, fixed hackle wing (becoming rare these days), or even craft fur is usually too stiff and lifeless for my taste.  That is why my freshwater (trout) streamers went over to Marabou about 30 years ago.  It's action in the water can't be beat, period!!!  But there is a problem.  Marabou comes in solid colors and not too many of them either.  I wanted to blend colors and that's where the use of sharpies come in.



The fly above has an orange dubbed body with mylar for the rib.  The wing is WHITE marabou that I colored in sections.
First, a thin bunch of white marabou is tied to the top of the hook.

Second, a thin strip of white marabou is cut and then colored with a reddish brown sharpie (hold the marabou in one hand placing the feathers on a piece of paper to color it). Then tie it to the fly.

Third, Do the same thing with a purple sharpie and then finish the fly.  I think it has some important brookie colors. A size 10 or 12 standard streamer hook will work.

Did I mention that I don't like the traditional way of fishing a streamer?  Well I don't. I like fishing streamers like a nymph - upstream and then a high stick drift downstream on a short line.  Most streamers are fished too high in the water column and too fast in the water.  Little bait fish don't swim that fast. The great Catskill legend Harry Darbee used to imitate large stonefly nymphs with a streamer called a Dark Edson Tiger.

Go figure!!!!

It's Cold
I've lived on the banks of the Mill River (an ok trout stream) in Northampton for 14 years and this is the first time I've seen the ice thick and safe enough to ice skate on.  Most years it never really freezes.  Is this the coldest winter? If the photo that was in the town paper is true then we are not even close.  The paper published a photo of the river behind my house in 1905 that had about 50 people posing for  a photo while standing on the river ice.  The day was Thanksgiving Day!!!!!   Sounds like the start of a cold winter!!

Well, it seems that Covid beat the Marlborough Show again.  That's too bad because the show had become a mid winter fix for long suffering, frozen out fly fishers.  Now it's moved to April. Three things could happen: first, Covid, in one form or another, will still be on the rampage come April.  Two- the lure of a balmy April day will be too much to resist and fly fishing will win out or Three- the urge to shop for something that we really don't need will win out!!  Ladies and Gentlemen - place your bets!!!

The Wonderful World Of Yvon Chouinard And His Soft Hackle Bonefish Fly

 "Something to think about: If you fish the wrong fly long and hard enough, it will sooner or later become the right fly." - JohnGierach

I only subscribe to two fly fishing magazines (I'm talking about real paper and not an online publications.) The first is American Fly Fishing (the one with me on the cover) and the other is Tail Fly Fishing Magazine.  Tail  likes to refer to themselves as the "Voice of Saltwater Fly Fishing" and they deserve it. This is no "hook and bullet" rag but a slick and very informative publication.  They went overboard this month with an insider writeup of Yvon Chouinard.  

Who is this guy?  For starters Chouinard is the creator of  a company you  may have heard of named Patagonia which is a multi billion dollar company that he created and has set the trend for much of what we consider to be outdoor gear: hiking, biking, rock climbing right down to walking along Newbury Street in Boston on a Sunday afternoon. He has set the trend and the masses have picked it up. 

During the last decade Chouinard has gotten into the world of flyfishing but not in the way you would think your average billionaire would.  Yvon Chouinard, it turns out, is a true minimalist!! His freshwater rod will most likely be a Tenkara rod and the fly at the end of the tippet will most likely be a soft hackle creation.  Now he has taken a pheasant tail soft hackle, beefed it up a bit and began catching bonefish with it.

I tied up my version of his fly but it's still a freshwater fly except (hopefully) for the stripers that love those skinny flats.  I have caught trout and bass on smaller versions.

Hook - Chouinard uses jig hooks from size 8 to 12 (bonefish???). The fly on the right is tied on  a size 8 wet fly hook with a olive floss body and a rib of flashabou. The Patagonia guy uses tiny lead eyes while mine is made up of bead chain eyes (they work).  Next comes a good sized partridge hackle and it's done.

