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| Trevor holding 20" of wild brown trout |
Thank goodness the hot weather is breaking and we will see highs 72-80 over the next several days, with lows in the low 60s. This past weekend was brutally hot (mid/upper 90s & sunny, no wind, hot nights), it's a good thing our dam is pumping out water in the 50s (56 degrees at Rt 20 bridge in Riverton at 8am). Many nice trout were caught last week and over the weekend. Needhami #22-26 are hatching in the mornings, and the Sulfur hatch is smaller (#18-20) and moving upriver- not sure of the downstream limit, but I'd say Campground to the dam is a safe bet. Still seeing Isonychia, various Caddis, and assorted cream mayflies in the eves/at dusk, and that's still the peak time of day to fish dries over rising trout. The dam continues to release cool water, which is the reason why this fishery is so good and continues throughout the summertime. The
Riverton USGS gauge (located at the Rt 20 Hitccock/Riverton Self
Storage bridge) is reading 56 degrees this morning at 8am. The Still River runs hot in
the summer, but it's coming in as a trickle so it's not warming up the
water below where it comes in. You have quite a few miles of water below
the dam in the mid 50s into the mid/upper 60s to choose from before
you starting hitting 70 degree water. A good
summer strategy is decide what the furthest downstream you want to fish,
and start there in the morning to catch the lowest water temps, and
then spend late morning through dark somewhere roughly between the Rt
219 bridge in New Hartford and the dam in Riverton (roughly a 10 mile
stretch). When fishing downriver in
Canton/Collinsville/Unionville, check water temps with a thermometer,
and venture upstream to cooler water when the water temps exceed the
upper 60s.
We
get lots of feedback from both successful & unsuccessful customers,
so I'll summarize what those doing the best are doing. The theme with
dry flies during the mornings through early evenings is either tiny
flies on light tippets (think #22-28 on 7x with a long piece of tippet
to promote a drag-free float), or various terrestrials (especially ants
& beetles, sometimes smaller hoppers). You can also blind fish
riffles, pocket water, etc. with attractor dries like Mini Chernoblyls,
Stimulators, etc. Other than evenings, mornings & afternoons mostly
you will find sipping trout feeding on minutae in the flat water- it
could be Needhami, smaller Winter Caddis, Midges, tiny Mayflies, Micro
Caddis, ants, etc. If you can find holding water in the shade, that's
also a big plus. Evenings see the bulk of the heavy insect hatching,
with all sorts of bugs, Sulfurs (upriver now), assorted cream-colored
Mayflies, Isonychia, Attenuata, various Caddis, and more. Dry/Dropper
can be a fun way to fish now:
use a bigger buoyant dry (like a Mini Chernobyl or big Isonychia) and
drop a #16-18 tungsten bead nymph 1-3' below the dry. Most fish will
take the nymph, but you will get some bonus fish on the dry also. Tie
the nymph off the hook bend. Run it closer (12-18") to the dry during
insect activity or in shallow water, run it further apart (2-3') in
deep water and during non-hatch periods. It's like the fun of dry fly
fishing, combined with the consistent effectiveness of nymphing. Plus it
allows you target fish at distance and not spook them. If you wanna
target big trout on the surface after dark, try a short/heavy leader
with a deer hair mouse pattern- make sure to bring a BIG landing net
with you...:)
If
you are nymphing (and you proably should be!), successful anglers are
finding that first light to mid morning sees big trout looking for big
Stonefly nymphs (#8-10) as they emerge in low light. Pair
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| Golden Stonefly Nymph pic by Brian Myers, it's whats for breakfast! |
them up with a
smaller nymph in the #18-20 range. In the summer, the average
nymph/larva is much smaller and often the key to a good day of nymphing
is just plain & simple going smaller on your flies. When the
Stonefly bite slows up in the mid/late AM trade it out for a #16 Caddis
pupa or some sort of attractor nymph, but make sure to keep the other
nymph small. Late afternoon to evening you can make your bigger fly a
#16 Sulfur/Yellow Sally nymph, Pheasant tail, attractor nymph or a #10-12 Isonychia
pattern. For the Isos think either a specific imitation, or a #12 Prince
or Pheasant Tail. Remember that Iso nymphs only live & hatch in faster water, don't waste your time with them in flat pool water.
