This morning, I took a drive along Route 9 to Cummington, where the Swift enters the East Branch of the Westfield.
Beautiful day, sunny, blue skies, temps ranged from 55 (when I started around 10 AM) to 65 (when I finished there a couple hours later).
I caught a 9" brookie at the mouth of the Swift, and then headed upstream on the East Branch, where I caught a 10" rainbow just past the next bridge.
Next I turned around and headed downstream and caught four nice dark brookies (one 8", two 9" and one 12").
Then back to my car and headed east on Route 9 to Dalton, where I fished the East Housatonic.
Somewhat suprisingly, there was no action directly below the Depot Street dam, where I usually do fairly well, but I did find a nice pocket of water further downstream just below an outfall pipe (the last one before the next dam) where I managed to land four hefty rainbows (one 13", one 14", one 15" and one 16) that put up a helluva fight, leaping in acrobatic arabesques.
I drove further downstream and tried below the Housatonic Street dam, but without success, so I headed home around 2 PM, by which time it was 70 degrees.
After a brief stop to freshen up, I took my younger son fishing at a pond along Route 2 in Williamstown, where we caught a few sun fish and he reeled in a small bass.
I also saw a slightly older kid, who was there with his girlfriend, catch a bigger (14" or 15"?) bass.
We also saw surprising numbers of large snapping turtles, both in Williamstown and at another pond we stopped at in North Adams (where we made a few casts but didn't hook anything).
This evening, I had a cookout (steak, potato, salad, home-made sauerkraut, and a Lagunitas Little Sumpin' ale), then my wife and I started a carbuoy of dandelion wine fermenting with dandelion blossoms that my two oldest kids picked yesterday.
Tomorrow, I'm planning to fish the South Hoosic, and hope this nice weather will improve my chances on my home waters, where my performance has been relatively lack luster so far this season. Fingers crossed!