Fly Fishing Information On The Millers, Swift, Middle, West and East Branches Of the Westfield River and the Ware, and Mill rivers. YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR MA. FLY FISHING INFORMATION, the top ranked fly fishing blog in Massachusetts! WHAT FLY FISHERS READ!!
"No fly fisher wakes up in the early morning not knowing where they are going to fish. We know the night before or the day before or if time is at a premium the week before where the first cast will be. We fall asleep thinking of that river and on that drive in the prenatal darkness of that early morning we hope it's a section of river that we can call our own. If you don't "think that" you are not "Fly Fishing" yet." - Kenny Cahill
I had to give it one more try before Winter set in and watching Harvey land a slab bow on the EB last week sealed the deal. I made plans for the EB.
As readers of this blog know for sure the EB was a disappointment this Fall. The DFW failed to stock due to "low flow and high temperatures". My discussion with the regional manager for the area included my observations of shin to knee deep pocket water that was in the mid 50's in early October. Evidently he doesn't fly fish and doesn't recognize GOOD conditions. Anyway, I failed to convince him and he didn't have any luck with me either. The "Have a good Winter" stocking may be back next Fall.
The trout on the EB are a remnant of the May stockings of this year. They hunkered down in deep pools and near spring holes to get through the Summer. Some did and I managed one in the two hours that I was there in the cold, December drizzle. The 14 inch bright bow took my version of a Bread Crust just below the surface. Now, in 38 degree water I would be fishing slow and deep but this fish actually rose to the surface for something so I quickly changed flies and tactics. I said "bright bow" because EB rainbows just don't seem to color up in that river like in other rivers. He still had that hatchery look about him. Bread Crust Emerger
I decided to spend some time having a stream side lunch (no P & J sandwich for me, that's for kids. Thickly sliced chicken breast over mayo, chipotle relish, tomato slices, Swiss cheese and oatmeal bread filled the bill) and just taking in this early Winter view. Soon the Gorge Road will be covered with snow and this place will be owned by snowmobilers and dogsled teams. (one actually went down the road pulling a 4 wheeler on a training run). Our time will return in late April and hopefully we will have a summer that's not too wet and not too dry.
I finished up by taking a trip to the Swift to catch the obligatory bow and brookie by the Gauge. The brookies are thinning out and the bows are calming down.
Now for the Pipe
It has come to my attention and maybe even yours that a certain user of the internet media has labeled the Pipe area of the Swift the "Toilet Bowl". This labeling is crude, course and crass , denigrates this fine river and the people who use it and is not what I and others would expect from someone who fishes that section frequently. As readers of this blog know the massive surface activity below the pipe is the result of the nutrient load from the hatchery. This, BTW, is a LEGAL discharge and is probably monitored frequently. (It was standard procedure at the trout hatchery that I worked at 30 years ago.). It would be a wild leap of logic/science to even suggest that this discharge is a form of pollution justifying the "Toilet Bowl" moniker. This certain media user would probably be heartbroken to realize that there are three WWTP's just above New Hartford on his precious Farmington which, BTW, has had some serious bacterial problems. It too is not a Toilet Bowl!
One is entitled to ones opinion but you better be able to back up your name calling or you will be called out!!!!
"I hate to admit this, but fishermen (yes,even fly fishermen) are basically lazy. They want huge trout and lots of them, within sight of the car. The tougher the access to a stretch of stream, the less it's fished, and the less it's fished, the better the fishing will be, all things being equal." - John Gierach
One of the most popular styles of dry flies today is the parachute style. This fly, developed in the 1930's, has been in and out of favor for decades and right now is riding a crest of popularity. Let's look at it's beginnings and why it's such a good style of fly.
Credit a young tyer from Scotland named Helen Todd who had become employed as a tyer at a commercial tackle house. In 1932 she became interested in an American theory that if hackles could be tied "spent" one would have a more effective dry fly. She accomplished this by tying in a "mast" (what we call a post) of stiff pig bristles and the style was born. Her company began selling the flies in 1933. Photo from Ernest Schwiebert's Trout
Wait, there's more!! Enter William Brush from Detroit Michigan with his patented parachute hook in 1934. This brainchild seems straightforward enough. When forming the hook just leave some extra wire and then bend it up at a 90 degree angle to the hook shank. Now you have a stiff wire post to wrap hackles on. You also have a much heavier hook which will take the DRY out of dry fly. I actually was given some of these back in the early 1970's. I still think that hook would work with todays genetic hackles and fine wire hooks, something that was in short supply years ago.
