We started off at the Swift, where Aaron landed a brookie before we decided to move on - the Swift will fish well all winter, but it could be a while before the small streams are fishing well again.
Our next destination sat deep in a hemlock-forested ravine. I've had good luck fishing for brookies in the upper reaches of this stream, but I wanted to explore the lower sections in search of the wild browns rumored to live there. This part of the stream is a bit larger than most of the streams I fish, so I knew there was potential for some nice fish.
As we descended into the ravine, a temperature change was apparent - while it was at least 60 at the top, it must have been 10 degrees cooler at the bottom where the cold air had settled. We started off slow, but soon I hooked into a nice wild brown under a submerged log.
Not long after I found another, slightly larger brown at the tail of a pool.
Eventually we came to a large, flat pool that just had to hold a fish. As I had already caught a couple fish, I told Aaron to give it a shot. At first, there was nothing, but after about 10 casts we saw a bright flash behind his wooly bugger as he swung it through the tail of the pool. On the next cast we saw a large splash, but no bite. Finally, on the third cast, Aaron managed to hook up. From the looks of the fish in the water, it was in the 10-12" range, but unfortunately it got off towards the end of the fight.
After that let down, we decided to explore some beaver ponds on a nearby stream, but had no luck. Although the fish were few, we were satisfied with another beautiful day in western MA.
Our next destination sat deep in a hemlock-forested ravine. I've had good luck fishing for brookies in the upper reaches of this stream, but I wanted to explore the lower sections in search of the wild browns rumored to live there. This part of the stream is a bit larger than most of the streams I fish, so I knew there was potential for some nice fish.
As we descended into the ravine, a temperature change was apparent - while it was at least 60 at the top, it must have been 10 degrees cooler at the bottom where the cold air had settled. We started off slow, but soon I hooked into a nice wild brown under a submerged log.
Not long after I found another, slightly larger brown at the tail of a pool.
Eventually we came to a large, flat pool that just had to hold a fish. As I had already caught a couple fish, I told Aaron to give it a shot. At first, there was nothing, but after about 10 casts we saw a bright flash behind his wooly bugger as he swung it through the tail of the pool. On the next cast we saw a large splash, but no bite. Finally, on the third cast, Aaron managed to hook up. From the looks of the fish in the water, it was in the 10-12" range, but unfortunately it got off towards the end of the fight.
That is a pretty stream, certainly worth another trip or two.
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