My Tiny Rods And Goodbye 2022

  "I strongly suspect that much of what we believe about a particular fly rod has little basis in reality. If you're shopping for a fly rod I can think of no greater waste of your time than watching the plethora of "fly rod shoot-outs" that glut the channels of YouTube. Nothing irks me more than to listen to some dweeb prattle on about the performance pros and cons of two rods when he's obviously not a good enough caster to do either one justice". -  George V. Roberts, - Acquisitions Manager, Tail Magazine and Casting Instructor

A few years ago my friend Brad nudged me into buying a short rod, namely the CGR 5ft 9 inch by Cabela's. I hated it from the start. It had the action of a buggy whip and that's what killed it for me.  I played with the possibility of selling it but a strange quirk in my personality keeps me from letting go of any fly rod. So it went into the closet and stayed there for a few years.

Then I revisited this little blue line from my past and decided to give this rod a workout. Cabela's labeled this a 3wt but I rigged it with a Wulff Triangle 2wt and that did the trick. I was able to keep my back cast out of the trees by just roll casting. (Triangle tapers are roll casting machines) This rig may force the retirement of my Tenkara rods which are a pain in the ass on brush chocked streams. The shorter rod with the appropriate sized reel makes landing the trout easy compared to Tenkara.

I'm working on a 6 foot bamboo rod to play on the same streams. Can't wait until May.

2022

This was not a good year on the fishing front.  Let's hope for less extreme weather in 2023.  A year or two without droughts and floods would be nice.

Happy New Year!

Ken

Merry Christmas!!

  "No fly rod at any price is going to magically transform you into a Lefty Kreh or a Joan Wulff any more than a Stradivarius is going to turn your middle school violin student into Itzhak Perlman. And make no mistake: Itzhak Perlman could pick up a yard sale fiddle and extract soulful Tchaikovsky from it". - George Roberts, Tail Fly Fishing Magazine

It's been a strange year. The bone breaking drought last summer pretty much took the fun out of fishing my freestones and I can only take so much of the tailwater scene with the crowds and the rafts. My saltwater campaign was the worst I've ever had. (note to self: do more scouting). 

Fly tying carried me through the summer. As I've said to many that I've guided if I couldn't fly fish any longer I'd still tie flies!!

Merry Christmas, or whatever Holiday you celebrate, and have a very good New Year!!

Ken

Real Blue Lines

  "Trout are among those creatures who are one hell of a lot prettier than they need to be. They can get you wondering about the hidden workings of reality"

We hear a lot about "thin blue lines" but what exactly are they?  Here's my definition: it is a tiny watercourse that may or may not have a name and is not on the DFW stocking list. This last bit of criteria strikes a lot of gems from the list because the DFW just can't help themselves from stocking a lot of these streams with hatchery brookies and at times with rubber rainbows!

Who fishes these streams?  Well, hardly anyone to be truthful. I will mention the stream name and favorite spots on well known streams but never, ever mention or give the name and location of a thin blue line.

If you just bought a $1000 dollar fly rod you will not be seen on a thin blue line because you will not be able to show it off as you would on the Farmington. Tenkara rods, where there is no leafy canopy, and glass rods where there's a lot of underbrush, rule the day. In fact, thin blue lines demand simplicity in equipment and approach.

We could vastly improve the quality of life for self sustaining brook trout AND self sustaining brown trout populations just by stopping the stocking on these small streams.

BTW, beavers are important to wild trout survival.  A few years ago some local TU'ers declared war on those dam builders. I had a wildlife biologist from Maine declare that if beavers were harmful to wild brookies then Maine wouldn't have any wild brookies!!  Enough said!

Ken

Favorite Spots On The Millers

 "Lawyers are like nuclear weapons. By all rights they shouldn't exist, but if some people have them, then you'd better have one too, just in case." John Gierach

I've been fishing this river for 38 years so I know something about it. I know that this river, like all freshly stocked freestones, fishes well in the Spring but really hits it's stride at dusk on a Summer evening. I would want to find myself on the Upper Trestle Pool or the Kempfield Pool, either one will do and it's all surface action.  