Isos are typically the first mayfly to get active later in the day,
lately starting up around 7pm'ish (you can fish the nymphs and hour or
two before that though). When what you expect to work isn't producing,
dont' forget about Junk Flies like Mops, Squirmy Worms, and Green
Weenies, they aren't just for high/dirty water. As I've said before
many times in this report, wet flies & soft-hackles are another
great option, and if you scroll down a ways you will see some tips on
how to rig/fish them. When fishing subsurface, whether it's nymphs or
wets/,soft-hackles, make sure to cover plenty of water, and during the
daytime look for the shady bank.
Zach
St. Amand, a local guide and frequent flyer in our big fish pictures,
is putting together a trip with Andes Drifters to Patagonia for big wild
trout this winter, February 8-15, during the Willow Worm fall. Last I
knew he had 2 spots left, call him at 646-641-5618 to find out more
and/or do the trip.
Hot
weather means that generally the
best hatches (and fishing) are early and late in the day, when it's
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| Guide Dave Machowski and a pretty brown |
most
comfortable to be out. You can catch fish at anytime during the day, but
by far the best hatching & dry fly fishing is dusk to dark and beyond. Don't leave
early or you will miss out on the peak dry fly fishing. On
hot days the evening fishing may not really kick off until 8pm and peak
at darkness, earlier on cloudy/cooler eves. From
late morning to early evening, look for shade and you will find fish.
Isonychia
are one of the bugs that will hatch in the earlier part of the evening,
remember that they are BIG bugs that live and hatch in fast water, so
don't look for them in the slower pool water (think pool heads, riffles,
pocket water, faster runs). The Sulfur hatch is moving upriver, and it's more like a #18-20 now (Dorothea). Also seeing plenty of cream
mayflies (Light Cahills/Summer Stenos) at dusk in the #12-16 range,
standard Cahills & Usuals work well. We are also seeing Attenuata #18-20, they are a
small evening Mayfly that are often confused with Sulfurs. Attenuata
are a bright greenish-yellow, almost light chartreuse color. A
Rusty Spinner is a good "problem solver"
in the summer, and I also like to have spinners to imitate Sulfurs &
Cahills. Another good problem solver is a terrestrial imitation such as
a beetle or ant, especially when there aren't many bugs hatching but
you have some rising trout. Sometimes
wet flies/soft-hackles are the answer when the trout
are feeding just under the surface (that happens a lot, especially
during peak hatch activity in the eves)- present them both on the dead-drift and the swing/twitch. You can also run them as a trailer
behind a dry fly during a hatch when trout are refusing your dries.
In
July/August/September flows are normally medium to low, and many of the
bigger nymphs/larva have hatched, leaving the majority of nymphs/larva at #18
and smaller (exception: Isonychia & big Stonefly nymphs). Often I
find the difference between a slow day of nymphing and a double-digit
outing in July is using nymphs #18 or even smaller. It can be a game
changer. In general the small size is much more important than the exact
fly pattern, but I'd still have several options from drab to gaudy, and
in different styles/shapes/colors. You can pair them up with a bigger
fly. Stoneflies #4-12 emerge in the early to mid mornings, you will see
them on the rocks in the fastwater,
I tend to have
my best luck with #8-10 patterns in yellow/gold to brown
colors. Isos nymphs are #10-12, and they can swim in 6-12" spurts.
Having said that, overall I tend to do better dead-drifting them, but I
always let them swing at the end of the drift. Experiment and do
whatever works best, it can change from day to day.
While
the focus for the majority of our customers seems to have shifted to
dry flies, the subsurface
angling with nymphs, wet flies &
soft-hackles remains consistent and is often better than the dry fly
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| Mark Swenson's client Nick & first ever fly rod trout! |
fishing,
especially when the trout aren't rising and/or when they are refusing
your dries/emergers/spinners/terrestrials. The key is to
focus on the faster/broken water (pool heads, riffles, runs, pocket
water, etc.), get your flies down, get a dead-drift, and cover lots of
water. Experiment with your flies, as the better producing flies may
change as the bug activity changes throughout the day. Don't rule
out Junk Flies like Squirmy Worms & Mops, they are still having
their moments here & there when it's slower on the imitative
patterns. At the end of the day the goal is to get
the trout to open their mouth and eat your fly, and sometimes
attractor/Junk Flies work better than the imitative ones- but you have to
experiment to find out.