One more thing about Chouinard - one would think that he would treat himself to a state of the art vise.  NOPE! A photo of him in Tail shows him in front of what looks like an old Thompson A or a Sunrise India Vise (a $15.00 vise).  He reminds me of a guy who wrote on a fiberglass rod site that he grabs a rod and regardless of the length and weight he "will make it work".  You gotta love Yvon Chouinard

Flies For Sale

It's been a tough, brutal January so far with zero temperatures and icy streamside conditions.  Time to tie flies which you will have when the weather breaks in February. February is the traditional month for tapping maple trees and with luck the first crocus will bloom.  Maybe the first BWO.  All that means SPRING!!

Order your flies now!!!

Ken

 

Crowd Makers

 

"Fishermen who care too much about the size and numbers of fish they catch are insufferable on good days and as harried as overworked executives on slow days. On the other hand, it's possible to be a happy angler who doesn't catch many fish; it's just that no one will ever say you're good at it." - John Gierach

Most of the flyfishers that I have met over the years can best be described as loners. Now, does that mean that they hate people and avoid them at all cost? Certainly not!  They just go the added mile to fish in solitude away from the crowd. When they do meet someone it's always a short pleasant encounter with a "hope you do well" send off.

I think one of the reasons people say that our rivers are too crowded (Swift, Farmington) is that some fly fishers can't help but make a party out of it. "Hey team, let's get a half dozen of us and overcrowd the nearest tailwater this Saturday."  Don't tell me this doesn't happen because I know of anglers who innocently admit to it.  The worst case of this is a group or fly shop that pulls up with a van or two of guys wanting a great day on a river. I have been asked if I wanted to join the fun but have always politely refused because those guys are going to ruin the day for many.  I once was accused of helping to sponsor a group trip to the Swift which crowded the place out and pissed the regulars off.  Bye the way, I never guide more than two on any river.

Before you label me as being too antisocial I can tell you of one veteran of group outings who totally admits to not liking to see others catch fish and he will hardly ever tell you where he fishes!!! I don't see the reason for this odd behavior because he fishes one of the most crowded streams in New England!! 

I like to spread the wealth by telling people where the fishing has been good. I will preach about the freestones which are never crowded and mention specific, out-of-the-way spots on the Swift knowing that nobody will really fish them.

Midge Flies

I got curious the other evening and began to check online fly shops to see what their midge selection looked like.  I was surprised to see that very few flies were offered smaller that size 20.  Even that size was a rarity.  Just to let you know I carry many flies down through size 24.  Size 26 will be coming soon. The tiny patterns that I offer are all successful on tailwaters like the Swift and the Farmington.

Ken

 

 

 

Memorable Trout

   "Trout are wonderfully hydrodynamic creatures who can dart and hover in currents in which we humans have trouble just keeping our footing.  They are torpedo shaped, designed for moving water, and behave like eye witnesses say U.F.O's do, with sudden stops from high speeds, ninety degree turns, such sudden accelerations that they seem to just vanish. They seem delicate at times but will turn around and flourish in conditions that look impossibly harsh. They like things clean and cold." - John Gierach

It's 9 degrees as I write this. At this point my brain goes into survival mode by sending out flash backs of the ones that got away!  These fish are not the monsters that run up from the lakes of western New York or anywhere else.  These are local fish that have found a good spot in the river that makes it just damn hard to catch them.  In turn some of them can get BIG and I define big as 18 inches or better which is fine for central New England.  By the way, they are all brown trout.

The Squannacook gave me two memorable trout close to 50 years ago. The spot was behind the Sterilite building in Townsend. Years ago it was not gated off and one could take a path to the river and go up or downstream as you like.  Now it's a jungle of wader wrecking thorn bushes.  This is where I took a 22 inch brown on a size 16 Blue Dun dry after spying and fishing for him for a month.  It was a good fish but not the toughest. That prize went to a 14 inch brown that started hanging out under a overhead branch, about 100 feet above the home of the 22 inch brown, in June and was still

there in September. The overhanging branch hung about six inches above the stream surface which was where this trout called home.  I never caught it but rose it twice that Summer and lost some flies on that branch.

