Little Wets Can Save The Day

 "Tailwaters are what Thomas McGuane called "the great theme parks of American fly fishing," with their more or less stable water temperatures and artificially inflated populations of insects and fish. They are irresistible for all kinds of reasons, but all of those trout breed the peculiarly postmodern sense that anything short of a 20 fish day is a bust, so when things are slow there's the temptation to lie about numbers or to vaguely allow that you are "getting your share" - John Gierach

Some times my favorite patterns(soft hackles) just don't seem to get the job done.  They always work fine in choppy riffled water but when the pools and runs are low and slow, like this summer, even a size 16 seems a bit out of place.  

What to do? Before I became addicted to SH I always carried a supply of micro wets on the stream.  They were in sizes 18 through 22 and ALWAYS had a tan colored body with light brown WET FLY HACKLE.  This fly has worked on the Swift (the only game in town) from mid July through mid September when the BWO seem to take over.

This fly has done well in the flats above the Duck Pond and down to the slow water by the Second Turnout. Yes, you can fish it at the Pipe and it will do well there (everything does!!)

Apply no weight to this offering but just let it drift downstream letting it rise in the current until the slack is played out and then repeat.

Our Drought

1992, 2010, 2016 and this year.  These are the worst dry years that I can remember in central/western Ma. Two of the above years had a Fall tropical storm save the season but as I write this the Caribbean is storm free and that is unusual and a bit scary.  

Here's where we stand river wise: Millers 54 cfs, Ware 4.0 cfs, EB 14 cfs and the Swift is flowing hard at 110 cfs.  The Swift, at 110 cfs is flowing at 4.7 times the combined flow of the Millers, Ware, and EB!If this continues we may not see a Fall stocking except for the Swift. This happened a few years ago when the EB missed out on the Fall stocking and I believe it has happened to the Squannacook.

A Word To The Wise

Spread out on the Swift!!!  There's more places to fish than the Y Pool and the Pipe. I mentioned two places earlier and there is always Cady Lane which may hold more pounds of brown trout and any other New England river.

Did I mention the brook trout??

Pray for rain!!!!

Ken

Another Really Good Streamer Material

 "If I couldn't fly fish any longer I would still tie flies" - Me

I've mentioned that quote a million times over the past few years and I truly mean it.  It is especially true for ultra dry seasons like this one.  It gives us something to do and scratches that "fly fishing itch" that we have.

Here's the story on this very cool streamer wing material.  My daughter came back from Michael's Crafts with a bag full of this very fine gossamer synthetic yarn and said that she didn't like it and would I like to have it?  Now, I had been hatching plans to commandeer snippets of this material but now it's all mine.

What's it look like?

This yarn is tri-colored, a light blue that fades into a darker blue and then into a dark pink. You can cut off sections of this material and work up 12 inch streamers with it or tie little shiner patterns in a size 12?

It has an absolutely lifelike action and the light blue almost has the color of small eels. Its durability isn't up there with bucktail but it beats 
marabou and unlike bucktail this material likes to sink.

My daughter couldn't recall the name of the stuff but she said it was dirt cheap.   I caught a lonely striper on this material this morning and if the LL Salmon come over the dam this November I'll be waiting for them.

62 degrees this morning.  That's a start!!!!

Ken

Needhami Time On The Farmington

 

Well folks, this damn drought has reduced our trout fishing to the few tail waters that we have. The Swift is flowing at about 100 cfs which is high for me but great for a lot of anglers.  The Farmie is low and the UpCountry website recommends not fishing below the Church Pool until we get rain and a decent flow. (I find that a bit hard to believe that the water temperature would rise that quickly. The little Swift holds it's mid 60 Summer temperature range right down into Bondsville.) 

So let's concentrate on the Farmie and my favorite dry fly on that river. The Needhami, also known as the tiny Hendrickson, is a mainstay on that river. It looks like a Hendrickson with it's body color and slate grey wings but it's a size 22 to 24. Mid to late Summer is prime time for the Needhami but I've only seen true high numbers of this insect on the Farmie although I believe I saw some at Les's Pool on an EB summer morning a few years ago.

Hook - size 20 to 24 standard dry fly

Tail - one or two strands of crystal flash

Body - synthetic brown dubbing

Wing - ultra fine slate colored synthetic wing post material

Summer Sulphur size 18

I was browsing around the internet and saw that someone decided to classify the Gallatine River in Montana as a spring creek.  It's not a spring creek and neither is the east branch of the Gallatine. They may have some small spring creek tribs but they are freestone rivers!

Does anyone know how to do a rain dance??

Ken

C & R Revisited

 

 "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

Gorge Pool Millers River

Since I've put a halt to my guiding business I've had plenty of time to fish for other species, to some degree of success, and to do a lot of reading.  One of my favorite writers (besides John Gierach) is the talented E. Donnell Thomas. He is an accomplished flyfisher who calls Montana and Alaska his home states and a serious student of BOW HUNTING. This means that he (gulp) eats what he kills. But he doesn't limit his harvesting to mammals and birds but will take the occasional salmon or trout to eat at stream side . In one of his best books Whitefish Can't Jump he gives a blow by blow account of besting a 50lb King Salmon on fly tackle and then supplies us with two endings to the story. Ending #1 has the victorious angler gently resuscitating the salmon and watching it swim away and Ending #2 is a backyard barbeque  with friends and family and a 50 lb salmon providing the feast.  Thomas suggests that one pick their favorite ending.  Mine is the feast!!!!

