A Good Day on the Sawmill

[bogtrotter]

Despite the long weekend, today was the only one that I could count  on being able to go fishing, so I decided to travel a little further afield than  I usually do, and drove to the Sawmill in Montague.

The day was beautiful (mostly sunny, about 80 degrees) and stream conditions were good,

I arrived around 11:30 AM and fished from the South  Street bridge to the Center Street bridge until about 1 PM.

My harvest along the way: five (6" to 11") brookies and five (12" to 17") rainbows.  (Oh yeah, five small dace as well).

Then I walked back to my car along the road and had a quick lunch: a couple slices of horseradish and cheese stuffed salami, a swig of homemade red wine, a handful of baked locusts (a recent birthday gift - - and  surprisingly bland), another of homemade granola, and a few sips of melted water from the frozen water bottle that I use as an icepack,

Next, I drove downstream to fish below the Book Mill ("Books you don't need at a place you cann't find").

The parking was full near the Book  Mill itself, so I parked a few blocks away and walked down the streambed of a small feeder brook to get into position.

I fished below the Book Mill from about 1:45 to 2:30 PM.

Oddly, I only had one strike in that section during the entire time - - but it was OK because I managed to round out my total with a single (11") brown, thus permitting me to complete my "hat trick" (at least one brook, one brown and rainbow) for the day.

On the way home, i stopped to fish the  Cold River by the Black Brook bridge (on the boundary between Florida and Savoy) and caught another couple small (6" - 7") browns.

I don't think I've had a day this good on the Sawmill since that stream's (and my own) heyday back in the '80's, when I regularly fished it with my father.

[lowaccord66]

Thats quite an adventure Jim and a testimate to your trout catching abilities.  Ive looked at one of those streams from satalite but never had a chance to get up there.  Was the Cold River boney?

Whats the sawmill like?  Is it like the hoosic in regards to location?  Or is it just woods and stream?

[bogtrotter]

Thats quite an adventure Jim and a testimate to your trout catching abilities.  Ive looked at one of those streams from satalite but never had a chance to get up there.  Was the Cold River boney?

Whats the sawmill like?  Is it like the hoosic in regards to location?  Or is it just woods and stream?

Thanks for your kind words, Jon.

If by "bony" you mean bone dry, no, the Cold River wasn't quite that bad - - It was running about average for the stream, which (admittedly) is low for pretty much any place else, but had enough flow to support at least a few holes. 

Generally speaking, the Cold River only fishes well for a couple weeks in  the spring, right after they stock it, but it was just too tempting to stop and take 15 minutes to test it as I was driving home along Route 2.

As for the Sawmill, it's a scootch smaller than the South Branch of the Hoosic, and  (unlike the South Branch) doesn't run along a highway (at least not the part I fished- - which is generally bounded by woods and fields), but is generally similar in terms of ease of wading.

If you ever do set aside some time to fish the Sawmill, I suggest you make a day of it, and combine it with the Millers River in/around Orange, which I've heard good things about, but never really tried myself. 

(I tried a few half hearted casts on the Millers once or twice while driving by, but didn't really give it a fair chance),

[stripernut]

I fish the Millers often, lots of character, sadly tea stained, but does have places that hold over fish (most years). Upper sections have miles of river without even a trail along it... It would be a heavily fished river if it was not tea-stained...