Big Flies = Big Fish?????, The Marlborough Show And Book Me.

Lefty Kreh said the following: "Use a fly line one size lighter than the rod manufacturer recommends. Jim Green, who has designed fly rods for years and is a superb angler, mentioned to me more than three decades ago that he almost always used a line ONE SIZE LIGHTER when fishing dry flies where the trout are spooky or the water is calm...If you are using a six weight rod you can drop down to a five weight line with no problem. In fact, in very delicate fishing conditions I often drop down two line sizes." 

I got an email this week that asked the question how big does a trout have to be to start eating other fish? I thought it was a trick question so I gave a trick answer: Any size! A 2 inch trout will gulp down a 1/4 inch fry of any species if it can catch  it and so will a 1 inch trout.

What I really think the writer meant to ask is when do trout begin to capture most of their calories by eating other fish? Now we have a good question. We will exclude lakes (a totally different environment) and focus on rivers. For the VAST majority of river environments and for the vast majority of trout that live in them the answer is NEVER. It is safe to say that roughly 80% of a trout's diet, regardless of it's size, is made up of insects!!


.The Millers is an insect factory and is also a bait fish factory. Simply put, there's a lot of food in that river. The largest trout that I have caught over the years there have been brown trout in the 21-23 inch range. At around 3  to 4lbs they would represent the top 1% of the trout in size for that river. All of these trout were caught on SURFACE FLIES IN THE SIZE 16 TO 20 RANGE. In most cases I spied these fish feeding and took my damn time getting to them. One of them rose continually for an hour before I caught him. Did I think of throwing streamers at them? No! They were content to feed on aquatic insects. Trout will go after the most plentiful and easiest prey and that will be aquatic insects and terrestrial insects that fall into the water. A 6lb brown may gulp down a shiner but will never pass up a stonefly or a hellgrammite and that 6lb brown that was caught at the Pipe in October and highlighted on this blog was caught on a size 18 fly AND the 30 inch salmon I saw taken from the Y Pool back in 2011 was hooked on a SIZE 30 DROPPER.  Go figure!!

When should one fish streamers? The answer is anytime you want but statistically your best chance of success for more and larger fish will be with insect imitations. And don't buy into that nonsense that the Fall is the time for streamers because trout are "putting on the feed bag" to prep for Winter. According to Tom Rosenbauer  of Orvis trout consume the most calories in the Spring than in the Fall.

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.  He fished it like a nymph!!

Marlborough Show

I thought that this year's event would the the same old, same old but it's not.  The show is discount heaven.  Everything from fly lines to reels to leaders to packs to fly tying material has taken a major price hit.  There are deals galore!!

This begs the question: WHY???  Maybe the market is saturated or maybe the vendors are sourcing overseas and getting great pricing that's passed on to us.  It's not really a one time SHOW SPECIAL because I've found great pricing online over the past 2 years. It's not too hard to believe that the fly fishing market is in a major change mode. That's the Free Market for ya!!!

Book Me

Even with this bone chilling weather people are still looking ahead to Spring and Summer and rivers like the Millers, Ware and the Westfield System.  If you have a prime week or weekend in mind then CLAIM IT by contacting me at: ken.elmer9@gmail.com  Don't get left out.

Ken

The BIG Soft Hackles, Book A Trip And Buy Some Flies

"I understand that to fit the profile of the modern fly fisherman I should be less the long-suffering sportsman-philosopher and more the conspicuous fanatic carpet bombing the river with the latest fly patterns, tackle and techniques: fishing from the same impulse that makes professional baseball players take steroids" - John Gierach 

A Size 8 Soft Hackle Eats a Size 16 Soft Hackle

It all started 15 or so years ago when I spent a day working the Indian Hollow section of the EB (a week after the TU event on that section) without any real strategy but with a few ideas and one of those was how big can a soft hackle be and still be effective.

I worked up a few in a size 8 and decided to drop them off of a big, gnarly tarantula for shits and giggles.  What happened changed the way I fish this river or any river with endless pockets and riffles.  I had a good day with about 75% of the hits being on the SH and that ratio has remained the same since then.  The tarantula is now mostly replaced with stimulators or outsized bombers, as long as the float well.  I even dropped a big SH off of a balsa popping bug and still caught trout.

A size 8 SH will imitate a large stonefly nymph or one of the big, burrowing nymphs such as a Hexagenia.  This rig is always best fished in pockets and riffles. I've had very little luck in pools and slow water.

Hook - standard dry fly hook (I don't use standard wet fly hooks any longer. There's no need!)

