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Fly Fishing On The Deerfield River In Massachusetts

Deerfield River Massachusetts Brown Trout

Fly and Gear ordering and delivery: We can get flies to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Please see the bottom of this column for ordering options.

We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.

Type of Stream
Tailwater

Species
Brown Trout (stocked with holdovers)
Rainbow (stocked with holdovers)
Brook (stocked with holdovers)

Size
Medium-Large

Location
Northwestern Massachusetts

Nearest Towns
Deerfield
Charlemont


Season
Year-round


Access:
Good

Non-Resident License
State of Massachusetts

Fishing License Article – Everything you need to know: Click Here

Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 & 12 ft., 5 or 6X, Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X

Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X

Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Superb Five or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.

Fly and Gear ordering and delivery:

Email us  at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. We can get flies and gear to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. If under a $100 order requiring Priority mail is a charge of only $8.10. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.

Copyright 2013 James Marsh





Deerfield River Massachusetts Fly Fishing Report – 03/22/24
The discharges and stream levels are above normal and the water stained. Give it some time to drop and clear. Our Light Green Midge larva and pupa rigged in tandem is working great. Winter stoneflies are also hatching.

Stream Conditions: Rate:

1760 cfs
Level: 4.88 Water Temperature: 49
Clarity: clear
USGS Real-Time Stream Flow Data at Charlemont

7 Day Weather Forecast:

DEERFIELD WEATHER

Recommended Trout Flies:

Brown Sculpin and White Belly Sculpin and Articulated streamers, size 6/4
Black Matuka and Olive Matuka Sculpin, size 4/6
Blue-winged Olives: size 16, 18 nymph, emergers, duns and spinners
Aquatic Worms, size 12, pink, red, and others
Midges: Light Green and Red (Blood) midges sizes 20/22, larva, pupa and adult. Our larva and pupa midge flies, pre-rigged in tandem, are very popular here. You can fish them under a strike indicator keeping the larva fly near the bottom. https://perfectflystore.com/product/pre-rigged-tandem-midge-larva-pupa-tippet

Winter Stoneflies: 16/18

nymphs

adults

Fly Fishing The Deerfield River Massachusetts
This river is a tailwater for certain. It’s a series of five dams in located in the state of Massachusetts that control the flow of water. The river actually starts at Haramon Reservoir in Vermont, flows through a section of Massachusetts and eventually into the Connecticut River. There are two “catch and release” areas that are generally the best areas to fish. Although the river is heavily stocked by the state, there are some wild brown and brook trout to be found in its waters. The holdover fish can run rather large. Browns are occasionally caught over twenty inches long. Rainbows probably average around twelve inches but can get as large as 18 inches and even larger. Fly fishing the Deerfield River can be a little dangerous. You have to be very careful when wading. The flow of water from the dams can change the water velocity very quickly. It’s impossible to wade the river when they are running a lot of water. Most of the river consist of long runs and riffles between large pools of water. Some of the large pools have very slow moving water that appears to be completely still at times. Much of the bottom in these large pools consist of mud. The bottom has a lot of rocks with silt over in some areas of the streams bottom. The most popular and the best area of the river to fish is below Fife Brook Dam. The water is more typical of a trout stream in this section with pools, runs and riffles. This is a nice looking area with steep hills on each side of the river as it runs through a narrow valley like area. The Deerfield River flows from Vermont into the Northwestern corner of the state of Massachusetts where is becomes a very good trout stream. It flows through different types of bottom terrain from rough and tumble pocket water to smooth flowing, long deep pools. There are a lot of long sets of riffles and runs in the Deerflield. There is a lot of cover for the brown trout to hide under including undercuts banks, deadfalls and crevices in larger rocks and boulders. There have beentrout over twenty inches caught from the Deerfield. Some sections of the Deerfield River have slow moving pools with soft bottoms. The aquatic insect population is different from prime section below Fifte Brook Dam. There the water runs over mixture of gravel and rock bottom and has different types of nymphs and larvae. This means the strategies you use will vary depending on the section of the Deerflield River you are fishing. The holdover trout rapidly become use to eating the natural food in the river. Although generic and attractor trout flies work well to some extent, you are far better off matching the insects that are most plentiful and available for the trout to eat. They can and sometimes do feed selectively and it can pay off to have imitations of what they are eating. We think the best way to fish the Deerfield River is from a drift boat. You cover more water and you can choose your places to fish without having to worrying about fishing only from public access points.

Fly Fishing Guide to the Deerfield River
You can wade, fish from the banks, or float the Deerfield River. Most anglers prefer fishing from a drift boat because it allows you to cover a lot more  water. Fly Fishing the Deerfield River ranges from easy or difficult, depending on many factors. The power plant at Fife Brook Dam keeps a minimum flow of water to keep the trout cool even during the hot summer months. When they begin to discharge water it can rise as much as two feet in a very short time. The schedule of releases is not set in stone. You need to keep an eye out at all times when you are wading for rises in the water. The best way to do this is to pick out a visible object above the water such as a weird shaped rock and note where the water strikes it. If you notice and change in the level on the rock, beware and get to the bank until you can determine the extent of the rise in the water level.If you are fishing when a hatch is occurring by all means fish the hatch but that is often not the case. When you do not observe trout rising it is more productive to fish a nymph or larvae imitation. If a hatch is supposed to occur in the near future, fish a nymph or larvae that imitate the insect that is going to hatch soon. They are far more subject to being eaten by trout than those that are hidden down under and between the rocks. Imitations of midge larvae and pupae are always a good choice fly to use. They hatch throughout the year. If the water is slightly off color due to recent rains, be certain to try some streamers.  They will work anytime but better anytime the water is slightly stained. The large brown and rainbow trout eat baitfish and sculpin so this is always a good fly selection.

Deerfield River Hatches and Trout Flies:
Our information on aquatic insects is based on our stream samples of larvae and nymphs, not guess work. We base fly suggestions on imitating the most plentiful and most available insects and other foods at the particular time you are fishing. Unlike the generic fly shop trout flies, we have specific imitations of all the insects on the Deerfield River and in all stages of life that are applicable to fishing. If you want to fish better, more realistic trout flies, have a much higher degree of success, give us a call.  We not only will help you with selections, you will learn why, after trying Perfect Flies, 92% of the thousands of our customers will use nothing else. 1-800-594-4726

Probably the most important of all the aquatic insects is the Blue-winged Olives. They hatch from about April through June and then again from the middle of August until the middle of October. There are some areas of the stream where Golden Drakes hatch from about the last week of June until the first week or two of July. From about the middle of May on you will begin to see hatches of some of the clinger mayfly nymphs such as the American March Browns and Eastern Pale Evening Duns. They will hatch from the faster water sections of the river. Blue Quills appear in the moderate sections and pockets of the fast water about the same time. Not long after than you will see Light Cahills that can hatch off and on for about two months. Sulphurs can be important from about the middle of June into the first week or two of July. For a tailwater, the Deerfield provides a lot of different species of mayflies. Little Black Caddis (Grannoms) start hatching about the middle of April and last until the first of May. From about the middle of May and into the month of July, the main species of caddisflies will be the Cinnamon Caddis.  The Little Sisters will hatch a couple of weeks after the big sister Cinnamon Caddis start to come off. From near the end of June and lasting into the middle of the month of September, terrestrial insects become important. Imitations of beetles, ants, and hoppers become popular flies to use. Midges are always very important in most any tailwater. You can catch fish throughout the winter on imitations of midge larvae and pupae. The big rainbows and browns both can be caught on streamers, especially when the water is running strong. Carry a good selection of sculpin, minnow, and baitfish imitations.