Don't forget morning fishing and I mean EARLY morning and that's getting on the river before 4am. (I used to live 10 minutes from the river so it was easy). This is a summer time activity because the water will be the coolest at this time of day and the surface feeding will be heavy over a short window. At 4am the water is boiling with fish but by 6am the sun is up and it's over!!

Fishing in low light means you need a fly that can be seen like the one shown above.

The Millers is a brown trout river and throwing in rainbows is a waste of time. I worked with the DFW in sampling this river in early September (twice) and all we found were browns!!!!!

Ken

Happy Thanksgiving

 Only 127 days until April 1st

Happy Thanksgiving To All of You!!!

Ken

Tweaking A Wet Fly: The Millers Flymph

 

Two wrongs do not make a right but three do! - Anonymous

Well, the dark season is upon us and I don't like it. I've done a lot of Winter fly fishing but it was only to have something to do. No way would I give up a balmy day in May to trudge through snow and ice to wet a fly.  The great flyfishing publisher Nick Lyons once said that yes, there can be great midge fishing in Winter, but he needed the downtime of Winter and the thoughts of Spring to recharge himself.  Nothing wrong with that!

Then there's fly tying. Earlier this Fall I stated that there is no fly tying season for me because I tie all year long. During the "season" I'm busy tying inventory but in the Winter I get to experiment.  I've come up with the Millers Flymph.

Hook - light wire scud hook sizes 12 through 16

Thread - 8/0 brown

Tail (that's right) very sparse partridge fibers

Body - brown ice dubbing (don't go to the hook eye with the body but to about where the wing would be.)

Hackle - partridge (three turns)

Head - a few turns of ice dubbing again slightly pushing back the hackles.

This fly is like a soft hackle on steroids and imitates all those bigger mayflies and caddis of Spring.  I'll be stocked up by the time April rolls around.

Ken

Brook Trout Study On The Swift

 

Please read the following:

HI Ken - as per your recent discussions of the Swift and its wild brookies this from the GBTU chapter: PVTU Embrace a Stream Project The Swift River tailwater in Central Massachusetts is the premier wild Brook Trout fishery in Southern New England and is fished by TU members from all ten TU chapters in Massachusetts including many from GBTU. The Swift River holds up to 4000 wild brook trout per river mile, estimated by MassWildlife. Yet, Brook Trout have not been stocked in nearly 40 years. It is a virtually accidental wild fishery, created after the damming of the Swift River and the creation of Quabbin Reservoir. Pioneer Valley Trout Unlimited has been awarded an Embrace-a-Stream Grant to study the population density, movement, mortality, recruitment and growth of these wild fish. Partners include the MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWlidlife) and the Massachusetts Outdoor Heritage Foundation. The core method of this study is the use of PIT tag technology, supervised by the MassWildlife and implemented with the help of TU volunteers. The Project will provide metrics on fishery status and viability and develop better strategies to protect Brook Trout and their environment. This study, at a total cost of $36,500, will inform not only cold-water fisheries professionals, anglers, and advocates, but the general public that support the preservation of this unique heritage. The PVTU goal for this fundraiser is $12,500 to complete the needed funding. Please support this project with a donation this week (November 7- 13) to maximize the match that PVTU will receive from TU National

Finally, we have some action on the wild brook trout population on the Swift, action that is long overdue. Let me correct a few statements mentioned above. 1. The Swift is the Premier brook trout fishery in not only Southern New England but maybe all of New England. 2. Yes, it is a tailwater (artificial) fishery BUT no other New England tailwater matches it's ability to produce large brookies. 3. It's fame is not just local as I have guided fly fishers from up and down the eastern seaboard, the mid west and Europe. They had all heard of the Swift.

Now, why did I include the photo of the monster brown from the Swift.?  That's just to remind everyone that we should be taking care of these trout too. I know that they are not NATIVE (They are European origin) but they capture the minds of all fly fishers and have coexisted with brookies in this river for decades. They are the perfect apex predator. They are needed to keep the brookies at a healthy level.

If both species are to be studied to improve their stream environment then I totally support this action and you should too.