Autumn Is A Swift Season

What can I say. It's been wonderful on this river over the last month. Brook trout in all size ranges and in all numbers are all over the river. Big browns are in the mix with outsized bows to top it off. Regulars with 40 plus years on this river haven't seen an Autumn like this. It's the brook trout that have stolen center stage. I have not seen these numbers in the almost 30 years on this river. They have always been there and their numbers seemed to increase in that last five years BUT this year may be a benchmark. Do we have a native brook trout fishery on the Swift? Looks that way! Should we protect it? Of course!!! Catch and Release, no bait, year round below rt 9 to the boat launch. Why not??

Winter doesn't end the season on this river. Some of our best days are during the Winter when a sunny day pushes the temperature into the mid to high 30's. The fish respond and we are rewarded. Let me know if you want in on this!!

Ken

Rating The Rivers Again And The "Dark Season" Again

Ok, it's that time of year again. A month and a half ago you could get down to the river at 5pm and have a few hours doing what you like to do. IT'S ALL OVER NOW UNTIL MARCH when we turn the clocks ahead. I hate this time of year because it limits what I want to do. Maybe when I retire I may feel differently but I think not. Our river choices are very few until Spring. The Swift and the Farmington will remain for the wading fly fisher. The others may very well be frozen over which will only cause us to wait patiently for Spring. In the meantime tie flies.

LET'S RATE THE RIVERS FOR 2014:

3rd Place - The Millers: Again, prime Summer time evening fishing was blown away by high water. Things are happening on this river. For the first 20+ years on this river I had GREAT summer evenings with manageable flows. Since 2008 I've seen one blowout after another. Canoes and kayaks on the Millers in July??? I love this river and the Spring seasons have been nice and some Fall seasons ok but the flow levels are like nothing I've seen. Climate change?? Bad luck?? Who knows? I guided this gent last July at dusk. We caught fish and he said the this river, at dusk, was just beautiful. I knew from the forecast that it would change quickly. I would love to see a Summer like the Summers of the 1990's. Maybe next year.

2nd Place - The EB: There's a reason why this river came in 2nd. It's not because of the flow. It was fine all Summer long. It's not because we didn't catch trout. We caught a bunch! In fact, this may have been the best season since the epic 2009 season. The flow stayed at a good level during July and August and when we had only a 1/4 inch of rain in September the weather was cool which kept the water cool and the trout could not be happier. When it rained the river went up but then dropped like a rock, usually just in time. Rainbows and browns provided season long entertainment. Perfect, but good for only second place. No fault of it's own!

1st Place - The Swift: It wasn't like this just a few years ago. You would catch the occasional brookie of hatchery size and at times the little guy who was measured south of five inches. Three years ago I began to catch more around 3 inches in certain areas. They were beautiful! Now those fish are everywhere. They're not escapees from the hatchery because they come in all sizes from 1 1/2 inches to 8-10 inches. Then there are the tape measure fish that are seen but seldom taken.

The Swift has its year long fishery which is a plus AND it's traffic which is less than a plus. The rainbows supply the muscle on this stream but the brook trout supply the beauty and MAYBE the promise of having a self sustaining brook trout fishery. I'm glad to see the brookies thriving!! That's why I rate the Swift number 1 this year!

Ken

Getting Up Early - A Swift River Morning

It pays to start early and when you go to the Swift "early" is never early enough. I began the hike to the Y Pool section at 7:30 today with only one car in the lot and another just arriving as I was putting on the waders. I stayed away from going to the PIPE after what I saw yesterday: 8 flyfishers from the PIPE to the end of the Tree Pool at 9:00 am. The gauge section was not an option because I and another angler saw NOTHING in this section. I decided to go above RT 9 for a change.

After the 10 minute walk I got to the Y Pool and found 2 anglers working the water. No worry because the Pool was not my destination. The Bubbler arm was the place that I wanted to be. Long story short: I took 7 in two hours and all where over 16 inches. Started with a #14 scud, switched to a Grouse and Orange and they both worked. The guy who arrived just after me caught double what I did. A real fish hawk that guy!!! The Y Pool - not so good but maybe as the day went on it improved.

