The Millers - Now is the TIME!

Hit this river NOW!! The last two years have been crazy with flows that broken records over the last two Summers. But this dry April has gotten this river down below 500cfs which is PRIME as far as flows are concerned. The browns go in on the first two Fridays in May but the bows have provided plenty of sport. Even the hendricksons are getting into the act on the lower river.

Temperatures will be in the '80's this weekend. It should be great!!!!! See you there!!

The photo is from the Cable Pool on the lower Millers.

Millers Update

Saturday, April 17, and the Erving gauge reads 820cfs. The Bears Den comes in at 465cfs. It's hard to believe but April has been a bit on the dry side and the flow readings are showing that. In fact, the Millers is running BELOW normal. If the Bears Den reading is to be believed then we can safely say that it is very fishable right now. Once the Erving gauge hits 500cfs we will be out there regardless of the stocking reports. BTW, the DFW site says that the lower Millers has been stocked a few weeks ago. If it was then the trout (rainbows) will be scattered due to the high water at that time. It appears that the Bears Den will get it's browns on May 7th with the lower C&R getting it's browns on the 14th. That's when the season starts for me!!!

The above photo is of the pool at the mouth of Mormon Hollow Brook on the LOWER river. I love fishing this section starting at the Bridge Pool and working downstream. It's lonesome fishing for sure. Very few want to take the walk to get there but it is certainly worth the trip. An added bonus in this section is the awesome smallmouth fishing. I'm not talking about 8 to 10 inch bass but bass that are 15inches plus!! In May and June, I've been told, that smallies come up from the Connecticut River to spawn and these fish are BIG! They're measured in POUNDS, not inches. I can't say if the spawning theory is true but I've caught many big bass here that may be Millers River bass.

Here's a fishing trip for you: start in the late morning during June swinging buggers, muddlers or leeches through the big pools and runs of the lower Millers. Fish through the afternoon catching good size bass and some trout. Have a sandwich around 5pm and then head upstream to the Kempfield or the Upper Trestle for the evening rise. THAT would be a good day on the Millers!!

The Lady with the bass?? Caught on the lower Millers on a June afternoon.

April Update

Elliot said that April was the cruelest month. He must have been a Massachusetts fly fisher!!! The Swift and the Millers are roaring along at flood stage. The EB and the other branches of the Westfield have been stocked (they say) but nobody is catching anything and it appears that very few are fishing. I made a dawn trip to the Middle Branch Saturday morning. Nothing - and no other fishermen. I took a walk through the EB in the early afternoon. The water looked good but I saw only two fly fishers. The road is still closed AND the "Bliss" sign was crushed by a falling tree over the winter!! My neighbor fished the main stem of the Westfield Sunday morning. No fish!!

Things will get better!!!!

Remembering Days Past - Opening Day

If you are under 30 years old you will not remember this. If you are 40 years old you may have heard the stories. If you are over 50 years old then you just may have been part of a ritual that has long since disappeared and it is a benefit to you that it is gone. I'm talking about OPENING DAY OF FISHING IN MASSACHUSETTS!!!

It's February 28, any year before 1978, and as the sun sets on the last of the ice fishermen, the fishing season ENDS. Trout, perch, bass, horned pout, it doesn't matter. It's over!! And it will not resume until the third Saturday in April. Most of us fly fishers will not cry too much. It's WINTER, the streams and rivers have been chocked with snow and ice for months and our thoughts are somewhere else, not to be ignited with January fly fishing shows (they didn't exist back then) or internet forums (they didn't exist back then) or by a mailbox stuffed with fly fishing magazines (only Flyfisherman Magazine). We were ok, content to slumber the dark months away UNTIL that first WARM DAY in February!! Then it happens! It's a genetic predisposition. The days seemed warmer then they actually were, the streams, buried in late Winter snow and ice, actually begin to seem FISHABLE!! We begin to start sorting through fly rods and reels and lines and start tying flies, flies, flies!! And we then do the hardest thing - we check the calendar and count the days - to OPENING DAY!! It's two months away!!

It's the worst time of the year. Lunches are spent with brown bag trips to ANY tackle shop that has ANY fly fishing gear. We may actually go to a TU meeting for a quick fix and to be among the suffering. We devour Orvis catalogs and fill out orders for everything that we will never use. We make phone calls (no internet, remember) to buddies about stream conditions, hot flies, where they will stock and everything else. And then, just when all hope seems lost and that we will be victim to an early death or a transfer to Alabama, IT'S THE NIGHT BEFORE FISHING!

THE NIGHT BEFORE FISHING was a special time. It was handled in two different ways. The first way was to have a full nights sleep, wake at 5:30am, leisurely load the car with gear, meet your buddy at some fisherman's breakfast in some church basement and then hit the river around 8:00 am. These people do not deserve to fish, period! There is only one way to approach Opening Day and that is the SECOND WAY!! The second way resembled the Normandy Invasion. All gear was vehicle stored by 7:oo pm the night before against an inventory check off list! Lunch (peanut butter sandwich) was pre made and ready! Coffee makers with timers didn't exist back then. Instant coffee had to do. Breakfast was a hard boiled egg and a leftover donut. The alarm was set for 3:30am and you did not oversleep because you have been lying there half awake for hours like a loaded trigger. You ARE to be on the river at 5:am.

