Big Water, Big Fish

A visit to my Dad in Stockbridge, MA enabled me to fish the Westfield this weekend. The Westfield is a lovely stream, gigantic compared to the tiny streams I normally fish. The West Branch, near Chester is about 35 minutes from my Dad's condo.

Saturday, woke up at 5:15, and found myself in Chester at 6:15, not having had breakfast or coffee. Couldn't bear that...ended up finding a joint in Henderson(?), next town south, that was PERFECT. Called the "HUT", seems to be run by two 40-something women who have their clientele, all working class men 60+, wrapped around their fingers. Good coffee, good breakfast, and everyone knew everyone's name but mine. The Hut opens at 4:30 AM during the week, and 6 on saturdays, so perfect for fishermen. Highly recommended if you find yourself in the area.

As my plan, I fished the West Branch of the Middlefield near the Keystone Arches Bridge trail. Water was high, but clear, and far from impossible to fish. One of the men in the Hut announced that this June is the wettest ever recorded. I believe it, and water levels were more like April than (nearly) July.

I started by exploring the pool below the parking area, fishing a zoo cougar streamer on a full sink line. Had no joy above the bridge, fishing down and across. Worked my way below the bridge and was fishing the deep slot between the piers on the far side of the stream, with an upstream presentation, which sank the zoo cougar deep. My rod stopped, and I thought, "Damn, I've hit bottom!". I relaxed, then noticed a 20" rainbow rising at the tail of the pool with my ZC in her mouth. Set the tension again, but she was off. I covered the water carefully (both slots) with the cougar with no luck. Then decided to switch to nymphs.

Started with a tungsten bead head Prince nymph, on a long leader, deep in the slot. The take was subtle as hell, but managed to connect with a fish in the other slot fairly quickly. Turned out to be a 19" hen bow. Fought more like a big brown than a 'bow, mostly just trying to keep its nose down. I don't fish with a net, so a big fish like that is tough for me to release. Would let me reel it in, but would freak out every time I tried to get close enough to release it. Eventually tired itself out, and I released it without removing if from the water. I assume it was a holdover rather than a truly wild fish.

Covered the rest of the slots with the Prince (no luck), then switched to hex nymphs. First drifted a #6 big guy (no luck), then a smaller one (#10) and picked up about a 13 inch brookie.

Eventually moved on to another big slot, but had no luck after that. Went home.

Sunday, hit Walker's Brook just to see what I could see. This is a high gradient stream that empties into the West Branch, more like the streams I normally fish, but holding more water, which was very high. Picked up two little Salmon fry on the first two fishable structures.. Looked like brownies, only a black silverish sheen and a noticeably forked tail. Decided I didn't want to disturb any more Salmon, and quit after about 15 minutes of fishing.

Overall, a nice change of pace.