I'm not giving secret spots away. Where I fished is fished by everyone. It just pays to get there early!

Went home, raked leaves and am listening to the Patriots as I write this. A good day so far!

Ken

What Connecticut Is Doing And A River Update.

Google up "survivor trout". You will see what Connecticut is doing for it's trout management. It seems that the Nutmeg State is capturing wild/holdover trout and breeding them with hatchery trout to result in a fish that has better survival odds and it appears that they are seeing those results.

What I like about Connecticut is the fact that over 60% of their hatchery output are browns while Massachusetts manages about 25% of that species. Why is that? Maybe they are not swayed by the unofficial department logic that fishermen want large fish and that means fast growing rainbows. We know that the early season meat hunters want them but most season long fishers on moving water are fly fishers and they OVERWHELMINGLY practice catch and release and they want trout that will make it through the summer season. (BTW, if you can't wait to have the stocking trucks dump in new recruits each Fall then you should take up golf. Tough trout are not your game!) In short, Connecticut (and New York) GET IT. We don't. We better if one believes in climate change and in developing measures to insure a viable trout fishery for the future!

Now, what are the rivers doing. Wait to Thursday (10/16) night. The heavy rain will be over and my site will have the river links that you need. Heavy rains mean this: The Millers will rise and then rise some more and maybe stay there for a week. The EB will quickly rise up and then drop down quickly. Saturday should be fine. Below 400cfs is very fishable. BTW, I had a good Monday afternoon on the EB. I caught a lot in two hours. Many browns (fresh) and some older bows. The Swift - this river is like the running back that gives you 5 yards a carry. Very dependable!!

Good Luck,

Ken

Columbus Day Weekend - Everything Is Perfect!!!!!

Check the stream gauges on this site. Check the weather report for the next few days. Everything is perfect for fly fishing in Massachusetts this weekend. So why are you reading this blog?? Rig up and jump in!!

I'll see you there!!

BTW, I'll be writing and ranting about what one of our neighboring states is doing with trout management on my next post.

Ken

The Rains Came - Finally!!

September was as dry as a bone. Less than an inch of rain fell and the EB and the Millers, still both fishable, needed an infusion. That break came yesterday afternoon and evening. The EB went from 70cfs to 600cfs overnight and now is dropping as it always does. It should level out to 200 or so for October barring another big storm. The Millers fared nicely going from 140 or so to 300 as I write this and now it appears to be dropping which is unusual for this river. It usually goes through the roof and then stays there for a week. I'll take what's happening now any day.

Speaking of the Millers - Saturday, before the heavy rain started, the Millers had a great BWO hatch going on which brought the trout to the surface. The flies were in the size 18 range with both emergers and duns being taken. It was perfect BWO weather, cool and cloudy, until the skies opened up around 1pm. The rain put everything down. We'll have more chances this month if the flows stay fairly low and the weather stays cool and the skies stay cloudy!


Ken

A Soft Hackle September

Soft Hackles - they always work and sometimes they REALLY work. They were my top sunken fly on the EB for a year now and this year they just seemed to beat the Swift River trout especially this month. I will admit that the Swift soft hackles are a size or two smaller than I use on other rivers although a size 12 did work well.

I like to experiment with this style and I believe that I may have posted two of these flies last Spring but a refresher course is in order.

First is an olive body S.H. with size 5x tippet material wrapped around the body. The tippet worked pretty well getting the fly down quick and it gives a slight shine to the fly which also seemed to work. 5x works on sizes down to 14. I like 6x on smaller sizes. Sometimes the Grouse and Flash just seems too bright. The "6x soft hackle" does it just right. Don't ask if one brand of tippet is better than another!!

The dark S.H. has a tiny wingcase of mylar which makes this fly more visible. It works well!

Try them out.

As you all know by now we need rain. The rivers are still mostly fishable in the deeper pools and where the river's flow gets pinched down to give good flow and depth. The good thing is that the weather is now cool enough so water temperature is not an issue. Just one good 1 inch storm will set us up for the rest of the season.

The rest of the season - Last November was great on the EB and the flow was low then too. I'll show you this river. Just email me for availability. The same goes for the Millers and the Swift.

Ken