Fishing through fall

The amount of free time to fish with kids takes a hit when they head back to school, but making some time on the weekend to drown a few worms, or lures, isn’t just a way to get out and take in the foliage. The fishing’s usually pretty good, too.

“Fishing can be really great this time of year,” said Parker Wright, manager at The Fly Rod Shop in Stowe. The last few months of the season offer up good sport for anglers in streams, ponds and lakes, but “generally trout fishing is really good, especially on the big rivers,” Wright said.

“My favorite time of year to fish for trout is from Sept. 15 through the end of October,” he said. That’s because the waters in those big rivers is finally cooling off after the hotter summer months.

“Bigger rivers can be almost unfishable in the summer when its really hot,” Wright said. “As the water drops below 60 degrees the fish, and the insects they eat, get more active.”

Locally, that makes for very good fishing along the Lamoille and Winooski rivers.

“If you’re looking for trout, the stretch of the Lamoille from Hardwick to Morrisville” is the spot to hit, said Ramel Kuney, owner of the Old Fishing Hole in Morristown.

The high water levels on those rivers earlier in the summer this year ensured that there’s still a good population of healthy and fat rainbow and brown trout.

Fishing for brook trout in smaller rivers and streams is usually “good, but not great” during the fall, but this year could be pretty hit or miss, according to Wright.

“It can be tough when the water is low,” he said. The dry weather in recent weeks makes it trickier to find the trout that are in those smaller streams. In a normal year fish tend to move into slower moving water as the temperatures drop, but lower water levels mean trout are often still “hanging out in the faster-moving water where there’s more oxygen.”

“All the streams in Stowe, and small mountain streams in general, fish really well when there is enough water,” Wright said.

That’s ok though, because if the fish aren’t biting in those brooks then you can hit up the bigger rivers where they should be. Fall is spawning season for trout too, so the fish you do catch in either tend to be brightly colored.

“Some of the fish you catch in those small streams are unbelievable, they don’t even look real sometimes,” Wright said.

The fall fishing season offers one other perk, especially if you or your kids aren’t fans of getting up early in the morning.

“The mornings, particularly for trout, can be kind of slow,” Wright said. That’s because the water can cool off so much overnight that it takes a little while for the fish to get moving again once the sun comes out. As the water temps rise back up “into the mid to upper 50s” the fish become more active. Cold nights and warm days make for good fishing in general, though, so once it warms up outside the fishing heats up, too.

“Summertime conditions seemed to delay the fall bite a little bit, but cooler nights in the past few weeks have started to lower water temperatures and jumpstart feeding activity,” Chris Adams, information specialist with Vermont Fish & Wildlife, said last week.

Beaver ponds can be good spots to try in the fall too, if you’re hitting one you know has trout in it. Fishing at the mouth of streams that are running into larger bodies of water can also be productive, and if you want to move away from rivers and streams onto ponds and lakes there are some great local spots too.

“Bass fishing has been phenomenal this year,” Kuney said. Lake Lamoille in Morrisville has been a hot spot all year for both bass and pike, and Waterbury Reservoir is usually a good bet to catch some bass or rainbow trout. “I’ve personally experienced tremendous bass and pike fishing in recent days, and have heard reports that the trout bite is also heating up on both the streams and lakes,” Adams said.

If you’re up for going a little farther afield and a different type of challenge, you can hit up the Clyde and Barton rivers in Orleans County. Vermont landlocked salmon and steelhead trout run in those rivers during the fall, offering up a chance to catch some bigger fish not found in much of the state.

“You don’t get to target those fish very often,” Wright said. Plus, salmon there are some of the biggest in New England.

“As far as landlocked salmon go, the fish in [the Clyde River] are significantly larger than the fish caught in New Hampshire and Maine,” Wright said.

Caspian Lake in Greensboro is another good bet for rainbow and lake trout or bass, Lake Willoughby in the Northeast Kingdom is one of the largest lakes in the state and has a good variety of fish and Lake Memphremagog in Newport offers a smorgasbord of fishing opportunities.

“Fall truly is an incredible time to be on the water in Vermont, and anglers who keep their rods and tackle out a little longer are often rewarded with some of the best fishing action of the year,” Adams said. Plus, the fact that fewer people do keep their tackle out for the fall season means you aren’t competing with many fellow anglers for spots.

Catching fish is obviously the main goal of any angling expedition, but just being outside on a crisp fall day as the leaves are changing can be worth the effort.

“Just being on the water in general during foliage, it’s my favorite time to be out there,” Wright said.