Big Brookies, A Change In Spawning Habitat, And Treble Hooks

"We do have to think seriously about conservation now, although it is chilling to realize there are catch-and-release fishermen alive today who don't know how to clean and cook a fish" - John Gierach

The brook trout are bigger this year on the Swift and there are more of them. Client Ray took two that were over a foot long yesterday on a size 16 partridge and orange swung along the bottom in six inches of water. The P&O did a great job and the bows and brookies accounting for all 18 fish (6 bows, 12 brookies). We covered water from the Tree Pool all the way up to the Bubbler Run and took fish everywhere. It was a good day.

Now for some disturbing observations. First, one of the PRIME spawning runs of the last few years seems to be out of commission and that is the riffle and gravel runs below the Duck Pond. Last year at this time it provided the best fishing, especially for bows who followed the brookies upstream to the vast gravel/spawning beds in the area. That has changed this year. I was there scouting in early October and noticed the gravel was mostly buried in weeds that were not there last year. There were no brookies either. Forward cast into mid November and the place is barren with nothing but weed growth over what was once clean gravel.

What causes this? Rapid weed growth is usually the result of an increased nutrient load in the river. Looks like a bit of study by the DFW and TU is in order. It is also a reality check for the hand wringers who don't like people fishing over brookies in the Fall. The LOSS OF HABITAT is ALWAYS the culprit!

NOTICE : I found an interesting rig at the Pipe lot Monday morning. It was a tiny treble hook embedded in a hunk of power bait!!!  The leader was still attached and it was light, maybe around 4x, and could of been used with a fly rod.

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!!! This is OUR river at least till January 1st when we are forced to share it. Until then, turn them in!!!!!!  800-632-8075 is the number!

A Western NY Trip

"I love hearing theories about flies. True or not, they always sound so good" - John Gierach

What does a guide do when he has a day off? He drives 5 1/2 hours to western New York to fish a private section of an excellent "lake run" stream for outsized browns and rainbows. He's also greeted by some mid November western NY "ambiance" in the form of 2 inches of frozen slush, gale force winds, highs in the teens and a wind chill around zero. I loved every minute of it!!!!

My client Matt arranged the trip and set us up with Guide Jason Franz. Jason really knows his stuff from the river, to the flies and to the fish. And unlike some other guides who treat every trip like it's the Invasion of Normandy, Jason has a sense of calm while always pointing us in the right direction. He's a very friendly guy!

The 24 hour shift to subarctic conditions killed the bite. Matt had and lost a bow about 20 inches. He was the only angler that I saw that had a hit that day - except me! Came close to landing a 5lb bow but landed it's twin a short time later. The prize of the trip and the reason for the trip was the 6 to 7lb male brown that dug deep and made a slug fest out of it.

First time with a switch rod. It could get habit forming!!!

If you're interested in a future trip just contact: captjay@troutnaboutcharters.com or look him up at troutnaboutcharters.com or call at 585-615-6504. THE STEELHEAD WILL BE THERE IN THE SPRING.

As you know, I get no discounts for this endorsement.

Ken

The "Lost" Post About Swift Browns

One shouldn't get too cute on the keyboard when one is on zero sleep. I ended up deleting the Post on the Swift River browns and the 13 reader comments that went with it.

I can re-post the photos but not the comments.

November On The Fly - From Soft Hackles To Dries!

" The style of nymph fishing in which a small nymph is tied on eighteen or twenty inches below a split shot and fished on a short line is often called the South Platte method and stories about it on the river date back at least to the 1930's, when a member of the Wigman Club was asked to stop fishing that way or be ejected from the club for catching too many trout. To be fair, though, the method is so obvious and so much like bait fishing that it was probably independently invented at one time or another on every river in America, although it wasn't until the 1970's that it began to be seen as anything more than cheating." - John Gierach (His view on the origins of tight-line nymphing??)

Some days just seem to work out nicely and yesterday was one of them. I met my client at 7:45 at a crowded Swift River(Pipe) parking lot. The neat thing was instead of making a beeline to the pipe etc we worked our own stretch of water that is overlooked by most and then spent the next 3 hours covering about 200 yards of gorgeous water pursuing spawning bows (well, trying to spawn) while meeting only one angler.

The bows were ganging up on the gravel and my "sure bet" egg fly struck out. So on went a size 16 P&O SH and all hell broke loose. So did the 6 big bows that grabbed that fly! I think that they have the advantage when fighting in shallow water. No undone knots and nothing foul hooked. Just hook pull outs.

We then worked our way downstream to meet our first angler of the morning who claimed that he couldn't get the pod of brookies he was fishing over to take anything. My client went to work and and immediately landed brookies including one around 12 inches and and another about the same size that got away!

Now for the Pipe. Remember that I said that the parking lot was full in the early morning? Well, by 10 am I saw a significant thinning of the ranks as evidenced by the steady stream of waders heading back to the parking lot. By 11 am we we stepped into the river at the tail of the pipe run and with only two other anglers within sight, one at the pipe and one at the end of the Tree Pool.

Trout were smacking the P&O but there was a significant hatch going on that looked like winter caddis. Off went the SH and on went the #22 caddis dry. It was exactly the correct offering as brookies and bows both rose to this fly.

All told we got into the double digits before we broke for lunch and then took a trip to the Y Pool which my client had never seen before. There were only two other anglers there which seemed odd.

This season isn't over by a long shot. The average daily high temperature for November is comparable to that of April and if you want we can start later in the day when it's warmer. So, if you want to wring out the last of the hours left in your fishing license just contact me!!
                                                                           
Ken

The Swift And The Dark Season

 

"Watching was my Harvard and my Yale" - Novelist Craig Nova on his education as a fisherman

Note: landing net found on the Stillwater.  See Comments to get it back - Ken

Note: (11/2) The brookies on the Swift are lining up on the spawning gravel and the bows are behind them.  Don't know about above RT 9 because fishing is so great below. Again, SR2 Sparkle in sizes 18 through 24 WORK for brookies and bows.  Size 12 to 14 eggs with some flash nail the bows. The bows are between 16 and 20 inches. I've also seen a 24+ inch brown down there. I will not tell you where but it's not in the usual places!!


The Dark Season
Well, it's that dreaded time of year again. Sunday we turn the clocks back and our evenings on the river well come to an end. I have always hated this day because the last 2 hours of daylight are always special and after the "turn back" they will be gone until mid March where we still may have a foot of snow to deal with. For years I could leave work at 4pm and catch an hour on the water. Then the clocks changed and it would be dark at 4:30pm. I did catch a reprieve by retiring this Summer so I can fish during bankers hours all week long. In fact. I've had a lot of interest by those who like to play hooky on occasion (we play hooky and never ask for a "hall pass"!) to spend some mid day hours on the river. We can make our own hours like noon to 3pm or a 10 to 4 outing. Whatever you want! Just contact me. We have plenty of comfortable days left in November and early December.

The Swift This Week


Bows and brookies and then some more!!! The brook trout have not yet covered the traditional spawning sites but they are starting to make a presence. Both bows and brook trout are falling for RS Sparkle-2's in sizes 18 through 24 and egg patterns, the flashier the better. BTW, some of my clients have been realizing that you don't need 7,8,or 9X to fish sizes 18-24 on the Swift. 5X and the occasional 6x works fine with tiny sunken flies and BIG fish. And it's easier on the trout because the battles are shorter and that's a good thing! 

The Millers

2800 cfs and over 2000 for a week = See you in May

The EB
550 and dropping. I may take a trip to Les's to see if some spring holdovers still want to play but that will be after we get down to the sub 250 cfs range. I'll see you there Gary!

The Ware
470 cfs and slowly dropping. Don't give up on this sleeper because it's been good this year. When the flow drops below 300 hit it!

Ken

The Rain - We Prayed Too Hard And The River Report

"Or maybe one day you hit the cosmic hatch. If there are enough insects on the water, trout will sometimes feed so eagerly that they'll lose some of their caution. Not all of it by a long shot, but possibly just enough" - John Gierach

Welcome to the land of feast or famine. A week ago we hoping for rain and now we have it and more and maybe more on the way. Here's the river rundown at 5:00 am on 10/30:

Millers - 3330 CFS!!!!! Last week it was as 140. This river will not be fishable until after Thanksgiving if then. Don't ask for a trip until the flow is below 400 which could be next May!!!



Swift River Bow

The EB - "The river that was not stocked this Fall" is at 1870 cfs and I don't believe the accuracy of that figure because the sister branch, the West Branch, is flowing at 3360!!! In fact, all of the Western Ma. rivers are at official flood stage!!

