By If you’re anything like me, once the fall striper run is over you start to experience fishing withdrawals. This is the perfect time to brush up on your freshwater trout fishing in one of the many available rivers in the central and western parts of Massachusetts, or go up north and there are countless rivers, streams, and creeks in New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and Maine to keep fishing well into the winter. But what about when there’s snow on the ground and it’s well below zero? Well have no fear, there’s still fish to be found in the Swift River in Belchertown MA!
A tailwater from the Quabbin Reservoir, the swift river is fed from the bottom of the dam keeping it a close to consistent flow and temperature year round. Both flow and temperature do fluctuate, but not nearly as much as say the Deerfield or the Swift – where it can be 200 cfm one day and 3000 cfm the next day. Fishing on the Swift River is a very unique experience though. For one, the water is super clear. You can see the trout from a mile away, and it’s packed to the brim with big trout!
My dad came up for Christmas so we decided to head over and try our luck on some picky trout. My dad’s never fly fished before in his life, but that didn’t stop him from getting onto a couple nice rainbows before we both got too cold to continue on for any longer. This will tide me over for at least another couple weeks until I get back out here again!
Tight Lines,
-Captain Nick