Deerfield Trip from HELL

[Simms]

Hello boys, girls, and hairy jew,

On Friday, Shane departed NJ and headed for MA. He got here, we went out to grab sushi with a few buds, drank too much as usual, went to bed a 230 and got up at 330am. We packed the truck, snorted a few lines of addy, went to the grocery store to pick up some goods and off to the Berkshires we went!

We got the FIFE BROOK DAM boat launch at 730am and unloaded the boat. We dragged it down to the waters edge and finished loading it up. We then slected the flies we wanted to employ and then waited for the water release to start. In the mean time, we chatted with a few fellow anglers, one of which Shane and I knew from fising the Pequest back in January. Another gentlemen, from Buckland, MA, whacked and stacked a bunch of fish in the pool as we sat there, enjoying cigar. With the low flows, (Before the releases) one needs to empoy SMALL flies. He was using size 18 flies so when he saw the size 2 and 4 dries we had tied on, he couldn't believe it. Getting bored, I decided to drop a pink dirt snake of the bend of the foam body I had an quickly brought to hand a beautiful rainbow.

SIREN GOES OFF. Water comes up.

Shane and I were off, along with a thousand other boaters taking advantage of the flows. Shane missed a few fish in the first run, but quickly locked on a neautiful native brown in a slot on river right. We slowly picked at fish all the way down to Zoar Gap. In the mean time, the yakers were so fucking annoying, "surfing" in every back eddy they could find, all of which you know held fish. Another annoyingaespect was the fact it didn't stop raining the whole time. We even packed out rain jackets, but neglected to put them on, stupid us. We came to a section of river with huge boulders so I dropped anchor. We didn't entice any strikes so I went to pull up. STUCK. I had to resort to jumping int he water, pulling myself around back of the boat, loosening the anchor line and pulling the anchor line UPSTREAM as I quickly swung the boat around into a back eddy..released, we finally headed down. ON river right we park and dried off under a pavilion for about an hour. It was fuckin cold.

We finished drying off, successfully lighting myself on fire (bottle of whiskey to the face by 10am) and we were on our way. We continued down stream, shot the gap, and began whackin and stackin. Fishing picked up down pastt he Zoar campground. Another anchor incident where shane needed to jump in this time to free the boat. This is also were shane got a fly stuck in his leg after a shitty hook set

We then got a long pool where I employed a streamer. Quickly bringing a few fish to hand, we lot track of time and the water started to DROP...We were still 3 miles from the take out..FUCK...

I turned the boat around and rowed my fucking balls off..For the most part with stayed with the dropping flows, but did hang up a few times. We litteraly got to the take out as the last stick of water dropped..thank god...

We unloaded the boat and brought it up. Not having a ride, I went over to ask this lady for a ride just up stream for my truck. She kindly agreed but said she had to get gas 1st..so she went and said she would be back..NEVER FUCKING SHOWED UP. So Shane and I sat there, on the side of the road, in the middle of NOWEHERE with our thumbs out. Finally,this nice couple stopped..Shane went up to get the truck and I waited...11pm we were loaded up..A quick stop at 99 down on Greenfield for dinner and then back to WOOSTA we went...

All in all, a trip ill never forget..

Flies used:
Golden Chubby Chernobyls
Pink Dirt Snakes
Sirloins

Enjoy the pics! Wish we got more pics of fish and scenery, but it rained so hard, my cell phone was already ruined, i didnt want to ruin my camera...

 

[Trout Fever]

welcome back bro looks like you got your shit together and had a good day

TF

 

[Trouser Trout]

Nice report Simms, I was fishing in VT a little ways north of you, the lightning was crazy!!!! i fished through it had my best day of the year, all small wild brookies, stop counting at 20, couple of times i was so close to lighning strikes I could hear the lightning hiss. I felt safe holding a graphite rod, standing in water with rubber soles smoking a stogie.

 

[Simms]

Tf,

Thanks Brother.

TT,

You had a good day bud! As for the lightening, we didn't see any. Just shit tons of rain and thunder rumbling through. We were sittin ducks weidling graphite sticks in the air on a metal framed boat haha

 

[CTobias]

You should drive down and fish the South Holston and Watauga one weekend, but bring your boat. I only say this so I can get a free ride down the Holston and Watauga.

 

[Lonewolve]

Lighting yourself up an the pics to prove it ...Priceless.Btw wtf is a pink dirt snake?

