Fishing in Vermont
From the Vermont Guide to Fishing
published by the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife
Vermont's lakes and ponds offer a wide variety of
high quality fishing opportunities, ranging from fishing off a guided
charter boat for landlocked salmon and trout on 100 mile-long Lake
Champlain, to hiking with map and compass to a remote beaver pond where
the brook trout seldom see more than a few anglers in a season. The
choice is yours.
With over 140 state-owned fishing access points
on lakes, ponds, and rivers throughout the state, Vermont waters offer
accessibility and superb fishing opportunities. Vermont has 288
public lakes 20 acres and larger and hundreds of small ponds, almost
all offering some form of fishing to tempt the angler.
Lake Champlain provides some of the best fishing
and the greatest variety of freshwater fish in the northeast. While
closed seasons are set for a few species on this productive lake, most
can be taken year round.
One of the highlights of Lake Champlain fishing
is the Salmon id Restoration Program, which began officially in 1974
as a means of restoring landlocked salmon and lake trout fisheries,
and now continues with the guidance of a multi-agency lake management
team. Through the cooperation of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department
of Environmental Conservation, and the US Fish & Wildlife Service,
substantial numbers of landlocked salmon and lake trout are stocked
annually. The fish are doing well, with salmon averaging two to four
pounds, and many weighing in around ten pounds.
Good waters for lake trout are from Arnold Bay near
Vergennes north to South Hero in the main lake. Salmon are more common
from Malletts Bay to St. Albans Bay, especially in the "Inland
Sea" east of the Champlain Islands.
Most Lake Champlain lake trout and salmon are taken
by trolling between the surface and forty feet deep with balsa minnow
lures, silver copper or orange spoons, and streamers. Getting up extra
early to be on the lake at dawn is another important key to success.
If you prefer shore fishing, try the mouths of the major rivers and
smaller streams in spring or fall.
Steelhead fishing has been slow, but experiments
with new strains are encouraging. At this time there are small spring
spawning runs of steelhead in the Winooski River and Lewis Creek.
Come May and June, Vermont stream fishing for trout
really blossoms. This is when serious fishermen head to the upper Missisquoi,
Black (north), New Haven, Castleton, Saxton's, Mettawee, Winooski,
Lamoille, Waits, and Wells Rivers and, of course, the Battenkill. Bait
and lure fishermen do well during May and June, especially with lighter
lines and smaller lures. However, aquatic insects become more active
then, and fly fishermen have luck with imitations of Quill Gordons,
Blue Wing Olives, Blue Quills and Hendrickson.
With the warm days of summer, stream fishing gets
tougher, but during the early morning and late evening the knowledgeable
angler can catch trout.
If you don't have patience for getting a finicky
rainbow or brook trout to bite, summer is the time to fish the warmer
waters of the major rivers for brown trout and smallmouth bass. Both
species are commonly found in the Connecticut River and the big water
areas of the White River, from Bethel downstream, and the Winooski
River, from Middlesex down. Northern pike and walleyes are also found
in the lower stretches of some rivers. Otter Creek from Proctor downstream
is often canoed for its unique combination of northern pike, smallmouth
bass, and trout. Determine the dam locations before starting.
Fall really has to be one of the best times to fish
in Vermont. Everyone else is off bird hunting or thinking about deer
hunting, and you often can have a stream all to yourself. You may even
want to combine your hunting and fishing with a bird hunt in the morning
or evening and trout or bass fishing during the day. Some anglers plan
a fall trip just to be out in the cool air enjoying the brilliant foliage.
Fall is spawning season for Vermont's brown trout,
brookies, and landlocked salmon. In many cases, the fish will be migrating
from lake sandponds into streams to spawn. At this time of year trout
can be either spooky and finicky eaters or brash with voracious appetites,
so if you come fall fishing, be prepared to try most anything. Although
notoriously tough to catch, the big Lake Memphremagog brown trout on
their spawning run in the Black River at Coventry are a superb challenge
for the expert angler.
Connecticut River: The Connecticut River,
which runs the entire length of Vermont, is probably the best-kept
fishing secret in the northeast.
From the town of North Stratford north to the Canadian
border, the Connecticut offers exceptional brown and rainbow trout
fishing. Good fishing for these species continues down to the town
of Bradford; below this browns and rainbows can still be found near
the mouths of rivers, and in the Summer Falls area near Hartland.
The Connecticut River from the Passumpsic River
down to the Massachusetts border is home to an outstanding warm water
fishery that includes smallmouth and largemouth bass, walleye, chain
pickerel, yellow perch, and bullhead. Most of the river offers easy
canoeing, but consult the A.M.C.
River Guide for dam locations and rough water sections.
New Hampshire and Vermont cooperatively manage the
Connecticut's fisheries resources, but New Hampshire regulations take
precedence since the river is technically owned by that state.
In addition to exciting warm water fishing, the
Connecticut River now provides some shad fishing below the Vernon and
Bellows Falls dams. Atlantic salmon fishing may not be that far off
in the future either. The restoration of anadroumous fish to the upper
Connecticut River began in late 1967 when Fish & Game Directors
from Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut met with
the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries
service and agreed to support a cooperative fishery program. Special
emphasis was focused on restoring the American shad and the Atlantic
salmon to their native waters.
For
more information:
Photo credit: Vermont Dept.
of Tourism & Marketing