Body - On these large hooks I like kevlar the best with floss coming in second. Kevlar has this neat waxy look about it when wrapped on the hook  Orange, Yellow and Olive will do it.  No beads please!

Hackles - Here's your chance to use all of those oversized partridge hackles that are left on the skin. NOTE: buy the full skin (or cape) instead of those gimpy little bags of feathers.


The EB is my favorite dry fly river so I will time my invasions for early evening or very early morning but if I find myself with time on my hands at mid day in May through June I'll toss a soft hackle/stimulator combo and have at it until the shadows fall and the trout begin to rise.

Le Show

As in Marlborough that is!  It's been three years since I've been there so I'll show up this Friday. I don't give a damn about new rods (very little is new except deals on bamboo), or waders or packs or
 vests.  What I keep an eye out for are classic books, odd but valuable tying materials and tools and such.  Three years ago I bought the neatest tiny, click and pawl reel that houses my 2 wt line.  It was a steal.  Ten years ago I discovered FLYSHACK and their Saber line of hooks.  I'll probably run into Don Barnes of REGAL ENGINEERING which is always nice.

I'm starting to book for early Spring.  As always happens by April 1st I'll be slammed with requests.  It's always first come, first served.

Fly orders are good too.  Keep them coming!!

Ken

Freestone Dreaming

I firmly believe that there are two kinds of fly fishers. The first care only about the river, the trout that are in it and the chance of fishing it in relative solitude (Gierach School of Angling), The second kind of fly fisher cares equally about whether there is a local fly shop, good restaurants and posh accommodations. Can't be too far away from civilization, I guess. - Me

If I had three fly

patterns (excluding the wooley bugger) to start the season off on a freestone river my first choice, if the water is high, would be a weighted stonefly nymph. In fact, you should always carry this fly regardless of the season and in a large size too. Big stones will have up to a three year life span so their meaty presence is always there.

If the water flows are average or lower then the number 1 pattern will be a soft hackle pattern because it represents the active, emerging insect better than anything. The color isn't really of much importance but an orange body seems to top the list.  Springtime sizes will run larger with size 12 down to size 8 filling my fly boxes. A large yellow bodied soft hackle in a size 8 is a killer on the EB.

A third style that is a "must have" is a streamer pattern and I am sold on small marabou patterns. From the Catskills to northern Maine marabou streamers just get it done. I fish these either "on the swing" or on the "high stick" upstream. I took a bow over 20 inches in the rain, on a rising Ware river last spring high sticking like a nymph.  Very deadly!!!

Ok, throw in the Wooley Bugger!! It's a great fly that represents a lot of trout food. I don't have a photo that I like but tie them small (size 12) and ditch the chenille body in favor of peacock (about size strands or swords with do. I like this style because it looks like an insect and not something from Jupiter!  BTW, the WB was supposedly invented by a Pennsylvania tyer in 1967. I saw my first one when I picked one off the ground along the Moose River in northern Maine in the mid 1980's. I made a few casts with it, caught nothing and went back to a respectable smelt pattern.  When I got home I went to the Millers and tried it there.  All hell broke loose and the rest is history.

Notice that I didn't name a particular stone, soft hackle or streamer pattern and the reason is simple: patterns don't really matter that much but presentation does. Most nymphs in a freestone stream are dark on their backs, light on their undersides and are about a size 10 through 14. Dressing up your flies with electric ice blue cosmic shredded dubbing with a tungsten helmet slides you right over to the "attractor" side of the game because the above combinations are not found in nature. When I was a newbie I wanted to catch as many trout as possible. Now it's the "way" they are caught that's important!

Ken

Conventional Wisdom Again - Below Route 9 in Winter

 And the Swift was noticeably empty yesterday. Only one car at the lot on Route 9 when I arrived at about 8:30 and only saw three people at the pipe until I left just before noon. Trout easy to spot but quite finicky. Fished mainly down toward Cady lane and didn’t see anyone else for 2 hours. Caught two rainbows there. Then fished my way back to the parking lot ABOVE the pipe and netted another rainbow. Missed at least three others on the take. There’s trout in some of that skinny water if you have the patience to look for them. Plus no competition. All trout on grey and yellow mop flies each with an orange collar. - Reader Comment January 2020

I decided to reprint a blog post from 10 years ago to show that the same story about avoiding the Swift below Route 9 after January 1st is still out there and bad advice.