There were two weather conditions that you could count on for Opening Day. The first condition was that four or five days before the blessed event the temperatures would hit the 60's and the rivers would BE GREAT CONDITION! The second condition was that a front would roll through fortyeight hours before with two inches of rain (and snow) and the rivers would be blown out. 4:00am would find a cold rain or if you were lucky a cold drizzle. It didn't matter. It was Opening Day! A third condition was that you would be up to your shins in snow that had refused to melt.

You drove like a madman through the predawn darkness knowing that every set of headlights that you saw was driven by a madman with the same intentions: to get to the river before anyone else. You flew down the country roads with a silent prayer - please let me the first to get to the head of my favorite pool on my favorite river to cast my favorite fly to release the demons that have tortured me for two months.

NO WAY!

You are met with bundled warriors, packed shoulder to shoulder, slinging crawlers, mepps spinners, daredevils (yes, it's true), shiners and the occasional fly. Some of these warriors will be taking that one extra step that will put them over their waders. Some of these warriors will be 1/3 of the way to a brutal hangover. Your line will be tangled up with the above warrior's contraptions on many occasions BUT it will all seem to fall into a cosmic order when you feel the HIT.! Some shop worn rainbow will come to your net while a dozen flings by the unlucky are made to where you had just cast. All will seem worthwhile, some how.

Massachusetts put and end to this cruelty except for places like Quabbin and Wachusett. Those folk carry on the tradition under far less trying conditions. They can have it.

Sunday Morning On The Swift

It was a bit strange to see only one car at the Y Pool lot at 7:30. It was Reed, a Swift River regular, who was just suiting up. We took a walk up to the "brook" which is the only spot that hasn't been flooded out as of yet. I'm not giving away any secret locations here. At 300cfs the "brook" is known by now as the only spot that gives the regulars the opportunity to do some "Swift River Fly Fishing" - fine tippets and tiny flies.

I went upstream as far as the law allows and fished with a size 20 red hot spot. I took seven in those two hours fishing directly upstream and letting that tiny fly drift back. It was worth it even with that slow leak in my waders that I thought that I had fixed. Note to self: get new waders!!

It would be nice to be able to get closer to the "bubbler". I saw some fish rising just beyond the "do not enter sign". Maybe in the future that will happen.

Spring is an odd time. Years ago I would ply the swollen rivers with HEAVY flies to fish for recently stocked trout and loved every minute of it. Now my dreams are centered on lower water and fish that have wised up. The Swift can still deliver on that account. Someday I will write about the era of OPENING DAY when three months of fishing angst would end with more angst (usually). I have many stories to tell!!!

Our favorite rivers will fall from their high, angry flows soon enough. Soon the Hendericksons, Quill Gordons and March Browns will appear and we will wonder why we even bothered to tie all those Wooley Buggers!!!

Spring On The Swift - Days 2, 3, and 4

Four straight days of fly fishing the only water in Massachusetts (maybe New England) that's fit for fly fishing! The Swift has been spared the floods that have blown out every trout stream within a days drive. At 200cfs the section below rt 9 (the pipe) is still fishable if one fishes deep enough. I fished that section and above rt 9 and I have had four very good days. Size 18 through size 22 in hotspots and tiny jailbirds (maybe I should call them "jailbaits" at that size) worked very well on 6x early in the AM and 7x when the sun was out above rt 9. Most of the anglers that I saw were plying the Y Pool and I believe that they took some trout. Word has it that smelt patterns were taking, or showed some interest to, the Y Pool trout. I fished differently and had a ball!!!

The hotspot worked well today with a red middle section showing the most interest. Frankly, I now believe that "hot" patterns cool off quickly in the water that I was fishing. I think that the trout just see too much of one pattern and it will take another, of similar size, to continually fool them.

Soon our favorite rivers will recede and we will start dreaming of Hendricksons! Until then It's the Swift!!

Spring On The Swift - Day 1

SPRING starts now, not in five days! At least that's my feeling as I head out for the Swift this week. The rains of the weekend continued into today. Even though the river has risen over the last forty eight hours from about 140 to 190cfs it is still fishable below rt9. I made it to the pipe at 10am and had the place to myself. I took six small 'bows, four on a weighted scud and two on a serendipity and would have been content to stay more than the 1 1/2 hours that I was there if it wasn't for the flush of debris that came flying through the pipe. Tons of pine needles and leaves made drifting a fly impossible. So off to the Y Pool I went. At the bubbler arm I met Ryan and Reed who were drifting that skinny water and catching fish. I got into the act with a hotspots and jailbirds in size 18 bringing in another six. The fish here are larger than what I've been catching at the pipe but a lot harder to fool. They know you are there!!

I caught the hatchery staff in the act of loading their stocking truck or at least that's what I think they were doing. It wouldn't be long now.

Sunday presentation at Charlie Shaden's Fly Shop was a blast. Lots of fly folks. At times it seemed like a Blog reunion!!

Ken