Many activities that we do as a pastime have some pithy truisms attached to them and flyfishing is no exception. One is that trout put on the "feed bag" in the late Fall to prepare for winter (false).  The other (my favorite) is "don't bother flyfishing until the leaves on an apple tree are the size mouse ears". Ken

A Swift Brownie

A few years ago I made the observation on this blog that many of the browns coming out of the Farmington were skinny. "Brown Eels" is what I called them.  I did a presentation in the Albany area and many of those folks had noticed the same thing with Farmie browns.  As it turned out another blog, the Connecticut Fly Angler, noticed the same thing when when he described them (browns) as "Pickerel Trout".  Why is that? Maybe the food base in the Farmie is inadequate for the amount of trout that are thrown in (remember, most of those trout are stockers).  The trout in the photo above is a prime example of what happens when predator fish get lot to eat.  The countless brook trout in the Swift provide an ample forage base for the big browns that we have.  Ample forage is why we have monster browns best measured in pounds instead of inches!!!

So Far This Spring.....

Maybe it's the warm days and the low water conditions but I feel that I'm fishing in late May instead of early April.  We need some rain quickly.  The Ware has been good but I'm really waiting for the Millers to get more predictable.  Right now it's at 366 cfs but it was at over 1800 just this past Friday.  It's had a sample stocking in Athol and Royalston but I'm waiting for the lower river to to come alive.  I just have to remind myself: it's early!!!

Flies

The Partridge and Orange continues to be the top fly this Spring. Sizes 12 through 16 rule the day.  Ditto for the Partridge and Olive and the Possum nymphs.  If you've been out and about lately you've seen the millions of caddis in the stream bushes but no rising trout because these insects crawl to the shore and then emerge. They  (trout) should be after the egg laying insect soon.

Go Fish

Ken

A Dry Spring So Far And I Wonder

"The Smallmouth bass was once the premier game fish in river environments 100 years ago in the Northeast. It was introduced, for the most part, by anglers, and by natural migrations and adapted very well (maybe too well in northern Maine) to it's new home.  It has been pretty much forgotten by modern flyfishers over much of it's new range and that is a shame.  Me

Yup, it's happening again. Mother Nature has turned off the spigot at least temporality which has resulted in low water conditions through the State.  Now, these conditions are not killing the fishing because it is still early April and the flows, low for this time of year, are still ample and cool enough to fish.  A good rain storm will fix things quickly!!

The Millers?

Yesterday morning the flow was about 420cfs. Now it's running as I write at 1880cfs.  What's up??  A rogue thunderstorm in Athol dumping 6 inches of rain??  Nope, It seems that they held back water for the "cancelled" River Rat Canoe Race and then dumped it.  Now, in the past stocking of trout occurred after the race (scheduled in mid April) was history and the flow subsided. This year Royalston and Athol got an early stocking which could very well be flushed out of the river by a 1880cfs release.  Best wait until May!!!

I Wonder

What's going on with our pastime?  It seems that many of the younger crowd have taken on an almost militaristic approach to this once benign endeavor. This is seen in the marketing of our "toys". Words like "tactical" and "stealth" have entered the lexicon. Fishing trips have taken on the aura on a Navy Seal raid.  What's next, camo face paint. 

Time to chill out.

Book Me

Ken

Rainbow Trout And Current Conditions

 "For the moment at least, we fall into that class of fishermen who fancy themselves to be poet/philosophers, and from that vantage point we manage to pull off one of the neatest tricks in all of sport: the fewer fish we catch the more superior we feel" John Gierach

I've just about finished, for the second time, a book called "An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and and Overran the World" by Anders Halverson.  This book should be required reading with every fishing license purchased because it shows how our license and sporting tax money is used to support and prop up the indefensible action of stocking hatchery rainbows that basically don't have a chance of surviving for a season.  And all of this is to placate the " catch and keep crowd" who, by the Fourth of July, have put away the power bait and bought more rubber worms.  You would think that the DFW would want to develop a hardier fish (say, brown trout) to put in our rivers.  That would give the DFW the most bang for their buck even though the catch and keep crowd would scream if someone tampered with their rainbows.

Most fishers who fish moving water are flyfishers and they fish all season long and they want a fish that doesn't pull a disappearing act like rainbows.  Do what Connecticut and New York do: STOCK BROWNS and try to develop a stain that can reproduce in the wild.

Go Fish

Don't ask me where, just GO. The rivers are fine (maybe a bit too low) and there are fish.

Ken

Random Thoughts

  “There are people in my life who sometimes worry about me when I go off into the fields and streams, not realizing that the country is a calm, gracious, forgiving place and that the real dangers are found in the civilization you have to pass through to get there.  John Gierach

Well, the fish are getting out there slowly but surely. Remember, it's still early in the season with a lot of season left.  There once was a time when we had the shit show called "OPENING DAY" which was always on the 3rd Saturday in April and I remember fishing in snow squalls or standing in shin deep snow on some little blue line out in the woods or looking at the hordes that lined the banks of popular streams. Now you only find the hordes on the tailwaters it appears because flyfishing for trout starts and stops on tailwaters for many of todays' flyfishers. There may be the obligatory trip to the EB but it's the Swift, Farmy and the Deerfield and that's it for many. For people like me that is a good thing because I don't like crowds. In fact, I'd rather fish a freestone that's in good form than fish a tailwater. I fish tailwaters when the freestones are not in good form such as in the winter or a deep drought in summer.  My best memories of flyfishing in this State are on the Millers, EB and the Squannacook and those memories involve fishing the "evening rise", the Holy Hour for the eastern flyfisher.

