Dry Flies On June Evenings

From December to early April we dream of these evenings. These are the times of warm days that blend into sublime evenings that bring us to that magic moment: RISING TROUT!! We are at the high point of that season. There are many over lapping mayfly hatches to keep us on our toes. Let's look at two evenings. The EB on June 16 - That crystal clear, blue bird sky didn't promise me a lot when I arrived on this river. Browns, my favorite game, are light sensitive and will wait until the sun is off the water most of the time. Sure, I could of fished nymphs BUT dry flies are my favorite on this river. I started working the fast water with a #10 stimulator and took two bows before I saw the telltale signs of browns beginning to work in the deeper runs. My olive snowshoe emerger rose five and I landed three. One brown, a freight train, took off and couldn't be turned. It is now a great memory!! The PIPE on June 18 - Plenty of cars by the Y Pool lot AT 5PM but ZERO at the Pipe lot. Why?? I've caught plenty of trout here over the last two months and have published the results. Are we so hooked on "flyfishing only" that we ignore other areas? I like to fish above RT 9 BUT below RT 9 is so much more interesting. Here's what happened. I got there at 5pm and had an hour and a half to fish. I caught two on a #22 pinhead before the hatch started. I'll call it that cream cahill that I mentioned last week. It's not a sulphur!! A fellow was down at the Tree Pool working rising fish while I cast a #16 tan parachute into the fast water at and below the Pipe. I hooked five and landed three crazy bows. I can't see the dry while fishing upstream (too much glare at that time of day) so I got across from the Pipe and "checked" my downstream cast to give plenty on slack line to insure a drag free float. God only knows how many trout I could have caught if I didn't have to leave! The official start of Summer is this week and it's my favorite time of year. The Swift runs cold and clear and now ants and beetles are in the mix for this little gem. The browns of the Millers and NOW the browns of the EB of the Westfield will work their twilight magic if the rivers stay somewhat full. I have spent 40 years working our rivers for twilight trout!! The memories of these rivers and those wonderful fish will sustain you on a cold, January evening!! Don't miss this time. It is FLY FISHING!! Ken

EB Browns And A short Evening On The Swift

It pays to live close to good trout streams. I'm 15 minutes from Chesterfield Gorge on the EB, 25 minutes from the Swift and 40 minutes from the Millers. The EB is the closest and gets a lot of my evening attention. It's a good, quick fix! This river is loaded with BROWNS!! I took nine trout last evening and seven were browns and all were on dries. I was fishing the Bliss Pool and the two bows were caught in the fast water at the head of the Pool. The browns were taken only in the calmer mid section of the pool. The bows took a large dry stonefly, the browns fell for what is becoming my favorite emerger pattern - Trela's snowshoe emerger. I used the March Brown style and it is deadly. The Browns - The EB has always had them but not in this number. I was told that the DFW stocked the EB with some "experimental" browns, whatever that means. In any event this should provide better Summer action if the rainbows don't cooperate. Browns fish best on very early mornings, evenings and on cloudy, overcast days. That's my experience. The Swift - stayed away last weekend and hit the pipe around 5pm on Monday as two fly fishers were leaving. It was cool with a heavy drizzle AND a heavy mayfly hatch just starting. The fly that was hatching is a bit of a mystery. It first appears in May, hatches all Summer with a peak in early August and then continues into October. It's about a size 14 and is of a dark tan color. It's not a sulphur as some have called it. It reminds me of the Cream Cahill as pictured in Tom Ames's book "Hatch Guide For New England Streams". Anyway, I tied on a tan Snowshoe Emerger and cast upstream into that small run below the Pipe. I took 5 before I had to leave. The Millers - 900 cfs as I write this. Hmmm...Let's hope for a week without rain. I may get ambitious and take some photos of a shoeshoe emerger and post them. Ken

The Rains - Again

I should have hit the Millers or the EB on June 1st. The rains came Friday night and continued for most of Saturday. As I write this on a sunny Sunday morning both rivers are running over 1200cfs. That leaves the Swift with it's placid 55cfs flow the only game in town. I'll work that river Monday evening. The EB will be the next since it rises like a rocket but then drops like a rock. The Millers?? Who knows. This river may actually rise for another day and then start a slow drop in flow. Let's hope that the week long forecast is WRONG. In any event it doesn't seem like a repeat of 2010, the driest Summer I've seen on that river in 25 years. Ken