The Millers gave me a memorable brown back in 1990. I fished for this trout at the Upper Trestle Pool from late May until mid October (I caught it on my birthday) and I totally thought it would pass the 20 inch mark.  It had it's home next to one of the big rocks that will break the surface of that upper portion of the Pool.  He rose all Summer and I finally took him with a size 14 partridge and orange.  He was 14 inches at best but a very tough fish!!!  I will not forget that trout.  It gets me through the dark season.

The Swift

The Swift is still fishable but wait until the air temperature gets above 32 (less rod breaking ice in the guides). It also means that you don't have to be there at dawn but at a smart mid to late morning start.

Flies, Flies, Flies

Order your flies, especially your midge patterns, now while my inventories are good.

Ken

Puffs Or Feathers

 Early to bed, early to rise. Fish all day and tell big lies

I don't like CDC feathers too much because they easily get mucked up too much.  I will not say the same for CDC puffs which are denser and less fragile.  But I still didn't like the "look" of the finished fly and that's because I was tying in the "CDC WAY" - a straight up and down post.  So I started to experiment a bit.

The photo on the left is the first step. Take a size 20 curved emerger hook and place it in the vise.

Wrap 12/0 thread from the curve to the beginning of the shank and then tie in a cdc puff so that the stem almost reaches the hook eye.

Next pull the loose end of the CDC puff up and over the hook shank with the puff ends extended over the hook eye. as seen in the photo on the right.

Then pull those loose ends up and back over the fly and with a little luck you will have created the perfect dry fly dun profile as seen in the last photo.

Using the whole cdc puff adds a lot of floatability to this fly and visibility is second to none.

If all you have is very light colored puffs (not exactly a BWO shade) you can mark up the fly with the appropriate color with a sharpie.  It will not hurt the floatability.

I neat little fly that looks like a Mayfly!!!!

 

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

Happy Holidays!!

 

To My Readers - One thing this blog has been doing for many years is to give you the fly fishing news for Central New England while leaving out the junk like bogus product reviews (like you actually need to be bombarded with more advertising) and at the same time giving out real time fishing conditions on rivers that are actually named!!! (it's called spreading the wealth).

So, thank you for reading (lots and lots of readers) and thank you for the best comments that you will find anywhere.

Merry Christmas

Ken

Swift Serendipity Again

"Science tells us that fish respond to their prey primarily by size. During a hatch, the food is being served in one size only, so that helps.  Stream trout are drift feeders, so they have to snatch what's going past on that water borne sushi train before it's swept downstream or another trout gets to it first.  Match the size and you're more than halfway home in the fly selection process. I could almost leave it there, but that would make for a short book." - Bob Wyatt

The Swift Serendipity has been a standard Winter fly for me going back maybe 15 years.  It copies the traditional Serendipity except for two materials: I dumped the deer hair wing pad and replaced it with a short stub of white turkey flat (the turkey isn't as buoyant as deer hair so it sinks quicker) and the body has been made with kevlar  thread. ( that's about to end because I really don't think kevlar beats out regular red thread.)  Put on a head of brown dubbing and you are all set.

Now, Once Spring comes around I'll change the body to olive and change the white wing pad to slate grey which will mimic the BWO family.

Sizes are 18 through 24 for me.

As I write there are only 11 fishing days left on you 2021 license.  Go fishing!!!!!

Ken

p.s. The Flyfishing Guide To The Millers River makes a great stocking stuffer because it's stuffed with pages and photos and REAL advice on the Millers AND IT'S FREE. Same day delivery via email.

Thoughts Of The Salt

 

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things"- George Carlin

It happened back in the early 90's (not my age but the decade).  I had been a devoted fly flinger for trout for 25 years but then took a wrong turn after my first striper and then my first bluefish on a fly.  That led to a trout fishing hiatus that lasted about three years.  I rarely fished for trout during that time but did the long haul as a committed tide chaser.  Frankly, I loved it but frankly, it took up way to much of my non career time.  Living in central Ma I was used to driving anywhere from only 15 minutes to 30 minutes to scratch that piscatorial itch.  Trips to the coast took too long so fishing the tides were reduced to renting a place for a week at Plum Island and/or spending March in sunny Florida.  Covid killed Florida for me so hitting the salt became a rarity.

