Short TR : Thanks TimJ

[GaryM]

Friday was a great day to take a day off and go fishing. West Central
Mass was a bit past peak in color, but still glorious. Met Tim at the
Mickey Ds near George's house. He took me to a tributary of the Swift
that was a promising spot, but still a bit high to offer good
fishing. Noted for the future though.

Tim generously put me on some of his favorite water on the Swift,
which, while not quite impossible to find, still was not obvious to
the occasional visitor. At one spot I was swinging a muddler through
fast water, when it was taken viciously. A quick shake of the head
and it was gone. All a good guide can do is put you on fish. It's up
to the angler to make it happen, which in this case I didn't. I
believe this would have been a worthy fish and not a rock as Tim
opined.

After that, it was off the secret spot, which was as abstract a place
as always is. George was there already, but was just leaving. I am
sure the same people were standing in the same spots from my visit
the previous Sunday; that is, clustered around the outflow from the
hatchery.

Tiny flies filled the air and the number ebbed and flowed for the
hour or so that we were there. #32 midges George told me were
working. The flies were spinners (I think) as the water was covered
with these tiny white dots. But the fish were on them and I had
nothing that size to compete. One person above me, who was having
success, kept pounding the same spot over and over. His technique
consisted of letting the fly drift no more than 6 inches over this
one spot before whipping it off the water and putting it back again.
Does the fish just get so mesmerized by this that caution takes a
back seat and learning mode kicks in, transforming an artificial into
a hatch?

My whole time at the secret spot there was a 16" rainbow at my feet,
who fed unperturbed. Occasionally I would flick my line a leader
length upstream and watch how, 6 feet from his nose, he would side-
step it with an arrogant lean to left, like some troutish Frenchman's
Wave. That's the secret spot in a nutshell :).

Tim showed me one more spot where I finally got a 10 inch rainbow
and saved the day ... Stan was missed.

Thanks again, Tim, for sharing some gorgeous water.

Gary

[Tim J.]

GaryM typed:
<snip>
> Thanks again, Tim, for sharing some gorgeous water.

Hey - that was a lot of fun. We couldn't have ordered better weather, and
the water wasn't bad (although it treated me badly.) I'd like to get down to
where the secret brook meets the secret river. I'm guessing there'd be some
good fishing there.

Did you get out Sunday?
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj/

[GaryM]

"Tim J." > wrote in
:


> Did you get out Sunday?

No the fog kept me home. It was going to be family day anyway, but I
was going to run down to that spot with a black muddler ...

[George Adams]

GaryM wrote:
> Friday was a great day to take a day off and go fishing. West Central
> Mass was a bit past peak in color, but still glorious. Met Tim at the
> Mickey Ds near George's house. He took me to a tributary of the Swift
> that was a promising spot, but still a bit high to offer good
> fishing. Noted for the future though.
>
> Tim generously put me on some of his favorite water on the Swift,
> which, while not quite impossible to find, still was not obvious to
> the occasional visitor. At one spot I was swinging a muddler through
> fast water, when it was taken viciously. A quick shake of the head
> and it was gone. All a good guide can do is put you on fish. It's up
> to the angler to make it happen, which in this case I didn't. I
> believe this would have been a worthy fish and not a rock as Tim
> opined.
>
> After that, it was off the secret spot, which was as abstract a place
> as always is. George was there already, but was just leaving. I am
> sure the same people were standing in the same spots from my visit
> the previous Sunday; that is, clustered around the outflow from the
> hatchery.
>
> Tiny flies filled the air and the number ebbed and flowed for the
> hour or so that we were there. #32 midges George told me were
> working. The flies were spinners (I think) as the water was covered
> with these tiny white dots. But the fish were on them and I had
> nothing that size to compete. One person above me, who was having
> success, kept pounding the same spot over and over. His technique
> consisted of letting the fly drift no more than 6 inches over this
> one spot before whipping it off the water and putting it back again.
> Does the fish just get so mesmerized by this that caution takes a
> back seat and learning mode kicks in, transforming an artificial into
> a hatch?
>
> My whole time at the secret spot there was a 16" rainbow at my feet,
> who fed unperturbed. Occasionally I would flick my line a leader
> length upstream and watch how, 6 feet from his nose, he would side-
> step it with an arrogant lean to left, like some troutish Frenchman's
> Wave. That's the secret spot in a nutshell :).
>
> Tim showed me one more spot where I finally got a 10 inch rainbow
> and saved the day ... Stan was missed.
>
> Thanks again, Tim, for sharing some gorgeous water.
>
> Gary

It was good to see you and Tim on Friday....wish I could have stayed
longer.
The technique you described where the guy was making many short casts
is often employed when there are a large number of naturals on the
water. The idea is to get the fly in front of the target fish when he
is ready to take, and the more casts, the better your chances,
providing you don't spook the fish. I fished the same area on Saturday,
and there were tiny grey midges, and a large hatch of tiny BWO's. These
were the really small olives, size #28 - #32, with a very dark body. I
had some success with a #26 sparsly tied black midge, but did much
better in the run where you saw me fishing on Friday, catching several
nice rainbows and a good brown on a #24 PT Nymph.

[GaryM]

"George Adams" > wrote in
oups.com:

> The idea is to get the fly in front of the target fish when he
> is ready to take, and the more casts, the better your chances,
> providing you don't spook the fish.

I usually don't get that many chances at a rising trout. The guy was
whipping the fly off audibly and it did not seem to matter. Those fish
seem to key in on the hatch, but on other rivers, a bad drift could
mean the last you'll ever see of that fish. A nice lady commented to me
at the SS last Sunday, "You could drop a piano in here and it wouldn't
bother the fish."

[George Adams]

True enough. When the fish there are keyed in on a hatch, even a canoe
floating directly over them only puts them down for a minute or so. A
bird flying low over the water will spook them, but not for long. They
are simply too used to people being around, thus the success of the
technique you described. If that is the same lady I think it was, she
caught a 23" brown in there about a month ago.

[GaryM]

"George Adams" > wrote in
oups.com:

> True enough. When the fish there are keyed in on a hatch, even a
> canoe floating directly over them only puts them down for a minute
> or so. A bird flying low over the water will spook them, but not
> for long. They are simply too used to people being around, thus
> the success of the technique you described. If that is the same
> lady I think it was, she caught a 23" brown in there about a month
> ago.
>

Apart from pellet hatches and the clustered folks around the outflow
pipe, do you think the hatchery has a detrimental effect on the river
from, especially from a polluation standpoint? It is pretty sterile as
I am sure the Quabbin is basically dead at this stage. Does that
account for these small hatches?

[George Adams]

The hatches are much heavier below the hatchery, mainly because of the
fertility of the water there. That is why the fish tend to hold in that
section, and why most of them are in such good shape. Prior to the
construction of settling ponds to collect most of the solid waste, raw
waste from the hatchery used to flow directly into the river. At that
time, there wasn't much activity at the outflow, but there were some
amazing sulphur hatches further downstream. There were many evenings
when there were so many naturals on the water, that it was nearly
useless to fish. So in answer to your question, the hatchery does add
some "pollution" to the river, but it increases the fertility, and
thus, the insect activity. Hatches above the outflow tend to be sparse
and brief, except in the outflow from below the Quabbin dam where it
feeds the Y Pool.

Next spring, say late April to mid May, try fishing below the Secret
Spot in the Cady Lane area. If the water is at a normal level there
should be some Hendrickson activity, and a few really nice holdover
browns will be feeding there along with the native brookies and a few
stockies