On Thursday, I went to the swift river in Massachusetts.  I’ve fished this river many times, and it almost never disappoints when it comes to catching fish.  I caught around 10 rainbow trout, and 1 brook trout when I moved further downstream.  In my experience, the brook trout like to hang out on the lower section of the river south of Cady lane during the summer.  During the winter months, I imagine they travel downstream past the Cold Spring Road bridge.  I’ve heard reports from several people that there is an abundance of large brook trout past this bridge, but it’s not so accessible without a kayak or a boat.  In any case, the brookies migrate up river to spawn in the fall, and you can catch some beautiful and large brook trout.  All fish were caught on a two nymph set up.  I had luck with a few other flies, but that was the winning combo for the day. 

The kings of the swift.

There was a large pod of stocked trout just below the route 9 bridge, but they seemed very skittish when approached and were moving around frequently.  A few trout had broken off from the pod, and I was able to catch a couple.  One of them had a large gash in it’s back, which might have been bird or otter related.  I wasn’t sure, but it’s not uncommon to see for a hatchery fish to become an easy meal.

Later, I moved down far down river and was able to catch the most trout of the day.  In my experience, the further you get away from the crowds, the better off you are.