From 1/10/10
"Now for the myth killing segment of this blog. Conventional Wisdom, almost always wrong, states that you fly fishers better get to the PIPE before New Years Day (the regulation change) because the bait boys will clean the place out in no time. This nugget has survived from year to year despite little or no evidence. If you would like EVIDENCE that this is garbage then take a stroll through the past years that have been carefully recorded on this blog. You will see that fish were caught throughout the Winter in this section. Here's what happens below RT 9 in the Winter:

1.The bait guys clobber the trout in the SPRING and not in January. The Spring trout are freshly stocked and DUMB. The January trout have been in the river since they were stocked either in October or July. They have wised up as witness to the equation that 10% of the fly fishermen catch 90% of the trout right up to New Years Eve. And now we are expected to believe that worms and powerbait suddenly become more successful? Hardly! It's true that bait fishermen who stand by the PIPE will catch fish just like fly fishermen do because that's the EASIEST spot on the whole river. Not a lot of skill required.

2. I've gone down to that section in early January and have seen NOBODY fishing and only a few tracks along the shore but I could see trout! I've never seen the "blood stained snow" that is always mentioned.

3. Last year was the first year that I remember the parking area being plowed. I will not tempt fate by trying to go in there if the snow is deep. I'll drive around to the other side and walk across the field if the flow allows me to cross over. That said it's easy to park in the Y Pool lot and go upstream.

4. 250 CFS is very fishable above RT 9 but a torrent down by the Gauge and the Pipe. We have had a few winter torrents in the past 10 years. Best to go upstream when that happens.

Last winter sucked above and below RT 9. Maybe the same thing will happen this year or maybe the lower section will be good as in some seasons past. One thing is for sure: the same old story will be circulated again next year."



By the way, I was there below Rt 9 on Monday for a short time and took some fish.  I saw one crafty fly fisher take about a 1/2 dozen in a half hour from the Tree Pool.  The fishing will be good if: 1. we don't get a long lasting flood like last year or 2. we don't get a long spell of frigid temperatures and very deep snow.  Those two conditions send the trout to deeper holding areas downstream (I think).

What Flies - If I had only two patterns to use on the Swift below Route 9 in the Winter they would be Scuds and Pinheads!!!

Ken

The Sulphurs, Booking this Winter/Spring And Flies For Sale

Cedar Waxwings were flying in mass picking off the hatching sulphurs. (thank you Chuck for the bird identification) One came so close to my face I could feel the wing beat. The morning sun had that mid summer glow to it, much like a Monet painting and I didn't come within 200 yards of another fly fisher. I was really in my element and enjoying it all. - Me from July 2019




There are two occasions concerning this insect that I will never forget.  The first was about four years ago when we were shooting a video on the Swift down in Bondsville.  It was mid day in early June and it seemed that every trout that I caught, mostly browns, were chocked full of Sulphur nymphs that were either in the nymph stage or in the emerger stage.  The trout were gorging themselves to the point where they seemed to be forgetting to swallow the insects because their mouths were full of the bugs.  What was also evident was that there were no rising trout with just the occasion surface disturbance of a nymphing brown.  A Partridge and Olive in either size 16 or 18 did the trick big time.

 

The second occasion was just this past Summer on the Swift below Route 9 from the bridge down to the crib dam.  By 11:00 am the birds would be out in force swooping just of the surface catching the newly hatched insects. Again, the Partridge and Olive swung in the current would do it again with the occasional emerger fished in the surface film scoring well.

One may say that my emerging sulphur isn't YELLOW enough but neither are the REAL emergers which still have enough olive/brown/orange to their bodies. The real YELLOW seems to occur when the insect hatches and goes air born.  Note: these are my observations.  Yours may vary.


Maybe it's because the Swift is a cold tailwater but this hatch seems to start earlier (early June) and continue to late July.  It is becoming an event of the Swift and one cannot afford to miss it.  The spinner fall is a dusk event and I remember fishing one Summer morning below the Gauge and the spider webs along the shore were loaded with the sulphur spinners.  They were not there the afternoon before!!!

Booking

What a difference a year makes.  This time last year it was salmon fishing in heavy water but now the flow is perfect that there are plenty of fish and we haven't had any long bouts of chilling cold which drives trout to deeper holes.  Take advantage of it by booking a trip.

As I said in a previous post the fly orders are flying out the door.  Thank you!!!  Don't wait too long to stock up on your fly selections.

Ken

What Taper??

