Flies For Very Cold Water In Spring (in Mass.) ?

[Robert11]

Hello:

Won't be long now.

Was wondering: for Mass. rivers like the Deerfield and Quinnapoxet, what do
you folks
use in the way of flies for the very early Spring, when the water is still
very cold ?

Are nymphs the thing to try ? Deep ?
midges ?
streamers?

Thanks,
Bob

[George Adams]

Most productive early season flies in MA are:
Wooly Buggers (olive or black)
Glo Bugs
Prince

Fish these on the bottom, natural drift. You can give the buggers an occasional
twitch and retrieve slowly at the end of the drift.

Streamers fished deep will work when the water warms a bit (over 40 deg). Here
again deep and slow is the ticket. My favorite patterns are Grey Ghost, Black
Ghost, Colonel Bates, and Magog Smelt.

Bearing in mind that MA is mostly put and take, fishing will be pretty slow
until the stocking starts, and flows on the Deerfield are likely to be pretty
high.


George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller

[George Adams]

>From: (George Adams)

Addendum to previous post:

I forgot to mention midges. In years past, I have had some very good days in
the early season fishing for holdovers and natives in the Swift, with #20 - #24
Griffith Gnats to rising fish and #18 - #22 thread larvae underneath. When I
say early season, I mean Jan - March on warm (40+) days. Never tried them on
the Deerfield or Quinie.


George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller