How I Find My Water

Today angler pressure seems to be a hot topic issue. Everyone complains that there’s more people on the water now than ever, which is totally true. It’s never been easier to lace up your boots and know exactly what's happening at each tailwater in your state. Each fly shop has river reports, that range from helpful ones like the Deerfield Fly Shop puts out (that let you know whether or not you will die horrifically on a river in flood stage) or some that quite literally tell you exactly what's hatching and where. In this day and age, how does one parse out all this information? 

This brook trout, and the 15 others that looked exactly like it, were almost certainly stocked. However, so are many tail-waters

I can’t tell you the best way, or what works where you live, but I think my way is probably the best for me, someone who wants to hit the river and know where I can go. I must preface and say that I put a much higher value on peace and quiet than fish. Unfortunately, if you want to catch size or numbers, going to the popular spots and access is probably the best way. I’ve caught bigger fish and had more consistent success on almost every popular tailwater than any freestone trout stream. On the other side of that coin though, I’ve seen drastically less people on these freestoners. I live in Mass, so the game in these small streams is brook trout, fall fish and holdovers mainly. In the western part of the state, browns and rainbows, both stocked and wild, aren’t uncommon, but in central where I live brook trout are our trout. 

Already the biggest advantage for finding peace and quiet is simply that most people aren’t willing to work this hard for an 8 inch trout. We are not blessed like people in other parts of the country to have great, large wild trout within easy driving distance. We are, however, in a state with many populations of wild brook trout, in almost every cold water stream. 

My first order of business is looking at my state’s website for cold-water fisheries. Almost every state has something similar, but maybe under a different name. Most of these have trout, and those that don’t have healthy populations of fallfish, so you likely won’t get skunked at the very least. Longer streams that connect to larger bodies of water will likely be better in my experience, but the fun is finding out for yourself.  

Another amazing kind of fishery for me is the off season fishery. Think stocked waters, waters with a salmon run, or waters that just look too low or high. These areas can get pounded for a couple months, and then completely drop in angler pressure. They might not be in peak season, however, they are still quality by the standards of where I live. My favorite river close to where I went to school got hit super hard right after stocking, but outside of that season, it was crickets. I truly have never been within a short distance of another angler on that stream but have caught both holdover rainbows and wild brook trout long into the fall despite stocking finishing up in April. Is this stream particularly high volume? No, but it has some truly wonderful stretches of water, and peace and quiet, and that’s the focus here. 

My next order of business, find public access. This is easier said than done. OnX is a great tool, allowing you to make pins on potential access, and have several alternatives for when that bridge you wanted to park near is out, or the road on that isolated brookie stream is washed out. Most states provide an access map, however, and you can always mark up your map the old fashioned way with a sharpie.  

Another tip to tell if a river will hold trout is to see if it shows a typical pool-riffle sequence. If a river doesn’t have any riffles or broken water in satellite pictures, this is going to tell you two things. It likely will not hold trout long into the season, as those riffles create both oxygen and food needed for their survival as the seasons change. It will also likely be impossible to wade, as slow water will be muddy at best, and basically marshlands at worst. 

This river follows a standard pool-riffle sequence. In it I have found caddis, mayflies and midges

That's about where you fill in the blanks. You're now on a river that probably has trout on it, probably doesn’t have people on it, and now is where the fun begins. Spend a few trips working up and down this river. Break it apart. Figure out where trout hold, what baitfish are there, what bugs crawl under rocks. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself, and that's my favorite part, and what keeps me coming back time and time again.