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Deerfield report 8/7

2K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  teflon_jones 
#1 ·
I took the day off work and headed out to the Deerfield yesterday (Monday 8/7). I fished the Swift a few weeks ago and those fish really aren't fish (come on, they'll sit right downstream of your boots in the current break you create!), plus there's way too many people around. I wanted to get on some water where you're not likely to see another person. I'm not going to post locations here, but I'll be happy to share them with people that send me PM. I prefer not to post them on the forum for people who don't care to become members! I've been fishing the Deerfield for a long time and have done a lot of exploring up in that area, so if there's a location I don't know from the Vermont border down to where it becomes unwadeable then I'd be very surprised. I'll have to keep a few to myself though... :)

I got there at about 7 am, which was a little later than I wanted. I set the alarm clock for 3 pm instead of 3 am. DOH! I stopped at a random spot to start the day and saw one fish rise but couldn't get him interested, and there wasn't a ton of fishy water there so I decided to move on. The only thing I got in that spot was one miraculously unbroken, unopened Corona light that somebody must have lost out of a cooler. :)

I headed upriver a bit more to where there's a big pool, probably the largest in the river until you get down past Charlemont. I got one nice 15" rainbow on a size 10 black sparkle bugger. I saw maybe 3 or 4 rises total the entire time I fished the pool. I don't know if I'd call them rises though because the fish were smashing whatever they were hitting. I heard one splash over the noise of the river from several hundred feet away. I took my first ever dunking too. I only started using waders last year after wet wading for over 15 years, so I never really took a dunking. I was in the beginning of the pool where the current is strong and was working my way down parallel to the bank. There was a bit of a hole and before I knew it, my leading foot went in and the current pushed me over. Well, for the rest of the day I went back to the days of putting my keys in my hat and wet wading. :)

I moved on to the next pool and didn't see much action except for one of my first casts when I just missed the take on a big brown or brook trout, somewhere in the 16-18" range. I didn't see him against the bottom chasing my fly like crazy until I started to pick it up and he turned. :( That was also using the black sparkle bugger.

To close out the day I moved to a pool where a big creek enters the river and started drifting a nymph through it. I got one small brookie on a size 12 big ugly attempt at tying a pheasant tail nymph with the wrong materials. Apparently the fish didn't care though. After that fish and a bunch more unsuccessful drifts, I decided to try swinging a Hornberg streamer through the pool for a while. I missed a couple of fish through sheer stupidity. I forgot how to correctly set the hook when swinging. DUH! For anybody that doesn't know, NEVER lift the line when setting the hook when you're swinging flies. Always set sideways so the line stays in the water. Otherwise all you do is create a whole bunch of slack. (ok now I'll wait for the inevitable swinging jokes).

So feel free to PM me for details on where specifically I went.
 
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#2 ·
Teflon,

I really liked the beer comment. my buddy and I were fishing the field two years ago and all of a sudden there was a proliffic beer can hatch on the water. It turns out that some tubers were sunning on a rock and forgot that the water was on the rise. Well their entire collection of empty and full cans drifted off in the current. (We just had to practice catch-and-drink on a couple of those) I would love to head out with you some time and compare notes on fishing holes. I have a couple spots but have only been fishing the field a couple of years.
 
#5 ·
IanB said:
Great report, heading out there tomorrow for the first time ever. At the veyr least I am looking forward to some unbelievable weather and hopefully some good biting fish! Check your PM.

IB
Welcome to the site Ian! Check your PM, sent you some info.
 
#6 ·
Guernseybass said:
i was hoping to head out that way in October ( once the SWFF starts to fade) - if you have any details of fly shops in the area where i could pick up suitable flies, accurate river condition reports etc i'd be most grateful.
Hi Mark. One thing that I've always found strange is the total lack of fly shops in the area! There's absolutely nothing anywhere close by. At least, nothing that I've ever been able to find in over 10 years of going out there. The only one I can point you towards is Pipione's Sport Shop in Turner's Falls (Greenfield) but I only found that via Google, I've never actually been there. Maybe there aren't shops because it's because the vast majority of fishermen are coming from far away, so there's not enough people locally to support a shop? I don't know, but it's always frustrated me! On my trip on Monday, I forgot tippet and my leader was one that had already seen a full day trip to the Swift, so there already wasn't a ton of the tippet section left. Thankfully I managed to stretch the leader for the rest of the way through the day.
The best flies on the river right now are woolly buggers and streamers. There's really no hatches going on right now, and the fish really aren't rising on anything. I went through a very broad assortment of flies on Monday and the woolly buggers and streamers got the most interest by far of anything I used. The fish also seemed to like flies with a bit of flash or sparkle to them.
If you're not aware of it, the Deerfield is used extensively for power generation. That means the streamflow can change suddenly and drastically without warning. For the water release schedule, you should check out http://www.zoaroutdoor.com/schedule.htm (I know this is a non-sponsor link but since they're not a fishing site at all I know you guys have been ok with posting a link before). There's also a phone number on their page you can call for up to date info. In general right now, the water level is good for wading pretty much the entire river (except for the pools behind the dams of course ;) ) from its source up in NH all the way down to below the Mohawk Trail State Forest. Below that point, the river can get deep in sections, and there's also a lot of rafters and the water warms up a good bit.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Stream gauges & Fly shops

Hi
There are no fly shops in the Greenfield area or along the Deerfield River. Pipones in Turners Fall really won't be much help if any. The two closest shops that can help are Flagg's Flys rte 202 in Athol just south of the Rte 202 Rte 2 junction. The other is on Damon Rd in Northampton ( the name of this place escapes me at the moment).
As for stream conditions the best web information is on www.ma.water.usgs.gov/basins/default.htm you can get info on almost any river in the state. The only problem is figuring out what levels are actually fishable. You can get the timed releases from www.h2oline.com/Ma.asp.
Good Luck
Larry
 
#8 ·
Again, thanks for the info chaps. i found the same on google - nada.

i have a couple books on NE trout fishing, one of which i am sure guides you on what CFM rates are the best. at the moment my stuff is stuck in Customs in NYC.

interesting that only lures produced results - if there was no hatch i would have fished heavy nymphs in tandem along the bottom czech style first, before i even thought of swinging lures.

thanks again

Mark.
 
#9 ·
Guernseybass said:
interesting that only lures produced results - if there was no hatch i would have fished heavy nymphs in tandem along the bottom czech style first, before i even thought of swinging lures.
That's pretty much what I did for most of the day. I either drifted a bead head woolly bugger down deep by itself, or fished the bugger or a tiny bead head nymph (copper john or pheasant tail) with a dry fly indicator.
 
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