TR: Batten Kill

I spent the past weekend up in the Arlington / Manchester area in
Vermont. The weather was close and hot (88F) so we stayed on
tributaries upon arriving Saturday afternoon.

As an aside, this whole area is currently the throes of a tent
caterpillar infestation. Thousands of acres across a swath of the
lower mountains are bare. The trees in the valley also are hit to
some extent and you can see hundreds of these caterpillars on a
single trunk of a maple or oak. The river is littered with leaf
cuttings and the ground with their turds.

Also I noticed a large population of house fly that buzzes around you
annoyingly, which I assume is prospering on the prevalence carcass,
or turd. It is a temporary manifestation, but last year was the worst
in the 38 years (14,000 acres affected) and this year seems to have
outdone it, so some trees may not develop secondary growth. Leaf
peepers may be disappointed this year.

Sadly, I am lead to believe tent caterpillars are toxic to trout, so
they ignore them.

Anyway, myself and my partner fished a nice Taconic spring fed trib
and I had a dozen brookies to my name in the first couple of hours on
a caddis. The water temp was about 68F which is high for a spring fed
stream, but great for wet wading. Great fun with my 1 oz 6' for a #2.

After getting a cold drink we visited another trib, this time on the
Green Mountain side, so more acid. Walking to the bridge where you
can get in we noticed a half dozen fish including one fat brookie, an
easy 14 inches. They were rising steadily and the brookie was in her
stride, as she did not really spook to our appearance. There were a
few duns and spinners in the air, but we could not see what the fish
were on.

The other side of the bridge was a nice brown nearly 15 inches, but
spooked easy. Further downstream there was a lot of rising fish. It
reminded me of tricos.

When I got in I saw the reason. There was a spinner fall of massive
proportions. I could not ID the fly and tried to match it with a
light tan spinner, mahogany spinner to no avail.

My partner knows the hatches much better than me and he correctly
identified it as the Gray Drake, or Siphlonurus occidentalis. This is
a rare hatch in the Northeast, observed on the Batten Kill, Saco,
Farmington and the Swift. It's interesting because there are no duns
on the water, the nymph swimming to the bank, but the spinners are
thick and will fall so long as the temperature is over 65F (else the
females take a rain check and try again the following day). Google
reveals this to be an important western hatch on the Yellowstone, so
I am sure other Roffians can speak to it.

My partner gave me the fly he tied last year when he unsuccessfully
sought out this hatch and my first cast takes a 10" brookie way short
of the target I was mending line for. The spinner fall lasted over 3
hours and I had over a dozen more fish and all over them in the 8 to
12 inch range. One memorable hook up was at 20 yards out on my 6
weight, which swelled my head at little. My partner complimented me,
but he took honors for the largest brookie.

Truly fantastic trout fishing, and if you put aside the size of the
fish, just about as perfect a dry fly fishing experience and you can
have anywhere in the world.

That evening we hit the main stem of the Batten Kill. We noticed the
river up and off color. By 8:45pm I knew the place we selected was
wrong, but it was too late to move. So instead we watched the
cahills, sulphurs, yellow sallies and caddis hatch thick and fast,
unmolested by trout.

Next day we rose around 5am and tried streamer fishing, but the river
seemed up more and maybe even more off color. We assumed
thunderstorms from previous evenings were the reason, because the
river was also warm, around 70F, which seems too early (the Batten
Kill rarely ever exceeds 70F). I thought it was better to find
flatter water to see if the fish would move to the caddis that were
now hatching. We fished below Benedict's Crossing to the famous
Atherton pool and my partner picked up two to my zero.

Around 9 we had breakfast at the State Line diner in NY and checked
out the Dutchman's Hole (where the largest Batten Kill trout was
taken) and the Spring Hole. We fooled around with some risers but no
hits. So after that it was to the Green River, an important trib to
the Kill. Running at 60F, this chalk stream earns its name from the
underlying rocks of chalk and the mineral rich water. It was running
60F, but we were unable to scare up anything.

By now it was noon and extremely humid and hot. So we decided to call
it a day as it would be a long wait to the evening hatch and a big
question mark on us even seeing fish.

Still, it was a superb weekend that the Batten Kill is wont to
occasionally give up to us, its most hardened addicts.

GaryM wrote:
snip
Still, it was a superb weekend that the Batten Kill is wont to
occasionally give up to us, its most hardened addicts.

Sweet. I drool in your general direction.
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

Gary. Thanks for the report. We're planning on basing out of Arlington for
a few days at the end of the month. Good to have an idea of how the fishing
is shaping up.

--
Stev Lenon 91B20 '68-'69
When the dawn came up like thunder

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/stevglo/i...age92kword.htm

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:28:16 -0400, GaryM
wrote:

I spent the past weekend up in the Arlington / Manchester area in
Vermont. The weather was close and hot (88F) so we stayed on
tributaries upon arriving Saturday afternoon.

As an aside, this whole area is currently the throes of a tent
caterpillar infestation. Thousands of acres across a swath of the
lower mountains are bare. The trees in the valley also are hit to
some extent and you can see hundreds of these caterpillars on a
single trunk of a maple or oak. The river is littered with leaf
cuttings and the ground with their turds.

Also I noticed a large population of house fly that buzzes around you
annoyingly, which I assume is prospering on the prevalence carcass,
or turd. It is a temporary manifestation, but last year was the worst
in the 38 years (14,000 acres affected) and this year seems to have
outdone it, so some trees may not develop secondary growth. Leaf
peepers may be disappointed this year.

Actually the flies are a major parasite to and control agent of tent
caterpillars.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/treecare/...iendlyfly.html


*rest of excellent TR snipped*


g.c.

George Cleveland wrote in
:

Actually the flies are a major parasite to and control agent of
tent caterpillars.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/treecare/.../friendlyfly.h
tml


*rest of excellent TR snipped*


Thank you for that information, George. I definitely connected the
two phenomena -- just presumed the symbiotic bit incorrectly. By the
way, I did find this line a little amusing:

"Unlike other flies which can be shoo'd away, friendly flies must be
brushed away."

Like wtf is the difference? ... I mean it's a fly we're talking
about. Sounds like something that guy Red Something-or-other who does
everything with duct tape, might say.

Southeastern Mass has had about 40,000 acres affected by tent
caterpillars. I am sure the acreage is larger for Vermont. My neck of
the woods, i.e. beyond I-495 has been untouched for some reason.

Gary

On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 22:09:43 -0400, GaryM
wrote:


"Unlike other flies which can be shoo'd away, friendly flies must be
brushed away."

Like wtf is the difference? ... I mean it's a fly we're talking
about. Sounds like something that guy Red Something-or-other who does
everything with duct tape, might say.



Regular (house flies) will hang around just for the heck of it. Horse
flies will hang around, sneak onto your body, and then bite a big
(compared to their size) hunk out of you. Either will tend to back
off if you swing at them (horse flies will quickly sneak back).
Friendly flies want to be close and personal to you. They want to
land on you and sit a while and explore your body (generally below the
knees, but some get more adventurous). They just stay on you until
you brush them off by actually touching and pushing them. Or spray
them and yourself with DEET. I did that once when I looked down at my
legs and saw they had me covered like knee high wool socks. I freaked
and DEETed all the poor harmless creatures. Now I just brush when
they get too annoying.

They seem to be an up north thing. I've never noticed them farther
south than Duluth in MN or Merrill in WI.

I don't know what they get from us. Maybe little sips of sweat?
Whatever it is, they like it a lot.

Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
email: lid (strip the .invalid to email)