Why It Works
Parachutes work because they suspend the body of the fly in the surface film instead of on or above the surface like a traditional dry fly. That's where the insects are, in the film! Follow me here: You're standing in a stream during a good hendrickson, sulphur or BWO hatch, you name it. Insects are in the air and on the water and trout are breaking the surface. Now, look hard at the rise forms. One would think that you would constantly see the adult mayflies disappearing in those swirls but you see very few. That's because the most insects that are the easiest for the trout to grab are trying to break through the surface tension of the water. Some get through, many don't and it's easy pickings for the trout. This is the emerger or subimago stage.
A Better Parachute Conventional Wisdom dies hard. We have been tying dry flies for close to 150 years and most of our mayfly imitations are our attempts to copy the ADULT stage of the mayfly which is not the choice stage for the trout. (Yes, I know that your traditional Adams catches trout but I bet you've witnessed some nerve wracking refusals as your traditional dry drifted over a feeding fish time and time again). It's time to change things up! If the most prevalent stage of a mayfly is the subimago stage then your fly should imitate it. If the Parachute Dry does this find the style of Parachute that does it best. Enter the Best Parachute: The Klinkhammer Style!
Why is it the best? It's as close to imitating that Mayfly stage as we are going to get. The "head" of the fly is poking through the water surface while the body is suspended below, just like the natural. That's why it's silly to tie parachutes with TAILS. You don't need or want them. Get that rear end of the fly down below the surface.
When tying Klinkhammer Parachutes don't get too dainty. Besides a post and hackle I use some buggy thorax material to give the impression of life and movement. (remember, the mayfly is busting through its nymphal shell. There's a lot of action going on there!!)
For those who don't want to tie parachutes but want the same effect I would suggest Bob Wyatts' DHE Emerger. The same principle as the Klinkhammer but deer hair is the secret sauce with this pattern. All of this is found in the Wyatt book What Trout Want, The Educated Trout and Other Myths.. Good winter reading!
P.S. Give yourself a break when tying drys by using the genetic pre-sized saddle hackles. Until they breed a rooster to grow one size of feather these saddles are your best bet.
"Finally! Amidst a crowd of 4 rainbows somehow he was the one to eat the soft hackle (P&O of course). Took a leap out of the water and started bulldogging for a log - thank God for trout hunter 4.5x 6.1 test" - Commentator Lenny on ANOTHER big Swift River Brown.
Another big Swift River brown comes to the net. There have always been the occasional monster seen and sometimes caught on the Swift BUT NOT LIKE THIS YEAR!!! Just like the brookie explosion in the earlier part of this decade the browns are expanding in range and in size. Let's examine some reasons for this:
It's a tailwater - In the long run this is the main reason for our browns and brook trout populations on the Swift. You have a steady, cool flow of water that is not ravaged by seasonal floods and droughts which can greatly impact a trouts survival.(winter kill is the major natural cause of death, outside of predators, in a freestone environment)
Brookies on the menu - When the biomass of available food increases so will the creatures who consume it. Three years ago I saw a 4lb brown grab a 6 inch brookie and then take about two minutes to swallow it. If you've been to Cady Lane in the summer you will know what I mean - Schools of 4 to 6 inch brook trout can be seen everywhere. The 4 to 10 pound browns see them too and that 17lb monster saw them too when it was a kid. Now it eats adult suckers and 14 inch rainbows!!!!
Catch & Release, Stupid! - Big trout have to run the gauntlet year after year to get to the "measured in pounds" size and ending up in the freezer will not do it. Also, the browns are the premier piscatorial predators on the Swift and to maintain a health fishery WE NEED THEM! The top of the food pyramid is not as populated as the bottom. The top keeps the bottom in control. A year round C&R policy on the Swift for browns could insure this.
Mother Nature in Control - The brook trout and brown trout explosion appears to have been accomplished without the hand of man involved (yup, we created a tailwater and stocked some browns but that's it). No State agency has taken credit for this. That begs the question about the genetic work being done on the Farmington in Connecticut. The Survivor Trout Program had the mission to "create" a brown trout that could withstand the thermal challenges found in freestone environments, namely the Housatonic River among others. To accomplish this Farmington browns would be "mixed" with other wild browns (Housatonic for example) and the offspring would be a hardier fish. That is great and certainly noble but why are many of the offspring going back to the Farmington?? It's a tailwater, remember, cold water all summer long with steady flows etc, just like the Swift!! I've only been fishing the Farmy for 15 years but I've caught some BIG browns there and seen some scary monsters in that river and that was long before the the survivor program started. Wouldn't the Housy and other freestones benefit more from the "survivors" than the Farmy???? Hmmm........
