Short TR : Thanks TimJ

"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."

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.

"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?

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