Home River

By Joel Anderson

After a cold and record breaking wet spring, the fishing was just starting to pick up over the past two weeks on my home water. My worst fear was then realized last week when an extended stretch of hot weather warmed the water and, in turn, slowed the fishing. However, this latest stretch of cool, wet weather has effectively breathed life back into my river. Last night provided time for a couple hours of fishing before the Bruins game.

 

Carefully negotiating a poison ivy patch (I’m deathly allergic) down the bank to the river, I slipped into the water. The strong current felt cool, even through my waders. Given the fact that the same water was in the low seventies late last week, this was definitely a good sign.

Since this was my first experience this year on this particular pool, I decided to start with a streamer as a confidence builder. I worked out some line and cast a cream colored Soft Hackle Streamer down and across the current. Immediately, trout voraciously charged the quickly stripped fly and in short ordered, I hooked several decent brown and rainbow trout. The fish are definitely interested tonight.

Encouraged by the early activity, I moved downstream and to the side of the same current that took the flow into a deep pool. Switching to a nymphing rig, I cast upstream and mended line to allow my size 18 Pheasant Tail Nymph to dead drift well below me into the dark depths. Several times the indicator stopped and a quick hookset was rewarded by the throbbing weight of a good fish. A half-dozen rainbows in the 10-13” range feel prey to this approach, and their strong pulls prompted my Bellinger reel to sing its ratcheting song, my personal favorite tune.

Looking upstream to the slick above the riffle at the head of the pool, several fish were now showing. Large mahogany colored mayflies with slate wings (Isonychia?) were coming off quite regularly, along with a few caddis. I moved into casting position just below the slick and switched to a Sparkle Dun. The Garrison 209E rod laid out a beautiful cast that lighted my floating fly perfectly just above the closest rising fish. A brown trout took the mayfly imitation without hesitation, as did several others in succession as I picked off the surfacing fish one by one.

The surfaced activity slowed, so I move back downstream into the same pool to try yet a fourth tactic: soft hackle wet flies. My personal favorite soft hackle consists of an olive wire body, an olive hares ear thorax, a few sprigs of clear antron as a wing to add some sparkle, and a turn or two variegated hen saddle. The fly was cast across and down current and the line was quickly mended to slow down the drift. Several drifts were interrupted in mid-swing by taking fish that were instantly tight to the reel and once again pulling line from the screeching Bellinger. Easily my favorite form of fly fishing, swinging soft hackles is just an elegant way to cover water. Several fish also took as the fly was slowly hand twitch retrieved back at the end of the drift.

Some nights, especially early in the season, end up as a comedy of errors. Tonight, on the other hand, was close to perfect. Granted, it’s a stocked fishery and certainly not my first choice for a fishing destination, but my home river is an endless source of delight for a few hours on a perfect June evening.