Swift River agony - November 10

Monday I took my buddy Dick on a tour of the Swift River in Central Mass. Air temp 52F, water temp 53F, light breeze, 46CFS flow - VERY low. I like to fish it about 100CFS. In the morning we went above route 9 to the Bubbler Arm and spotted some nice, spooky rainbows. Then we fished the Y-pool for awhile. Dick had heard all the stories about the tough, technical spring-creek conditions, and we certainly found them. After dozens of inspections and near-miss refusals, we worked our way down through the Hemlock and Cable runs. Down along the wing dams Dick got into the water and I spotted for him from the high bank. Here the water spreads out, is fairly shallow and the trout have a long time to inspect your fly. Once again, a few refusals from large rainbows (some looked about 20 inches.) The good news is we saw no other fisherman until we were walking back to the car to move down river. After eating some lunch on the newly dubbed "table-rock" we joined the crew settled in near the Hatchery Pipe. Dick was ready to go back to the solitude above route 9, but I assured him it wasn't really that crowded compared to other times. We settled into a spot below the fallen/overhanging tree and proceeded to get frustrated by the hyper-educated fish feeding on size 128 emerging midges. I had stocked up on some specially crafted size 26 BWO emergers at Evening Sun Fly Shop in Pepperell (thanks Charlie!), and had tied up some size 22 and 24 Shadan Softhackles, but the fish wanted something even smaller. I guess I need to get a microscope attachment for my vise and get some size 30 hooks. Just before we packed it in Dick started getting quite a few strikes and landed a nice rainbow. As always, we had a great time, but came away humbled by those pea-brained critters.