Fishing in Vermont
Reprinted courtesy of the Vermont
Chamber of Commerce
Lakes, ponds, rivers and brooks are home to more than 20 popular
species of game and panfish that offer fishing for anglers of all
types and experience levels.
Vermont has long been famous for its "cold-water" fishing. Innumerable
icy rivulets seep down off the Northeast Highlands and Green and
Taconic mountains, feeding hundreds of streams, lakes, and ponds.
These waters, along with the state's deeper lakes, whose depths
never warm, are home to native brook trout, lake trout, rainbow
smelt and landlocked salmon, as well as introduced rainbow, steelhead
and brown trout. Lakes Seymour, Willoughby, and Caspian, among
others, are renowned for their trout and salmon fishing, while
rivers such as the Mettawee, White, Dog, and Upper Connecticut
deserve to be included among America's great trout streams. The
American Museum of Fly Fishing makes its home in Manchester on
the banks of the fabled Battenkill, where its brook and brown trout
have been challenging anglers for more than 200 years.
Vermont also has excellent "warm-water" fishing. Encompassing parts
of both the Great Lakes and Atlantic Seaboard ecosystems, it is
home to a diverse array of species, which tolerate warmer water
temperatures and lower dissolved oxygen levels than trout and salmon.
This includes largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, northern
pike, chain pickerel, shad, yellow perch, white perch, black crappie,
rock bass, sunfish and bullhead, as well as unusual species; bowfin,
sheepshead, burbot, cisco, whitefish, and channel catfish.
Bass fishing is superb. There is fabulous bassing in lakes St.
Catherine, Bomoseen, Morey and Hortonia, among others. Northern
pike provide an excellent fishery, and are distributed in numerous
ponds.
Many waters offer the best of both worlds that support both cold-water
and warm-water species, with trout and salmon occupying the deeper,
colder reaches, and bass and pike the shallower, warmer bays and
flats. Harriman Reservoir and lakes Champlain, Bomoseen and Memphremagog
are the four largest examples of such mixed-bag fisheries.
For information on fishing and licensing, contact: Vermont
fish & Wildlife Department, 103 South Main Street, 10 South, Waterbury,
VT 05671. Tel: 802-241-3700 Fax: 802-241-3295 VT
Fish & Wildlife |