I like an honest warranty that covers materials and workmanship only. The fly fishing industry sailed over the Falls when it offered  "no questions asked about the dumb ass way you mishandled the rod" kind of warranty. Maybe that's why we pay top dollar for rods. Someone has to pay for that warranty and it's not going to be the rod companies.  Maybe we would appreciate the craftsmanship more and take better care of rods if they were not so easily replaced! - Ken

BWO Size 22

It may be hard to believe (for me anyway) that people will fly fish for trout on rivers like the Swift and the Farmington for YEARS and never cast anything other than a weight forward line. The WF is designed for distance or better yet, designed for casting larger flies a great distance. It is my line of choice for the Millers and the EB but on the Swift it's been a double taper (DT) for years. Here's why:

1. PRESENTATION! If you cast correctly your line will gently land on the water and will not slam the water like a poorly cast WF will. If you were to lay out a DT on your lawn you will easily see that the line is thickest in the middle and then tapers to the ends. This will help insure a gentler landing for your fly.

2. A DT is a roll casting machine and you really need that to deliver unweighted nymphs and soft hackles in a tree shaded river like the Swift. (P.S.- learn to roll cast well. It will change your life!!)

3. It is two lines for the price of one. Both ends are identical so when the fishing end begins to wear out just reverse them on your reel.

4. A DT does not cast weight very well. That's what a WF is for.

5. I will mention the Wulff Triangle taper as a great Swift River fly line because of it's ability to roll cast even better than a DT. A light line, say a 3wt triangle taper, will lose some performance on a windy day.

If your game is fishing tailwaters with tiny flies for spooky trout (or you want it to be) then arm yourself with a DT or a Triangle Taper.

Flies For Sale
Thanks for the great fly orders in 2019 and thanks for the fast start to 2020.  It's good to see the 22 and 24 BWO dries flying out the door.  As you know, all flies are tied and/or designed by me.

The Swift

I thought that the 20 inches of snow that slammed Belchertown in December would end it all like it did a few years ago but that wasn't the case.  All spots are accessible and fish are being caught.

Book for 2020

It's not too early to reserve some prime time on one of our rivers.  Pick a date.  No deposit required.

Ken

Bamboo Thoughts

When your weekend playing partner starts whining about how he isn't good at golf because he has bad equipment, remind him of this little factoid:  The Golden Bear  was using near-ancient clubs to win on the PGA Tour, including six Green Jackets.- Kyle Porter CBS May 27, 2015 

Swift River Sierra

Yes, I know it's an easy three months away but I've got Spring on the brain which made me take out the bamboo rods (I've got five of them collected over the years and I'll never give them up) because Spring/Summer and a sweet bamboo rod just go together.  I've just spent an hour cleaning my nickel silver ferrules with dry (ivory  works great) bar soap and a couple of q-tips (definitely a low tech solution) and now the fit has a nice, gentle "pop" sound which is what you want.  It's a ritual and I like it!!!

Why bamboo?  The answer is easy. It's part of the true fly fishing heritage that we have AND a good bamboo rod is a joy to cast.  Some say that cane is too heavy. Four ounces is not too heavy if it's designed well (mine are) and you can cast them all day (I do) on smaller water like the Swift, the EB and the Ware.  If you cast between 20 and 40 ft you will do well with bamboo and I've caught fish far beyond those distances. What about the shorter length of bamboo?  That's not an issue if you are fishing in the 30 foot range.  It's the perfect material for dry fly presentations and you will not break off thin tippets as much with those softer tips.
                                                                                 
                                                                                      Zhu Bamboo

What rods do I use? First, I don't use or own any $3,000 bamboo rods.  My favorite was made by a bamboo craftsman named Rick Taupier from New Salem Ma.  It is a Swift River Sierra 7.5 ft four weight that also casts a three weight very well.  What's neat about Rick is that he also specializes in refurbished classic cane from the 30's, 40's and 50's and at a reasonable price too.

My Sierra costs about the same as a top of the line graphite rod and it's worth it!!  Just Google up "Swift River fly rods" and you'll find him.

My next favorite bamboo rod was a rod that I took a real chance on.  I found this Chinese company on Amazon named the Zhu Bamboo Rod Company. They claimed to build their bamboo on the classic tapers of Payne, Garrison, Phillipston etc.  I read some reviews about them.  Some were slightly xenophobic but there were a few that gave this Chinese company its due.  Not excellent but a good mid range rod and at a $199.00 price I took the plunge.  It was a good investment and I've done well with it.  It's a 7 footer for a 4 weight with two tips.

Maybe you're thinking of trying this material out.  Here's my suggestion - Check out Rick Taupier at Swift River.  You can't go wrong.  If you still feel nervous then buy a Zhu bamboo rod.  You will like it and then get one of Ricks.  Now you'l have two rods at a very reasonable price.

NOTE - I don't receive any kickbacks for these endorsements.  I just like supporting craftsmen!!!

Ken