Added Note - Notice that the brown in the above photo was caught on a P&O soft hackle. I posted a photo of another monster taken on a #16 scud. I know of another 4lb brown taken on a #20 Griffins Ghat. The lesson here is that you don't have to toss mouse patterns to get these guys!!!
Swift Brookies Don't fall for the conventional wisdom that the brookies are off the Redds for the year. Not so!!! You just have to know where to look. If someone has an underwater camera you could get some great shots in that skinny water!!!
"On the other hand, when a trout refuses to take your fly, the answer isn't always to step down from a 5X tippet to a 6X, and then from a 6 to a 7. I always try to figure out how I can make my drift better before I start to re-rig. Many times the problem turns out to be operator error rather than tippet size. In other words, it's a poor workman who blames his tools before he's eliminated all other more likely possibilities." - John Gierach
It's over 30 years ago and I'm packed into a crowded exhibition hall somewhere off of Rt 495 to attend, what once was, the premier fly fishing show in Massachusetts. Many of the displays were the same-old-same-old until I saw something catch my eye. There was this scruffy exhibitor placing saltwater hooks into this weird vise and then BENDING THEM BACKWARDS. The exhibitor was Jerry Doiran and he was the inventor of the Regal Vise.
Let's talk about the vise. It was totally unique and worked on a principle that was totally ass backwards
from all existing fly tying vises. All other vises, when they are not holding a fly, are at "rest". To make the vise "work" you adjust the tension or "grip" of the jaws to suite the hook, load the hook into the vise, probably adjust the jaws again if it's a hook size change and then start tying hoping that the hook is held firmly by the vise. With the Regal Vise the jaws are NEVER at rest. To load a hook into the vise you press a lever which opens the jaws, place your hook in the jaws and then release the lever. That hook will never move. No adjustments to the tension are needed because the jaws are SELF ADJUSTING!!!!! A metallurgist friend of mine who examined the vise said it was a pure example of Yankee Engineuity!!! Jerry was French Canadian but I don't think he would be offended!
The Regal Company has always been a Massachusetts company, starting on the Cape (that's Cape Cod for the newbies) and then moving to Orange Ma. the 1980's. Jerry was an inventor who had a couple of dozen patents to his name. He invented the child proof lighter, sold the patent and moved to Florida. I used to run into him on the Millers and he would always give me hints about what new idea was in his head. He was the first person that I saw fish a San Juan Worm! His brother "T" Doiran took over the company after Jerry flew south. "T" passed away and the company was bought by and is now in the capable hands of Don Barnes who brought the company into the 21 century with an expanded line of neat products. Regal is still in Orange Ma.
The best dry fly artisan that I know of is Dan Trela and he uses a Regal Vise.
Here's your chance to "buy local". Get a Regal Vise, the last vise you'll ever need.
P.S. - I get nothing for this endorsement.
A Good Streamer
Reader Kevin Burbick submitted this streamer fly with the accompanying story:
Caught a laker on the fly at Wachusett. Key was using intermediate line. Caught him on a white streamer of my own design sort of (based on Alaskabou steelhead flies). Tie in two white marabou feathers to make a tail on a #6 streamer hook. Just the tops, enough to make a solid tail. Then fold and palmer marabou towards the hook eye brushing towards tail with hand as you go. When you run out of marabou, throw in some strands of flashabou and repeat until you get to the hook eye. You may want a bead or cone because it is fairly buoyant. Really was a decent match for the dead smelt I saw on the beach. Basically a white leech. Not really a "guide fly" because it does take time to tie but I like the way it looks.
"I guess I love the Adams for the same reasons everyone does: it's a proven fish catcher and an item of tradition, two things that are hard to ignore. In fact, there are places where, if you don't have at least a few of these flies in your box, fishermen will frown and ask you where the hell you're from and game wardens will call in your fishing license to see if there are any warrants out on you" - John Gierach
Ok, I've been getting a lot of photos from readers concerning some good fish that they are catching and some pretty good flies that are coming from their vises. So, going forward I'll publish your accomplishments on this blog. Just send a good photo and a short paragraph about the fish or the fly and it's done. We don't have to have monster fish. Just a good fish that meant something to you would be good.
First off there's this Brown (above) taken from the Swift late last week by commentator Bob O. It taped out at 28 inches and the weight was guessed at 7lb. This is just another monster brown that this river has surrendered. Good work Bob!!!!