But I still miss it.  Now, as luck would have it my youngest daughter just bought a house in Hampton Falls that is a couple of double hauls away from Great Bay and all of it's tidal rivers and if I show her the basics of flyfishing she said I could use the place as a base camp. (sorry, I'm the only invitee)

What kind of saltwater flyfisher am I?  Although I've done well on boats my favorite game is walking and casting along the beach or walking/wading a tidal stream that flows through an estuary. (It's the beach bum gene kicking in).

My favorite set up is an 8wt rod with flies that imitate baitfish in the 2/0 to size 6 range although small crab patterns work well on the Ogunquit River flats (and others) as the tide just starts to roll in. (hint: the small crab pattern is nothing more than a size 8 brown and olive wooley bugger!!)  So it looks like I chase schoolies  with the light rod and small flies? Yes, when I'm wading and walking it's a good setup. When I'm on a boat I'll toss an occasional 8 inch fly.

Summer is far away but it will come and I'll be ready.

Meanwhile, back at the Swift...

It's creeping into Winter mode although Thursday (tomorrow) will have temperatures in the mid 50's which should bring out some tiny flies.  I'm still guiding!!!

Ken                The "Basin" at Plum Island, Newbury Ma.

This cove empties out to become a mud flat twice a day. When the tide comes in so do the stripers!!!!!

The Snowshoe Emerger aka Wyatt's Emerger

 "CDC is pretty much a one fish fly because after one fish it's usually too slimed up"  - Bob Wyatt

You can't beat this dry fly.  It is a perfect general imitator of most average sized (sizes 14 through 18) aquatic insects. The deer mask body is rough and spikey and nothing floats like Snowshoe foot fur!  This fly takes a beating but a shake or two of float powder brings it all back. 

 You would think that more dry flies would incorporate this material but it is kind of hard to work with.  Here's some hints.

The photo below is of a snowshoe foot that is upside down with the sole of the foot pointing up.  That fur is what you want plus the fur that's between the toes.

(I dyed that foot an olive color that's why it looks strange but it's one that I haven't chopped up yet so you can get a good look at it). Get an good pair of sharp scissors and cut off some strips of fur.

A tiny moustache comb is great for combing out the fur while it's still on the foot before you cut it.

Use an emerger or light scud hook and NOT A STANDARD DRY FLY HOOK. I have abandoned the standard dry fly profile (tail, tight body, hackle and upright wing) because most flies are eaten when they are stuck in the surface film and not while riding the surface.

A Future For Landlocks

 

"There's only one reason in the world to go fishing: to enjoy yourself.  Anything that detracts from enjoying yourself is to be avoided". - Leigh Perkins, legendary CEO of the Orvis Company

Swift River Landlocked Salmon

Back in October of 2018 Quabbin overflowed and god knows how many LL salmon went over the falls and into the Swift.  We saw them going through the spawning motions but didn't think they would be successful.  It appears we were wrong because tiny salmon began to show up the next Summer and larger salmon in the Summer after that.  They are still chasing our flies from the Bubbler Arm to Bondsville and are in the 10 to 12 inch range.  The question is will these "new" salmon reproduce in the Swift or will they eventually die out?

Some people may say that LL Salmon need a large lake to grow up in and an inflowing river to run up to spawn.  There are rivers that have non migrating populations and if the food supply is ample enough then why leave. They will spawn right there.  

Here's my question(s) - did the salmon that went over the spillway make a mad dash to the Atlantic via the Swift,Ware, Chicopee, Connecticut River corridor or did they just die off.  Will that be the fate of the 10 inchers (or smaller salmon) we see now?

