AN EYE TO THE NORTH

June 18, 2010 - Lower Forty customer, Jim Doyle, recently returned from a campaign in pursuit of Granite State brook trout and files this brief report…

“Thanks for the pointers and for the great new net. I managed to get quite a few brook trout into that net while up in the Baker River Valley in NH this past weekend. Scott Morrison and I fished many of our favorite spots: the Baker River, Jackman Brook, the Newfound River, Russell Pond, and a new spot, Spectacle Pond. We had a fantastic couple of days, landing upwards of 35+ brook trout between the two of us. We had our best luck on bead-head and cone-head wooly buggers in dark colors. We also had some luck with small bead head nymphs.”

THE SWIFT
With an extended period of very high water to contend with, the Swift River in Belchertown has been anything but stellar. Water levels are now approaching optimum at about 120 cfs making for some very approachable conditions. Most Swift River regs would contend that the watershed fishes best at anywhere from 90-120 cfs. The abnormal spring run off caused Windsor Dam to overflow dumping excessive amounts of warmer, surface water into the system. This phenomenon was accompanied by many course fish species, as well as lake trout and landlocked salmon, to occupy the infamous Y-pool at the base of the dam.

This turn of events could not come at a better time since the watershed is due to receive its largest allotment of hatchery fish sometime around July 1^st.  

HATCHES
Due to many requests we have tried to be a bit more diligent about publishing weekly hatch information. During the latter portion of June you should expect , sulphurs (16-18), Isonychia (12), blue winged olives (20-24) and tan caddis (16-18) to be the major players should you be a dry fly fan. 

Good fishing and safe wading,
JB