Millers Update And The EB Too

On Thursday the 24th the Millers gauge at Erving read 565cfs at 5:00am. high but acceptable. I knew that the river was rising but didn't know that it crested at 760cfs at noon until I got home in the late afternoon. The fellow that I guided had multiple hits but few landed and that was because of the heavy flow. The area deserved a second chance. Friday morning I hit the Orcutt section. This place has never been a favorite section due to the heavy crowds. It is a very easy section to fish in high water and today there was only one other fly caster. One wades down the right side of the river and casts across. Normally this is a good technique but the flow was too heavy to fish it correctly. I waded across the flow until I was about between the center and right bridge supports looking upstream and then cast a #8 black WB into the calm water near the opposite bank. I took four large browns and two rainbows of the same weight class. These big fish dug deep and took some effort to get to the net. Now the Kempfield - The water is too high and I didn't want to bother the goose family that claimed the "Island" section which is still fishable. So I went down to the large pool at the end of the run, waded out on the sand bar as far as I could go and dropped that wb for a slow deep drift. I took two very healthy browns doing that. Personally I like light lines and lower water and today's fishing was something that I would consider for Patriot's Day but not Memorial Day Weekend. There is no rain in the forecast so this river will (hopefully) drop by Sunday and Monday. THE EB - It is loaded with fish but success has been spotty. I took a few in a few hours. It will get better soon. The fish are there!! Ken

Saturday On The Swift

I really wanted to fish the Millers but that river was running at 1100cfs due to that mid week squall line. The EB had recovered nicely but it would be playing host to the annual TU picnic. Way too crowded for me. So 7:45 am found me just below the Y Pool on the Swift. One can have uncrowded conditions at the Y Pool if one gets there early as I have done the past two weekends. One can have GREAT midge fishing if you get there early and have the right flies. A size 26 brown thread emerger with a CDC wing brought 7 rises with 5 bows landed. It was a perfect morning. It was sunny, warm and my first day fishing in shirt sleeves since last October. Summer is just beginning!! Ken

The Millers, the EB, And Posting Guidelines

First things first. The Lower C&R of the Millers (the important part) will be stocked this Friday, May 11, if all goes to plan. The EB of the Westfield (Chesterfield Gorge and below) will be stocked this week because of the TU Indian Hollow event starting on the 18th from what I gather. The "good fishing" (remote fishing with no crowds) starts after the TU event. Posting - I, as mentioned by enough of the regular posters, have had enough of the cowards who throw garbage under the safety of the label "Anonymous". Put your name on it if you really mean it. Better yet, take the simple step and register as a google member. It's easy. Going forward anyone who posts "Anonymous" without a name will be tossed. Posting "Anonymous" with a "name" but sending an incendiary bomb will also be tossed. This is not some politically correct website. I (and thankfully "we" - the fly fishers that follow this forum) want timely up-to-date reports on these three rivers: The Millers, The EB of the Westfield and the Swift. It has expanded to other Massachusetts rivers if the reports on the East Branch of the Swift and the Quinapoxet are any indication. This is a very good thing. It's a network of Massachusetts Fly Fishers wanting to know where the trout fishing is good. No guarantees, just some reports. This blog started in 1997 to highlight the Millers because nobody else wanted to do that. It has expanded with hundreds of fly fishers logging in each day to see some reports and to get some discussion related to our endeavor. I can only fish so many rivers so how about some reports from around this State and around New England? I have been beating the drum for the Millers for years but have never been crowded out even with the increased popularity. Mention a river, without a certain section if you like, and tell us how things are. Ken

Browns For The Millers

Here's the latest on the brown trout stocking for the Millers: Friday, May 4 for the Bears Den C&R Section. Let's hope that they spread them out. Friday, May 11 for the Lower C@R (Wendell Depot). Let's hope that they spread them out. "Spreading them out" is important. When I ran this program I made sure that browns were distributed evenly. Last year I saw fly fishers standing in ankle deep water at the Kempfield pool catching dozens of trout BECAUSE that's where they put them. Browns do not move around a lot. Spread them evenly, let them find their spot and we will all have a great fishing experience. It's the challenge and not the numbers that we are after, right?? Ken