Well, it sure has been a while.
I had the chance to wet some flies on Father's day, so of course I had to go to my favorite spot on the Quinine; just above the dam on River Rd. Always a terrific spot for dries on summer nights, you can stay past dark as long as you don't mind the bats.
Fish rose in no less than a dozen unique spots for the entire time I was there, and yet I was skunked for the first 90 minutes as I struggled to identify what they were eating. A stark reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same. It wasn't the BWOs that were fluttering across the stream, nor was it the neon green salmon flies that scattered the air. None of my Adams or Cahill variants got a sniff. It wasn't the evening Caddis, which were plentiful, and not even an egg laying variant (that I tied myself!) drew a rise.
After having no luck with 90% of my dries, I switched to emergers. And I'm glad I did. It was the cream emerger that had the most luck, eliciting an attack on its fake life on the first cast. There is not a better feeling (while fishing) than seeing a fish rise to your drifting fly. I wasn't quick enough in setting the hook so it was a fruitless cast, but promising nonetheless. I didn't want to risk spooking him, so I tried the other side of the stream and caught my first brown of the season (and first of the last few years, something that upsets me to admit).
This started the onslaught. I caught 4 more, brookies and bows, on the same fly until it became unfloatable. I decided to switch to a slightly lighter colored emerger and go for the one I missed (the shape of his rise indicated he might be slightly bigger than the others I saw rising). Spoiler alert: he was. It took a few casts to get to the opposite side of the bank with a perfect drift underneath the low hanging brush, but he took it, and put up a great fight on the 3 weight that felt like I was fighting a striper.
All in all, a very successful return to my favorite stream and favorite hobby. I stayed past dark and hung out with the bats for a bit. Upon returning to my truck, I was greeted by a couple rangers. They were telling me that they were about to close the road and that I needed to head out. Good timing I guess. They said they were prepping for an event the next day. I didn't think twice about it until I saw an article in the Telegram a couple days later.
Apparently they have finally gotten approval and are breaking ground on the removal of the Dam. This is something that the Central MA Trout Unlimited chapter had been advocating for for quite some time. The project should be complete by next year. While I am happy about the ecological impact it will have on the area, and the potential salmon fishing that it will produce, I am very interested to see how it will change my favorite part of the stream! Only time will tell, but I plan to fish this area as much as I can until they close it off for good. To learn more about this work, see here: (https://www.mwra.com/01news/2024/061724-quinapoxetdamremoval.html)
Anyways, as always, happy fishing, and tight lines.
-NC
