River Report: Quinapoxet. Cold.

Sources cite that the stretches of the Quinapoxet are free of ice. I don’t know that river at all and have been eager to fish it.

But, I will have to wait.

Coleman Egertson, a really informed angler (his blog here), mentioned to me that the water is cold and that it is unlikely that any fish there will take a fly.

He saw that the USGS site is once again relaying temp data for that river. Click here for the latest chart, and there’s a screen shot here:

So, the waiting game for Massachusetts water this weekend continues. Again, I’m still thinking of hitting the Farmington in CT. A lot of driving, though.

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17 thoughts on “River Report: Quinapoxet. Cold.

  1. Colie, thanks for the update! Tight lines for you next week. Send a fishing report?

    RI BT, have only fished it once, but will be spending some quality time there once the ice melts. Tom Fuller's book reports that wild browns and brookies are there. No C&R areas though, unfortunately. I'd describe it as more of a large stream than a river, but that's cool with me. Am trying to develop my small stream game. It certainly is pretty.

  2. There are definitely wild brookies there, but I wouldn't make it a destination if your goal is to catch wild fish – I've fished it several times and only caught stocked browns and rainbows. It gets a lot of pressure, so If you do go, hike a ways away from the easy access points.

    Also my understanding is that the wild brookies are actually in the downstream end. The upstream end has a few impoundments which warm the water, while the downstream end has more springs and a few coldwater tributaries.

    I really wish there was a C&R section here, because fish definitely hold over, but they get pretty scarce after the spring stocking. From what I've read online though there's a pretty large contingent of bait fisherman who vehemently oppose any new C&R areas, so that's probably unlikely.

    1. +1 on C&R.

      One of my implicit goals for this blog is to make fly fishing more accessible to others. With more anglers, we have more say. I bet there are many bait fisherman who would love to fly fish, but it seems too intimidating. I don't blame them. This hobby can seem very elitist and the gear can be expensive.

    2. There was a good discussion about this on a post here a while back. I think that stocking should not occur in areas that have native trout, or in most cases at least. In the Quinnie, I've hear the natives and stockies are usually found in different parts of the stream. So I don't see why there can't be a C&R section here.

      In no way do I mean to minimize the protection native trout need (because we DO need more C&R section, but the thing that concerns me more with the Quinnie and Stillwater is the salmon. With only a handful of rivers that support spawning salmon in MA, snaggers flock and it becomes utter chaos on these rivers in the fall.

      There needs to be a seasonal C&R rule there, similar to the Swift. For 6 months the Swift is open to keeping trout and bait fishing. But after that it's C&R. If the QUinnie had those same rules, it would save loads of spawning salmon, and double as protection for the native trout for half the year. I'm fine with there being catch and keep for half the year, because like you said, Jo, fly fishing should be accessible to all.

    3. Great points! When was the last time a new C&R section was implemented in the state? Who led the charge and how did they do it? I think we can learn hopefully from prior initiatives, hoping to propel change today from "lessons learned."

  3. I am involved with brook trout conservation, and we (PRIBT and SRBTC–check them out if you haven't already) are always trying to establish C&R and areas where there is no stocking to help eliminate artificial competition of hatchery fish brook trout.

    1. I would love to do a guest post on these groups as we are always looking to gain support especially with PRIBT where educating others about the wood river situation is critical. PRIBT has an awesome Facebook page if you have some time this evening to check it out.

  4. As far as natives on the quinnie itself, they are few and far between. You will run into the occasional native brookie, but the days of native browns are pretty much gone. There is some good brook trout fishing in very out of the way tributaries of the quinnie. But only g excuse most ppl dont bother with thin blue lines. As far as a c&r section its brought up every year. It would be great but unfortunately its just one step in series of them to bring the quinnie back up to a level where it would support healthy populations of wild fish year round. Dont get me wrong it could be done and with the growing interest of fly fishing in the quinnie

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