If the DFW thinks that the salmon are taking up residency in the Swift then why not try to establish a population of them.  They are more fun than rainbows.

Just a thought!!!

So far no snow and that's a good thing.  Snow will really chill things off.   Ken

 

"If I'm not going to catch anything , then I'd rather not catch anything on flies" - Bob Lawless

 

Color is not the most important element in the creation of the artificial fly. Size and profile are first and second and color is third. This is easily understood when you go to pick out some olive dubbing.  Many of these shades of dubbing are very different in shade and hue even though they may all call themselves "light olive" or "sulphur" or whatever.  Frankly, it's almost impossible to duplicate an aquatic insects color  with fur or plastic.

But one color seems to stand out and get the trout's attention. and that is "shell pink" I use it on scuds and on soft hackle bodies and the time of year that it works best for me is from early May through July when March browns and sulphurs/cahills rule the rivers.

It's an easy fly to tie and it's a big fly to be fished on big rivers.

Hook - Saber dry fly or curved nymph, size 12 or 14

Body - UTC Ultra Thread #140

Thorax - Rabbit 

Hackle - Partridge

Fishing Now

The brookies on the Swift are starting to thin out but they are still there.  Best to fish spots that have not seen a million flies.

The Rainbow fishing has been good on the Swift but I'm thinking that a trip to the EB may be worthwhile (178 CFS).  The Millers is still slogging away at 600 cfs.

Ken

Some Never Learn And LLS Revisited

 

Some anglers never learn. We see it all of the time - a nice trout laying on the shoreline  rocks for that precious photo opportunity.  That photo can be taken while the trout and the net are in the water. No harm done that way but for some reason it just doesn't sink in!

The worst example of poor fish handling was the very recent photo of someone doing a one handed death grip on some poor brookie. The grip was so strong that you could see what looked like milt running down the tail of that brookie!!!!

Salmon

There have been some interesting reports this season of salmon in the Swift. They all seem to be in the 8 to 12 inch range and they are everywhere from the Bubbler down into the depths of Bondsville.  These guys are the aftermath of the 2018 October overflow which sent hundreds of BIG salmon into the Swift where they immediately began to dig redds and spawn. Here's my question. Brookies spawn all over the Swift. The DFW says browns don't spawn but just get stocked and grow BIG. Rainbows don't do anything and need to be replenished a few times a year.  WHY NOT TRY PLANTING LL SALMON??  They seem to do well even with that unintentional accidental stocking.  Some salmon in northern New England are stream residents and don't need aa big lake to grow out in.

Just a thought.

Try putting a bit of color (orange) as the thorax of your next soft hackle. The fly to the left is a Grouse and Flash with a orange thorax which makes sense during the egg season.

Ken

Brookie Update And The BW Of A BWO

 

"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". -   Malcom Whitman

Ok, it seems to be an "off" year for spawning brookies on the Swift. Why do I say that?  I say that because over the last dozen years or so I have visited certain traditional spawning areas and none of them have the brookie load of recent past years.  

Last year my blog recorded the first rush of spawning BT on October 28 (that's historically late)and they were still going strong on November 20, 2020.

Is there something wrong??  Maybe, maybe not.  I know that nobody questioned the outrageously high number of spawning brookies over the last 10 years but nature works in cycles, giving us good years and off years for reasons that we may not understand.  It may be worth our while to study brook trout in that river instead of color coding clonebows and then trying to find them.

My BW

I used to be a disciple of CDC but not so much anymore. Here are the reasons:

1. If you are catching fish your CDC will have a short lifespan.  It just doesn't hold up.

2. silica powder or gel is the only floatant that will work on that stuff.

It was once said that CDC worked because it came from "benign" waterfowl, ducks, geese and such and not from predator birds (BS) and that the feathers floated because of waterproofing oil that is on the feather (more BS)

Instead of CDC I use the finest, thinnest, poly wing material available. I use the gray shade on almost all my small dries because most small wings are close to that in color.

Very fine poly wing material cleans up and keeps it's shape better than CDC.

Keep Fishing!!! 