The Bread Crust
Commentator Bob T and I got into an online discussion about a grand old fly that people have just forgotten about. The fly is the Breadcrust and it's at least 70 years old. One of the reasons for it's falling out is that it is a devil to tie. The key is in the body and that body is the stem of a grouse tail feather in the "red stage". If you can find the stuff the work has just begun. You must clip the feathers down to stubs and then split the stem with a razor and scrape out the pith. Then you can start winding the quill onto the hook.
Bob did a great job on that fly getting the crusty look of those feather stubs perfectly. I was looking for a short cut. Instead of using grouse I took a B grade dry fly hackle, cut the hackle fibers to about 1/32 of an inch, and then wrapped the hackle forward. It's very quick and has the same effect! The hackle by the head is soft hen hackle but you could use anything. I've tied up some and can't wait to hit the Ware with them in May!!!!!
Now for an observation - I've guided hundreds of fly fishers, many of them possessing great skill and knowledge dealing with fly fishing and not one of them ever showed up with a nymph rod!! Two admit to owning one but they don't use them. Hmmm.......I own one and I hate it.
Stream Update
Contrary to some reports the brook trout are still on the beds on the Swift. You just have to know where to look for them and and when you find them you'll see many. I left them alone today focusing on the bows which took the partridge and orange in a size 14 over an RS2 sparkle. We still have some good weather in the mix for the next week so let's go fishing!!!!
One can buy an $800 Gucci-like fly rod hoping that they will become a great caster. Someone else will buy a $200 no nonsense rod and cast the doors off of the other guy and catch more fish too. It's the problem with the fly fishing industry; tons of hyperbole, mountains of overblown claims, a zillion new products and techniques that amount to nothing more than solutions in search of problems. Remember, it's not the arrow. It's the archer!!!!!! - Me
Frequent commentator Bob Twombly, AKA BT, knows what he's doing and has shared his knowledge about our sport on this blog for years. He tossed a fly to me a few days ago that he calls the "Little Gray Fly. It has taken trout all over this country and everyone who tries one wants more. A true go to fly.
Now, I've lost the recipe but it's fairly simple to tie and it has that retro look which I like.
Hook - sizes 12 - 18 wet or dry or nymph
Thread - Red, 6/0 should do
Tail - a few gray hen hackle fibers
Body - Red thread over the shank with gray muskrat lightly dubbed over the body so the thread shows through
Hackle - Gray hen hackle (this fly works well with brown hen hackle and Bob ties in a rib although he says it's not necessary)
Bob, If I missed anything just let me know.
I can daydream about drifting this fly on the Ware in early May!!!!!
December Trips
We are still fishing all over on the Swift and doing very well. It's been double digit days for my clients with some really outsized rainbows coming to the net. And the weather forecast through next week is DRY and COOL but not COLD. Let's squeeze out the last few hours of that 2017 license and catch some trout. Just contact me!!!!
"Creeps and idiots cannot conceal themselves for long on a trout stream" - John Gierach
I week ago I reported that I found a small treble hook on the Swift. I wrote about it on this blog and reported it to the Environmental Police. Now I've been told that another has been found.
Treble hooks, even ones with power bait festooned to them, are snagging tools and HAVE TO BE REPORTED. Take the phone number that's on the top of this page and stick it in your phone. The "game wardens" have been very responsive and I've heard that they've nabbed some creeps these past two weeks. If you see a violation do one thing: report it. That gets the police down there.
Do not confront the creeps or try to reason with them. Some "good guys" have the force of presence to make someone back down and leave but most don't so drop a dime on them. It's the best way. That means not just talking about it but doing it!!!
My Swift River Serendipity is always with me from November through March. This small (sizes 18 through 24) fly just seems to wake them up on the coldest of days. I eliminated the deer hair wing on the standard dressing and replaced it with white turkey flat to sink it quickly. There is no bead or weight of any kind built into the fly, just the optional tiny split shot. Some say that it represents an aquatic worm with the red color but I believe that's wishful thinking. It's as close as I get to an attractor pattern and in the Spring it's tied in olive and becomes a real insect!
A word on split shot - I seldom use weight but when I do it's not incorporated into the fly any longer but in the form of tiny shot anywhere between a foot to 20 inches above the fly. There are some reasons for this. First, weighted flies do not have the action of unweighted flies dancing below a split shot. Second, I lose more weighted flies than unweighted flies. If anything, I snag the shot but since the shot is tied onto a tag it easily slips off with a few tugs.
A Winter Fly