Now is
a
great time to experiment with fishing a pair (or even better yet a
trio) of soft-hackles/wet flies, it is both fun & very effective. It's an
efficient and pleasant way to cover a lot of water, and you can hit
those thin water lies near the banks that are hard to nymph- big browns
often hold in water like that, especially during hatches & low
light. It's also deadly during a hatch, as a lot of the bugs get eaten by trout just
under the surface, and that is where you are presenting these flies.
The people fishing soft-hackles &
wet flies are giving me some excellent reports, try soft hackles with
Hare's Ear bodies, Sulfur soft hackles, as well as Partridge & Orange (yellow, green/olive also)- these
flies will cover your various Caddis, Sulfurs, and Cahills/Summer Stenos. I recommend
fishing 2-3 at a time, on tag
end droppers, spaced about 20-30" apart. If tangles are a big problem,
go to 1 fly only, but be aware 2-3 at a time are more effective and
allow you to animate the flies in ways that you cannot do with a single
fly (eg. "dancing the top dropper").
FYI we have a KILLER assortment of custom tied soft-hackles in our bins by Dick Sablitz, they are
both fun & deadly to fish. We have flies to imitate all the current hatches, the most effective way to
fish them is 2-3 at a time on droppers.
FYI we are now in our extended hours: 8am-6pm weekdays, and 6am-5pm on weekends.
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| J Valenti with a solid brown from the weekend |
We have
Devin Olsen's hot new book "Tactical Fly Fishing", and it's really good. It cover Euro style nymphing, plus a whole lot more. Based
upon what he's learned from years of the highest level fly fishing
competitions against the best trout fly fishermen in the world. It
covers things in an extremely detailed way, and has some great "Case
Studies" where he shows you different water type pictures with photo
sequences of how they were able to successfully catch fish in them, and
what adjustments they had to make in their rigging, approach,
presentation & flies to find success. It's a good
new option that does NOT duplicate George Daniel's two books on
nymphing, but rather it compliments and adds to them.
Flow as of Monday morning 7/22/19:
Currently the total
flow in permanent TMA/Catch & Release per the
USGS gauge this morning is normal & medium at about 261cfs (the Still River is
12cfs), and in Riverton the in the 2 miles
above the Still River the Farmington is medium/normal
at 249cfs. USGS average historical total flow for today is 236cfs.
The Still
River
joins the
Farmington River about 1/4 mile below Riverton Rt 20 bridge, roughly 2
miles below the dam.
East Branch release is zero cfs (I
think). It
joins the West Branch about 3/8 mile
below UpCountry near condos & sewage plant. The Still River drops
every day we don't get significant rain.
Click this Thomas & Thomas blog link for a very recent review I wrote
about their awesome Contact 10' 8" #6 rod for Steelhead & Lake
Run Trout/Landlocks:
https://thomasandthomas.com
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| Beautiful little wild by Cody |
/blogs/news/torrey-collins-contact-1086
Check out this link to my blog post on 10 of my favorite books on a variety of subjects:
http://www.farmingtonriver.com/classes-news-reviews/10-of-torreys-favorite-books-december-2018/ I'll be doing more blog posts on recommended books in the future, there are many great books out there.
Hours:
From April through October we are open 7 days a week, 8am to 6pm Monday through Friday, and 6am-5pm on weekends.
Water Temps:
Look
for water temps to average in the upper 50s to mid 60s in the permanent
TMA/Catch & Release (mid/upper 50s in
Riverton above the Still River), but
will
vary depending upon the weather, time of day, and specific
location. Downriver in Collinsville/Unionville will be slightly warmer,
probably mid 60s and into the low 70s if you venture far enough
downstream on hotter/sunny days. Check water temps with a thermometer
if you are down in Canton/Collinsville/Unionville. The best time to fish
downriver during hot summer weather is in the morning when water temps
are lowest, especially after a cooler night. Hot, sunny
days will see the biggest water temp increases. The
exception to this will be during periods of high water releases from the
dam, as
the colder water from deep in the reservoir chills down the river for
quite a ways downstream. Highest
water temps will occur in late afternoon, and water temps won't significantly drop until
after dark.
Typically the best bug activity (and fishing) correlates to the most
pleasant time of the day for us humans, which in the summer is normally
early/mid morns & mid/late eves.
Hatches/Dries:
