Here Comes Irene - There Goes The Fishing

I'm not going to rain on anyone's parade. Hurricane Irene will do that starting Saturday. The forecast states the possibility (where the smart money is) of 5 to 10 inches of rain in Central New England for this weekend. Here's what it means for the three rivers that I write about:

The Millers - A flow in excess of 2000cfs is a real possibility. In June of '08 a 3 to 4 inch storm drove the river from 250cfs to 1600cfs in 30 hours. It took a few weeks for it to come down. The same happened in '09. This river doesn't like to give up it's water!! Wadable water may have to wait until September.

The EB - It will soar up like a rocket and then drop like a rock! In the Summer of '09 I saw an 1800cfs flow fall to 500cfs in about three days. Lack of big tribs means a quick drop in the flow.

The Swift - The above photo is of the spillway in July of "09 when the overflow brought the river up to 700cfs where it stayed until the water stopped going over the spillway. It took a few weeks, at least. The key for this storm is whether there is enough unused capacity in Quabbin to collect the rainfall and still not breach the spillway. Also remember that Quabbin overflow is always a delayed reaction - the "pond" has to fill up first and then the river rises. That could be days AFTER the hurricane passes. Also realize that the rain that falls ON the Catch & Release areas will be of little consequence. It's what happens behind the dam that counts. My prediction - a 5 to 10 inch storm will cause overflow and the Swift will go up. I hope I'm wrong!

Check the stream gauge links at the bottom of this blog for updates.

Have fun tying flies!!

Ken

Two Days - Two Very Different Rivers

My Friday night plan was to hit the EB early Saturday morning. At 5:30 Saturday morning I checked the online gauge and saw that the river had gone from about 120cfs early Friday evening to just a hair below 600cfs by midnight but had now dropped to 445cfs. That's fishable but I should have known better. You can't have that kind of flow increase without the dreaded effect. As I drove down the access road the river had the color of a Dunkin Donuts coffee, one cream, no sugar!! The submerged rocks, usually easily seen, were hidden in the murky flow. I had left the big, heavy flashy stuff at home because, well, I don't like to use it at this time of year. So I spent a couple of hours working a dull hares ear dropper below a a large Wulff dry. No runs, no hits and no errors!! I did see one health rise which let me know that something had survived that hot, dry July. I'll be back.

Sunday morning found me heading east on RT9 for a few hours on the Swift. 8am and the Y Pool lot has 8 cars but that place was not my destination. Neither was the PIPE. I took the right onto River Road and drove a few hundred yards to my "spot".

I love this place in the Summer. It doesn't have the number of trout as the two previously mentioned areas but that means it doesn't have the fishermen! The thin water means that the trout will be VERY difficult. That's OK because it gives me what I want - the chance to fish a dry fly slowly upstream in what amounts to my own private spring creek.

The flow was in the mid 40 range, down from the 120 flow of the previous week. That made the fishing even more difficult. I took two and lost another two in two hours and had a ball.

I could of stayed longer but my grandson's birthday party trumped any thought of that. I'll be back this week in the late afternoon.

I had plans to hit the Millers after the party but the thunderstorms in the air and in the forecast for the evening killed that idea. I'll be there too!

Ken

Quiet Places On The Swift

I've been spending a few late afternoons during the week this past month plying the Swift. So, it seems, is everyone else!! The Y Pool should have a reservation system installed and the Pipe has it's usual crew plus it's been bombarded with hardware tossers. This leads me to find quiet places. The Gauge Stretch is nice to fish but this season it just seems "off". Still good but not like last year. From the Gauge to the Crib Dam is reliable and like the previous two spots it doesn't get hammered much except on weekends. Are these the only spots? No!

I'll let you guess where I took the above photos. The water is low and gin clear. The rainbows hold behind the occasional rock or log and sip tiny offerings from the surface. Careless wading or poor casting will send them running. A slow upstream approach fishing with dries will do the trick. They'll take most surface flies from mayfly to ant imitations and they will rip line from your reel when the hook is set. Friday afternoon I took five 'bows and a brookie on this quite water, watching them rise to the surface through water that seemed like liquid air.

Will I find this place packed with anglers because of this entry? I don't think so. First, my description fits a lot of spots on this river. Second, the average Swift River fly fisher has his or her favorite spot and they will fish there regardless of the crowds.

Am I writing about a certain section of this trout filled river OR am I writing about ANY place on the Swift where you can fish alone?? I'll let you decide!

Ken

A Summer Evning On The Swift - Cut Short

All day long we had blue skies but at 5pm I was flying down RT 9 to beat the T-storms that seemed to be hovering in all directions. My three hours of planned fishing ended in an hour of fishing BUT it was a good hour!

The Y Pool lot was FULL but nobody was at the Pipe lot. I've heard that there's lot of fish above Rt 9 but that means lots of fisherman. I had the Pipe and beyond to myself and that was great.

First, I caught a bunch of those 8 inch escapees on my Swift Serendipity. Thunder rattled close by as I moved downstream to the "tree pool". Another four 'bows, in the 16 inch club, smacked that Serendipity. But then the skies opened up, the lightning flashed and I was out of there.

I saw something last night that I have seen on occasion on the Swift. A trout will make a beeline of over five feet to take a fly. We have been taught that trout really need to have that subsurface offering bounced off of their nose but that is not the case. The bow TRAVELED to take the tiny serendipity. It was great to see it in that skinny water!

High Summer will slowly drift into Late Summer and then into Early Fall. Swift Serendipities and Pinheads will will get the job done as the seasons slowly change on the Swift. It will be a great time!!