Hello Dark Season

 "I do have some 7.5 foot 4 and 5 weight rods - plus a couple of 7 foot, 9 inchers. I use them a lot on small mountain streams and medium sized creeks and love them dearly, but I think anything shorter and lighter than that is too specialized  to be very useful. If you're spooking fish with an 8 foot, 5 weight rod, the answer probably isn't a 7 foot 3 weight.   The answer is a longer leader and a better cast". - John Geirach

An Empty Y Pool!!

Yup, the clocks have been turned back and now it's dark before 5pm. I can dress warmly but not having sunlight just drops things down a notch or three.  Yes, I fish through the winter but the rivers are now falling into cold mode. The Swift and the Farmie will be ice free (mostly) but the freestones will begin to lock up with the first few very cold nights. Add some snow to the mix and it's "Wait Until Spring".

I fish through the Winter not because I like winter fishing but because it's the only game in town and I can only tie just so many flies.  BTW, the worst ideas that came from my time on the vise have been during the dead of winter when most new creations look like a stroke of genius but by the middle of a balmy May leave me mumbling "what the hell was I thinking!!!

All is not lost. We still have some nice days left with the temperatures kissing 50 degrees and you still have some days left in that license.  And I'm still guiding!!!

Ken

                                                          Autumn On The EB

Musings About The Pipe/Tree Pool

 

"Smoked carp tastes just as good as smoked salmon when you ain't got no smoked salmon - Patrick McManus

The first time I fished this place was back in 1990, long before I retired, and it was crowded back then. Back then I had to pick and choose dates around a work schedule.  Suddenly the weekdays opened up but the place was crowded during the convenient hours (10am - 3pm).

Why is the place crowded?  Answer - It has a lot trout.

Why does it have a lot of trout? Don't say it's because it's stocked a lot.  Other locations on the Swift get a lot of fish but then they are hard to find for most.  The reason is that those trout remember where home is (the Hatchery). That's why  almost every day between 10 and 2pm we have the pellet hatch. Trout have good memories. But more importantly is the steady stream of aquatic minutiae that gets flushed out of the hatchery and into the river.  Look a 100 yards downstream from the Pipe and on a good day you will see a dozen or more trout gulping thousands of tiny flies while above the Pipe you barely see any. The Pipe changes the chemistry of the Swift. It makes the river downstream fertile (more brookies) and that means more food for the browns (BIG browns).

I could prove  this simple observation by building a discharge pipe from the end of the hatchery and rerouting the outflow to either the Gauge or the flats above above the Duck Pond.

Within a few days the trout would find the new discharge location!!

River Flows

Ware - 282 cfs

West Branch - 444 cfs

Swift -52 cfs

EB  758 cfs

Millers - 1190 cfs

The Swift (of course) is fishable, the Millers isn't and the EB and the Ware will be shortly.

(Note- on 10/24 the Millers was at 405 and dropping.  What a year!!!)

Ken

 

The Millers Behaved (almost)

 "If you fish a fly long enough and hard enough it will become the right fly"

The Millers has been a tough customer this year and it all has to do with the rainfall that we've had since July.  Here's something to ponder: the 106 year average flow for this date (10/23) is 253 CFS. As I write the flow is 425 CFS!  Actually, todays flow is gentle compared to the last two months. without additional rain the flow will keep dropping.  I love a flow in the 250 range for this river in the Fall because it gives us a chance to fish over what have been great BWO hatches in the recent past.  But the flow must be low to maximize this event.

Maybe in a week.

That is not to say that fish have not been caught. I went there Thursday morning in what probably will be the warmest day until next April. It felt good to be fishing in shirtsleeves and actually catching some clonebows even if the flow was in the high 400's. (Note: the dam operators in Orange may have been playing with the flow on Monday and Tuesday afternoon.  We went out when they were holding back water and almost got caught in the flow when they released it.  Be careful!!!).  Fish slow and deep when the flows are high (400 cfs+).

Every other river has perfect flows.  Go fish!!!

Ken