If you want to know if your favorite waters have been stocked just go to: Ma DFW stocking and you will have it. Waters stocked on a Monday show up on the report the next day.

Where Did They Go?

It seemed like just yesterday when we had a bunch of guides on the Swift and the EB.  I know of three who have hung the "closed" sign on their websites.  It's not easy being a guide on a river.  First, you don't get to fish as much as you would like. What you do is try to put your clients onto fish and take pictures.

Actually it's fun and that's why I do it.  I like the fact that I've pulled some flyfishers away from the "9 to 5 tailwater treadmill" and showed them what a Summer dusk is like on a real trout stream.

Book Me!!!!

River Update And Real Spring

" Almost all mortality of trout caught on flies or artificial lures is due to rupture of the respiratory filaments of the gills or puncture of the carotid artery in the roof of the mouth. Because of their greater penetration power barbless hooks are more prone to puncture the carotid artery. Large treble hooks often cause the least mortality because, unless the trout is quite large, the hooks cannot be engulfed into the mouth.” Wild Trout Symposium 

3/31 = The Ware Has Been Stocked

I was on the phone with Charlie at Evening Sun Fly Shop discussing the stream flows for our area rivers.  Our greatest fear is that we slide into another summer drought like the last two years.  So far things look good on the rivers that I fish and write about.  Here's an up to date summary:

Swift - 47 cfs, Median Average = 48 cfs

Millers - 737 cfs, Median Average = 1400cfs

EB - 1110 cfs,  Median Average = 856cfs

Ware - 250 cfs, Median average = 350cfs

I am concerned about the Ware River being 100 cfs below it's historical average.  I should be concerned with the Millers but one good rainy day (tomorrow) will fix that river for sure. Remember, it's still March and much can change in a month.

And The Farmington

The guys at UpCountry do a great job with their twice a week updates on that river. The flows are very good right now with a Farmy flow above the Still River of 206cfs and a Still River flow of 319cfs. Add them together (525cfs) and you have that perfect Farmington flow range of the mid 500's.  And it's been stocked also so it would be worth your while to plan a day there.  I am planning a late July/ early August trip of a few days to catch the Needhami hatch.  It's a favorite.

I used to fish the Farmy years ago more often then I do now.  I think I'll spend more time there this year fishing and writing about some favorite spots which are a bit out of the way.  Someone should do it.

                                                         Quill Gordon Soft Hackle

I think I finally got it right!

Size 14 dry fly hook

body of brown uni-stretch floss

rib of very fine copper wire

slant grey hen hackle

This fly doubles as a good hendrickson emerger pattern too.

Read my quote at the top of this post.  It warns that a major cause of  trout hooking mortality is caused by puncturing the carotid artery in the roof of the mouth and a good way to do that is to use jig hooks or any hook that rides with the point "up".  Nick that artery and that trout is dead!!!

Ken

 

Pigs On The Swift

 

"You are either part of the solution or you are part of the problem" Eldridge Cleaver

Who are these guys? This is the second time in a month that some jokers decided to mess the Swift up. The scene of the crime is at the Pipe section where camp fires (totally illegal) were lit and everything from beer cans to tampon wrappers were just left there for someone else to pick up.  Moronic  acts like this could be what closes this place down in the future.  Will the pigs care? Of course not. They'll just find another nice spot to turn into their private pig sty.  1-800-632-8075 is the Environmental Police number and they do respond.  Put this number in your phone and if you see any of these boy scouts in action just make a call discretely.

Fly tackle has improved considerably since 1676, when Charles Cotton advised anglers to ‘fish fine and far off,’ but no one has ever improved on that statement.”

— John Gierach

Gentlemen - start your engines, the Swift has been stocked (3/23)!!!!!!

Hen And Orange

My never ending supply of partridge  capes is beginning to get a bit thin.  I still have enough feathers to tie hundreds of soft hackles but I've spent the last year experimenting with pheasant, starling, woodcock and such but have found that good old domestic hen is the winner. They are great because they come in all colors (you can "speckle" these feathers with the appropriate sharpee Grey works great) and they are dirt cheap compared to partridge capes. Light brown is a winner and light grey is good too.  You may not need any other colors to imitate the regions insects.  P.S. I'll still use partridge on the flies that I sell.

    

I don't want to start anything but.....how come many flyfishing magazines show trout flies, either in the vise or in the hand WITH INTACT BARBS??  I thought that most authors and publishers believed in barbless hooks but the last few publications displayed the "barb". An oversight or maybe they don't give a dam?

The Streams

As I write the rivers have come down nicely but the DFW hasn't given us anything to play with.  The ageless tradition in this State is to stock just after Easter so don't worry. I know, it's hard to be calm when the temperature is in the mid 60's. Hang in there.

Book Me

With a half a dozen rivers to pick from you have the opportunity to test some new rivers or new sections of rivers that you just haven't gotten to.  We can do that!!!  Sometimes you'll have some "expert" tell you that you don't need a guide for some rivers.  My biggest request is to put people on new water that they have never fished and then show them how to fish it successfully.  That's what a guide does and you can't get that on the internet. 

Ken