The Swift - It hit 80 cfs overnight but is now down into the high 50's and dropping. That increase in the flow overnight was not from a dam release but from pure rainfall!!! It's very fishable.

The Ware - In the 300 range and will drop soon. It never got into flood stage!!

The Farmington - (Why am I writing about the Farmington?  That's easy! Someone has to. Unlike others, when I say that I "report on rivers" I mean it!!!)  The Still River, the tributary, is flowing at 3100 cfs and that says it all!!! The WB of the Farmie is around 360 BUT Massachusetts rain is flooding into the reservoir (1550 coming in but only 360 coming out.
Your BEST source for conditions on the Farmington is not this blog because I don't spend a lot of time down there.  The BEST SOURCE is from UPCOUNTRY FLY FISHING which is updated twice weekly with flow conditions, insect info and some good fish tales.

                                        Another Swift River Bow

Fall Flies

I love this time of year on the Swift.  The brookies are ganging up, the water is low and zillions of midges (diptera) make the flow below the Pipe an actual soup!!

I have my favorite flies (as do you) and my favorite flies are SMALL and are meant to represent insect larvae or small scuds or small eggs.

My Swift River Killer Bug made the grade but it will not replace some old staples.  One of the old staples is the RS2 Sparkle Wing.

This fly is dirt simple to tie.  I use scud hooks from size 18 - 24, brown, olive or black floss or thread for the body, some midge flash for the wing stubs and black thread for the head (using a black sharpie does the same thing).

Things didn't really seem to get going on the Swift yesterday morning until we threw this offering on!!!

I'll feature some Fall favorites in the next week!!!!


Ken

A New Fly, The Rains Came, The EB And Book Me

Note: 10/27/17 - The Swift came down to 40 cfs. Thanks to Bob O and Ross for the news.  Let the Games begin!!!!!
"The industry survives by convincing consumers that the only way to catch the fish of a lifetime is to buy more. When did fishing become less about spending time outside, feeling the sun on your face and the water swirling around our legs, and more about one-upping the guy downstream" - Yvon Chouinard

A New Fly

I was on a mission - get to the Swift early before the expected rains and workout this hot, little fly that came out of my vise the day before. I won't say that it's a "new" fly because it's too similar to others but its body material just looks soooo good that it may be more accurate to say that I was working out body material instead of a fly. Anyway, I got there at 7:15,had the place to myself, found some brookies milling around and started fishing.

Six fish in 10 minutes! 3 bows and 3 brookies all caught on a size 16 version of this fly. I started to experiment with sizes with 16 and 18 being the most productive. The trout liked this fly! I saw one bow move over a foot to grab this thing. It worked on the gravel below the Gauge, the gravel above the pump house and at the Pipe (fish it if it's empty). In 2 hours I was into the double digits, the fog turned to drizzle and then to a light rain. Mission accomplished!!

I'm not divulging the recipe for this thing as of yet. I may try to tweak it which will probably just consume time and not improve the fly a bit. I will call it a Swift River Killer Bug for now.

The Rain

As I write (6:30 am 10/25):

Millers at Erving - 850 cfs (maybe in a week....)

Millers at Royalston - Who knows since the gauge is off-line!! Same with the Tully River. Is this permanent? My guess is that it's in the 500 cfs range.

EB - 193 cfs. At this flow it is fishable and will be perfect for this weekend. NOW, ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS STOCK IT!!!!!!!!! They managed to stock Jamaica Pond in the wilds of Boston yesterday to entertain those that wouldn't know a brown trout from a bullhead AND probably don't buy licenses either BUT leave the largest C&R section of the State barren. There has been plenty of cold water there for WEEKS so what's the excuse????? Note:(10/27) They say that stocking is done for the year.  They really messed up this Fall!!!!

The Ware - 80 cfs which isn't that bad.

The Swift - About 140 cfs. This should drop to around 50 cfs as the Connecticut River goes up with all this rain which will allow the Quabbin team to turn of the garden hose (finally).

Book Me

October booked up to capacity (weird, I still have Friday 10/27 open. Grab it!!) and November is filling in quickly. Book a 3 hour or 6 hour trip now.  Also, my start times are more flexible at this time of year (daylight savings ends soon). A 1pm to 4pm trip makes a lot of sense (the "evening hatch" starts at 2 pm) as does a 9am to 3pm trip (later start = warmer start.

Contact me with a date or two in mind and what length trip interests you and we will make it happen.

Ken