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.
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.