The Bears Den: South Royalston trestle to the Athol dam
MassWildlife's upper catch-and-release section runs from the Templeton and Athol railroad bridge downstream to the first dam in Athol, about six miles of water by the count of Ken Elmer, who has guided and written about this river for decades and says the official start is the railroad trestle just below the village of South Royalston. It is the least fished part of the Millers because it takes a hike; the old dirt road along the river is now a trail, and the water is fast, undeveloped and protected the whole way. Elmer splits it into upper, middle and lower pieces with named pools, Rezendes Pool and its fast chute among them, and warns that the upper piece is hard going in high water because of the steep banks. Perfect Fly calls the section rare for southern New England: you can fish anywhere you like in an undeveloped stretch, and you will mostly be alone.
Wendell Depot: the Wendell Road bridge to Erving
The lower section starts at the Wendell Road bridge in Orange and ends about two miles down at the bridge crossing in Erving Center, the spot MassWildlife's older maps called the breached dam. Elmer's guide walks it: Moss Brook comes in on the right just below the bridge, the water from the bridge under the Route 2 overpass to the railroad trestle is pocket water that holds fish all season and gets fished hard because it is the first thing you see, and Whetstone and Osgood brooks add cold water further down, which is why this section holds browns through summer. To reach the Erving end take the first left entering Erving Center on Route 2 from the east, go under the railroad bridge, and the river bridge is a few yards on. Upstream of that bridge the water runs past Keyup Brook to three long pools below the paper mill; downstream a half mile of pockets and riffles ends at the trestle above Farley Flats.
Below the C&R: Farley Flats, Bridge Street and the mystery water
Farley Flats is the stretch along Route 2 in Erving that thousands of drivers see every day and most anglers fish from the highway pull-off. Elmer's advice is to keep going: Bridge Street, the Route 2 exit in the village of Farley, puts you on stonefly water where he has caught a lot of rainbows on a size 12 stonefly nymph, and the lower river toward the Connecticut has pools, Orcutt Pool off Route 2A out of Orange among them, that he says even the bait anglers leave alone. This is open water under general rules, stocked in Erving, Wendell, Orange and Montague in spring and fall.
Ken Elmer's 400 cfs rule
The Erving gauge, USGS 01166500, is the number Elmer posts in almost every blog entry, and his calls give this page its range. After an October 2017 storm put the river at 3,330 cfs he wrote that he would not book a trip until the flow was under 400; at 458 he called it good for most spots; a drop from 500 to 250 in May 2018 was perfect; a rise from 40 to 208 after autumn rain was perfect; 700 was roaring and he attacked it with a full sinking line rather than wade. So: 150 to 450 cfs is the wading river, 450 to 700 is edges and big streamers, above that stay home. The gauge's own record backs him. Monthly medians since 1915 are about 1,540 cfs in April, 810 in May, 435 in June, 220 in July, 160 in August and September, 260 in October and 470 in November, so the river drops into the wading band in late May most years and stays there until the fall rains. Drought years run the other way; Elmer has logged the Millers at 54 and 60 cfs in dry Octobers, which is when temperature, not flow, decides the day.
Browns after mid-July, Isonychias in August
Elmer's position is that the brown is the only trout that belongs in the Millers. The state and a private group or two put in over 10,000 trout each spring, mostly rainbows that vanish by late June, and both C&R sections get a few thousand browns yearly through the lobbying of local fly fishers. His calendar: fish midday from late March to late June for rainbows and some browns, then once the water nudges 70 degrees the browns feed at dusk and dawn only, and the best dry fly fishing of the year is after mid-July, with late August through October the peak. His hatch notes are specific: March Browns from early May into early July, Brown Drakes mid-May through July, Yellow Drakes from early June, Slate Drakes from mid-June through September and especially August, Light Cahills June through September, Hendricksons, Sulphurs and a full run of Ephemerella in spring, size 22 to 24 olives and blacks in late summer, and red ants, size 16, for September. His fly box is general: parachutes, comparaduns and emergers in brown, cream and olive from 14 to 20, soft hackles before the hatch, and a wet fly called the Moby Dick that the browns hit for no reason anyone can explain.
Artificials only in the zones, eight trout outside them
In both catch-and-release areas you may use only artificial lures, bait is prohibited, and every fish goes back. Outside them the Millers is on MassWildlife's list of major rivers, which means the trout limit is three a day all year with no minimum length, not the eight-fish April 1 to September 10 limit that applies to other rivers and brooks. The season runs January 1 to December 31. Elmer dates the river's dark ages to industrial pollution from the 1950s into the late 1970s, and Perfect Fly's page says the state put the artificials-only, catch-and-release zones where a few problems remain; whatever the origin, the zones stay no-kill.