Some how we got caught off the rails over the last 30 years.  C&R has become a religion worshiping a questionable god.  What are we protecting with C&R? We are protecting mostly hatchery fish which are not really worth anything. Most hatchery fish are long gone one year after we stock them and that's not because they were caught out. They don't have the ability to survive in an environment outside of a hatchery.

And if you don't believe me request that the DFW curtail stocking on C&R rivers for 3 years and then see how many trout are left. The Swifts brookies and monster browns should do well but not rainbows, the majority of stocked fish in that river.

Also remember that destruction of native stocks has much less to do with individual sport fishing than with environmental destruction and in some cases destructive commercial fishing.

August

It may be hard to believe with the temperatures in the 90's but we have lost a lot of sunshine since June 21.  What we need on top of that is some good, old soaking storms in August to get the rivers back up.

Pray for Rain

Ken

Fishing For The Love Of It.

 "The purpose of this discussion is not so much to suggest serious fly rod assaults on goldeye and turbot, but to remind us how arbitrary the distinction between "game fish" and just plain fish can be. It's worth remembering how recently the bonefish fell into the latter category. The pioneering efforts of a few fly-rodders possessed with the vision thing elevated the bone from a seagoing sucker to Cult Object within our lifetime.  It is entirely reasonable to ask what overlooked species might be next" - E. Donnell Thomas, Jr. Whitefish Can't Jump, 1994

So far my "Summer of Stripers" has been just short of a bust for me along the New Hampshire/Plum Island coast. I've caught fish but my total catch from mid June to now equals less than one week of fishing back in 1994 when I first targeted that species.  The few fishermen I've talked to say the same thing and I've seen only one other fly caster working the water. It was only about three years ago that "Tincup Bob" took me out in his boat to the jetties where I took over 30 bass. Now the place may have only one or two boats by the mouth of the river and NOBODY is fishing from the Jetty.  So far it's an off year in my favorite spots.

Am I remorseful or pissed off or a bit melancholy at this state of affairs?  The answer is NO.  As the great fly tier A. K. Best once said "The fishing was good but the catching wasn't." And even if I knew that catching would be tough I'd still be out there wading wet with nothing but a small waist pack, a wallet full of streamers and some extra tippet.  I will just branch out and fish Ipswich Bay to the south and the Mousam River to the north and if my results are like those of the Red Sox so be it.  I'll still have fun and remember - Hope Springs Eternal!!!

Fresh Water

I guess I picked a good season to rest my trout rods with all of this low water and high heat. The Swift is still chugging along at 120 cfs and will continue until we get a good regional soaking that brings the CT River up so that the Swift can come down. I'm actually thinking about chasing Swift browns and brookies this Fall and maybe dusting off my trusted recurve and taking a few shots with it.  I haven't bow hunted since 1992 when I gave it up to focus totally on fly fishing. But now...

Ken

How Hot Is It

 

Well, if there was a year to take some time off from chasing trout then this is the year (so far).  First we had very high water during the Spring and since mid May it's been below the 100 years average. Here is the tale of the tape:

The EB - 41 cfs today which is below average for 60 days

The Ware - 21 cfs today which is below average for 60 days

The Millers - 295 cfs today due to last night's rain. That is about average

The Swift - 120 cfs as usual.

2010 was a very dry Summer as was 2003.  2006 was a very HOT summer BUT we had rain which kept the aquifers full and the streams cooler.  Let's hope that we get our rain before Fall.

I've seen where a few have chased smallmouth bass and have done fairly well. Smallies always want to eat and can save the day when the trout stay home.  I have caught and lost smallies on the Millers in the 2lb + range and a smallie is the only Millers fish that got into my backing (slightly),

One of my biggest was caught on a fly very similar to the one on the right.  Fish it slow and deep!!

Stripers

It's been slow and even with an incoming tide the ocean water just doesn't cool off a wading fly fisher that much.  Time for some evening or early morning fishing.

Ken

The Enigma Of Plum Island

 "If evolution is true then maybe certain species of wild fish have gotten wise to us or maybe not" - Me

Backcast 20 to 30 years ago when I would get up at 2:30am, fly through breakfast and then drive like a mad man from Athol to Plum Island to catch an outgoing tide (or an incoming tide) to be there at the RIGHT time. Seagulls were still sleeping in the sand as I made my way to the very lower Merrimack River only to be greeted with 20 other fly casters to chase stripers and blues.  Was I pissed at not being among the very first?  NO!! And that is because we all caught fish.  It was wonderful.

That was then!!!  The photo above was from very early Thursday morning (early incoming tide) and you could imagine 20 other fly casters there and that would be the scene from years ago.  Now there's nobody and that is because the fish are not there.  I saw just three boats out by the jetties and only three bait fishers on the shore.  Some of my "contacts" have the same lament. "Forget about putting the boat in the water with the price of gas" is the sorry tale.

Are the stripers gone?  Not really. Some of the estuary guys are getting some fish but you need a shallow draft boat to get "out there" which leaves a wading/walking guy at a bit of a disadvantage.

Where are the fly fishers?? I'm thinking that they left the Merrimack for better water.  I'll have to find it and there is certainly enough better water out there.  I can't say I'm wasting my time because it is certainly beautiful to be tossing long casts just after dawn.  All I need is some fish!!

Ken