Ken

The Swift And Thoughts On HOT Weather Fishing

First, The Swift - Everything is RIGHT! The July 1st stockers have wised up and the days of double digit catches of 12 inch or better bows are now, for me, a memory. I fished the PIPE and below starting at 5:45 Sunday morning and took ten bows but all were in the six to eight inch range. It was a far cry from the Sunday before. That's fly fishing. Next time will be better!!

Now for the topic that seems to have taken over some blogs this Summer and that's if it is ETHICAL to fish during heat waves on freestone rivers. Here's how I feel.

One can go out on the Millers or any similar river when the temperatures are in the 90's, fish the pools and runs that you had great success on during April, May and June and you will NOT have a detrimental effect on the trout population for one simple reason: YOU will not catch ANY trout!!!

There's a reason for that. I am still amazed that there are those out there that still believe that trout must constantly feed to maintain vitality to survive and that the catching of trout in mid Summer will weaken them. The "science" is below.

Trout are cold blooded animals, their metabolism is based on their SURROUNDINGS, namely the temperature of the water that they live in. They have a temperature ZONE that is optimal for their metabolism. Take this example - You're fishing your favorite pool (if you can) on the last week of February, hoping for holdovers, and if you catch anything, while fishing slow and deep, it will be an event!! Why?? Because the trout, in that 35 degree water, are in slow mode because of the temperature and do not require that much food. I worked in a trout hatchery 20+ years ago and the time of slowest growth and less food consumption was during the Winter. Their "motors" are not in second gear yet. They are not active because of the temperature and don't require much food, pure and simple.

Now forward cast to the second week in May. The water temperature is in the mid 50's, we are catching trout on EVERYTHING, and we are all experts. Why is that? It's because trout, in that low 50 to mid 60 degree range, are at their most active behavior. So is everything that they feed on. It all depends on water temperature for most trout. That temperature range is their comfort range.

The heat wave and July drought that we have experienced will kill off any worthwhile fishing. You may catch a FEW but not the numbers that you did a month and a half ago and that will not be detrimental to the whole population because the trout are not actively feeding. The bulk of the trout population has found a place to hunker down to make it through the Summer. They will not respond to you.

Robert Behnke, maybe the world's foremost authority on trout, has stated that the greatest cause of natural trout mortality on freestone streams is WINTER kill, not Summer kill.

Many of you will say that "You fish the Millers during the Summer". That's RIGHT! I fish during NORMAL Summer weather. I didn't fish the Millers in 2010 from the end of June to late August. It was too hot and dry. In normal Summers I will fish as long as it isn't too hot and dry and I catch trout (browns) in the evening. There's a reason for that.

Browns handle warmer water better than rainbows and brookies in the Millers. I've seen dozens of browns rising (they are feeding) at dusk in July and August after a normal Summer day especially when there is a healthy (normal) flow. That's why I am pushing for more browns on this river. They will survive the weather and US. They swim away strongly when released because they adjust to this river nicely.

Behnke spoke of this ability to adjust (over many centuries) when he spoke of catching a high country desert population of rainbows that rose to dry flies and swam away briskly in 83 degree water!! Millers River browns don't need centuries to adjust, just a few months on the Millers.

One person said to me that he stopped fishing when the water temperature hit 65 degrees. Too bad. No science there!

Ken

Summer On The Swift - Low And Cold

It felt like ice water or as cold as 54 degree water can feel at 6am on the Swift this past Saturday. The flow had dropped from the 120+ range to the high 40cfs flow which brought the temperature down as predicted. This is my favorite time on this river; skinny cold flows, small flies and thin tippets. It's how I always think of the Swift.

I was the first at the PIPE except for the blue heron that was intent on the flow below that outflow. I settled into the "tree pool", had made a cast or two and lost one fish, when two other anglers appeared above and below me. Five minutes later three more showed up so I went downstream to the first set of riffles. You find yourself casting under trees here but it was great. The 'bows grabbed my serendipity and that 20 yard section yielded a number of them.

The great section around the gauge yielded two rainbows and the PIPE brought four or five 6 inch bows, most likely recent escapees. All told I took about 15 fish from in that three hour span.

Serendipities and hot spots did the trick. It was fun!!

Ken

A Strange Night On The Millers

It may have been the world's largest comparadun!! I was crossing the trestle Saturday evening when I saw something swimming downstream towards me. At first I thought it was a beaver BUT beavers don't have long ears or a long snout. It was a young deer, not a fawn but no more than a yearling. It came out from under the bridge where I snapped the photo. I've seen deer in this river before but they were the unlucky ones that drowned in winter or spring or were walking cross in the shallows. In any event it swam another 100 feet and then hopped up onto the shore.

The Fishing: I started at the bottom end of the C&R in Erving. I like this place because the tree cover shades this stretch during the day which means that things usually start earlier. They did. I noticed the rise behind a rock and then dropped a #12 MDW just above that spot. The 14 inch brown took it and was soon in the net. Another brown, slightly small, did a repeat performance further downstream.

I ended the evening at the Kempfield where I saw one rising brown but failed to get it to take. Blind casting to the rocks resulted in a another brown taken on a #12 stonefly dry.

Then another strange thing happened. I heard a splash to my left right up next to the bank. I figured that it must be a bass chasing something only to be surprised to see a brown, 14 to 16 inches, CLEAR the water six inches from the shore. What was he chasing? Minnows, crayfish, some thing that moves quickly obviously. It was a nice show but I wish that he was in midstream taking mayflies instead.

Try the Erving Center Stretch. It's a good place.