 

[Simms]

Pink San JUan worm...Deadly on these tailwatrs up here Drop it off the bend of a chubby chernobyl or foam body hoppy and youre in business

 

[Simms]

Chris,

I would love to come down and fish those rivers. The only reason I would come down is I need another body in the front of my boat to balance it out...

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Simms, you should have called me, we would have given you that ride. I was also on the river Friday but not until 6:30 pm. Our story:

Our "guide" who was a TU volunteer and professional guide was to meet us at a pub on the river in Shelburne Falls by 4. At 4:30 we get a call that he has "Montazuma's Revenge" which we took as "bad hangover". So he promises to try to hook us up or meet us and take us to some prime fishing spot up river. A half hour goes by and his buddy calls who is apparently also a local guide. He's "going to hook us up and meet us in half an hour". An hour later we get another call to meet at some park and ride where he shows up yet another 15 min. late but no big deal. After a stop at the beer shop (for the guide, we were well stocked) it was off to the river with the guide, a buddy of his and his girlfriend. We pull off on the side of the road about 4 1/2 miles below one of the dams (think it was Fife Brook, not sure). He says "fish here, we're going 12+ miles upstream to float and good luck". One phone call hours earlier and we could have found the spot on our own and have been fishing for hours, but this was the local's idea of "hooking us up". Guide says "flows at 850 cfs and should be 100 in an hour". As we were getting our gear ready, you could see the river dropping. Whatever, at least the rafters were well downstream by then. We were told about the nightly epic cinnamon caddis hatches and between the 3 of us we didn't see a single bug of any type, let alone an epic caddis hatch. We managed to pick off a few fish, the odd wild brown and the cookie cutter 14" - 16" bows that seemed to be the main show, but it was far from epic fishing....

If I had seen you hitchhiking, I would have at least tossed a beer or two at you as we drove past

Meanwhile, the Swift which we were warned was not fishing well was apparently on fire that same day. Oh well, it was an adventure and I was with two good friends which made it all bearable.

 

[Simms]

Brian,

IM sorry to hear about the the run around you got :/

WHo was the guide by chance? Tom/Dan or Eric? Grey or blue raft? The "here, fish right there im gonna go up there mentality" is far too common with those dudes..It's ashame. If you dont pay, they wont even give you the time of day. Its a shame. You're lucky you got THAT much lol

Yeah, you were up on Zoar road Im sure.

Swift has been on fire for weeks...Ridiculous fishing.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Brian,

IM sorry to hear about the the run around you got :/

WHo was the guide by chance? Tom/Dan or Eric? Grey or blue raft? The "here, fish right there im gonna go up there mentality" is far too common with those dudes..It's ashame. If you dont pay, they wont even give you the time of day. Its a shame. You're lucky you got THAT much lol

Yeah, you were up on Zoar road Im sure.

Swift has been on fire for weeks...Ridiculous fishing.

First guide's name was Chris (Montezuma's revenge) and second guide was Brian. How ironic is that? I actually don't know last names and don't care. When our TU BBQ was blown out on the Swift at some park on Sat. night due to the rain, I should have joined the 7 or 8 that went anyway and fished; I hear they did very well. Deerfield was also much warmer than I was expecting with a 70 degree temp at 6:30 pm when we arrived. I yanked my fish in quickly to be on the safe side. Saw more beavers than rises and not the beavers riding the rafts/kayaks/canoes:crap:

 

[Simms]

hmmm, 70 degrees, you weren't at fife then I dont think...I had to go swimming for my anchor twice and that water wasn't 70 haha And I didn't see any other guide boas but the harrison boys and gs outfitting. You were lower than fife. Most likely below bardwell...

Its ashame that someone told you NOT to fish the swift. The swift is another tailwater, not effected by rain(in the upper reach atleast...Unless we get a 2 or 3 deluge, they dont open the dam....at 100cfs, that river was cranking with bugs and fish. You would have loved it. Next time youre up, well fish.

 

[Trout Guy]

We packed the truck, snorted a few lines of addy

The BEST cure for a hang over... But burns like a mofo..

 

[Rusty Spinner]

The BEST cure for a hang over... But burns like a mofo..

Why didn't one of you boobs tell my original guide that remedy?

(apologies to Macfly for stealing the word "boobs")

 

[Rusty Spinner]

This is the stretch we fished, don't know if the picture does anything for you. I didn't take many shots, just of the train running past us while we stood in a rapidly falling pool...