The_Sasquatch
Well-known member
Just got back last night from 5 days and 4 nights in Vermont. A friend of mine has a cottage in Dorset Vermont (western side), and invited my family up for a long weekend. My friend is fairly new to fly fishing (got him out just a handful of times over the last 2 years), and his 13 year old son has been practicing with a practice caster for several months. This was his son's first real fly fishing trip.
I did my research before going up, reading as much as I could about the streams in the Dorset area, and decided to focus on the Mettawee River system. My buddy used to swim in this stream as a kid, but never fished it, so he was familiar with the stream, access points, etc.
Friday morning we headed out and fished the upper reaches of the Mettawee, and got the skunk. I had a few rises to my dry, but nothing serious. Water was low, gin clear, fishing was tough. Friday evening we tried a little lower down on the system where the water was a little bigger, but still no luck.
Then the rain came. It rained pretty solidly all through Friday night, and Saturday was a different story. The water was still gin clear (all the streams in this area have remarkably clear water), but there was definitely better flows. Lots of caddis were flying around in the morning and afternoon, and I began picking up trout pretty steadily, including a chunker of a brownie from a very deep hole. I fished a dry-dropper most of the day, and picked up some on the bottom, some on the top.
The Mettawee and its tribs have a healthy supply of wild browns, native brookies, and wild rainbows, and both Saturday and Sunday I managed to get a wild trifecta with ease. They also have smart harvesting regulations. You're allowed to keep 2 a day, but nothing between 10"-14", and only 1 over 14". This is a regulation that makes sense to me, and shows me that the Vermont Fish Commission understands their resource and how to protect it.
On Sunday we fished up a tributary to the Mettawee. This was an interesting experience. My friend's son managed to catch his first trout on a fly rod, a little wild rainbow. During the day, this tributary produced mostly rainbows. I didn't catch a single brown out of it, but I did manage one beautiful native. The fish my buddy caught were all bows as well. Around 4pm we headed back to the cottage, had a nice BBQ with our families, then went out to the trib and fished the same beat we fished earlier in the day. This time, in the evening, 75% of the trout I caught were browns.
As we came up to a nice run, it was getting dark, and cahills started to pop. I walked up to a nice long run and saw about a half dozen rising trout in front of us. I called to my friend's son, and had him come up. I cut off his dry-dropper and tied on a cahill, and started having him cast to the rising trout. The last hour of the day was spent watching him try to catch risers on his dry. He had some takes, but didn't manage to land any. Still, the thrill of seeing trout rising to his dry fly, even if he got snubbed, was enough to really get him hooked on fly fishing. I remember having those same experiences when I was about his age and learning, and it lights a fire in you that just makes you want to keep casting and casting and casting til you can't see anymore.
One thing about Vermont that surprised me was this. First, the Green Mountains are absolutely stunning. When you're driving up 87 and you start seeing the mountains, the Catskills and then the Green Mountains, it just takes your breath away. Very very different than my beloved Allegheny mountains. Not "better", just different. Secondly, the geology of the streams are different. I'm not a rock guy at all, but one look at these streams, and you see a physical difference. Just in the color of the soil, the color of the rocks, it's a very dark soil with sharp contrasting golden, white, sparkling rocks. Just beautiful geology all around.
On our way home on Sunday, we took some dirt roads around Dorset, and I already have a few more stretches of this stream, as well as a few tribs, to try out next time. We talked about fishing the Battenkill, but decided against it due to the difficulty of the stream combined with the newbie status of my friend's son. We didn't want to frustrate him too soon ;-) Maybe next time, although streams with crowds have no draw to me. The people at the Orvis flagship store were great too. They have a nice map of the Battenkill available in the store, and the one guy marked out some access points for us next time we're up there, more of where the "locals" fish, away from the crowds on the famous stretch.
I did my research before going up, reading as much as I could about the streams in the Dorset area, and decided to focus on the Mettawee River system. My buddy used to swim in this stream as a kid, but never fished it, so he was familiar with the stream, access points, etc.
Friday morning we headed out and fished the upper reaches of the Mettawee, and got the skunk. I had a few rises to my dry, but nothing serious. Water was low, gin clear, fishing was tough. Friday evening we tried a little lower down on the system where the water was a little bigger, but still no luck.
Then the rain came. It rained pretty solidly all through Friday night, and Saturday was a different story. The water was still gin clear (all the streams in this area have remarkably clear water), but there was definitely better flows. Lots of caddis were flying around in the morning and afternoon, and I began picking up trout pretty steadily, including a chunker of a brownie from a very deep hole. I fished a dry-dropper most of the day, and picked up some on the bottom, some on the top.
The Mettawee and its tribs have a healthy supply of wild browns, native brookies, and wild rainbows, and both Saturday and Sunday I managed to get a wild trifecta with ease. They also have smart harvesting regulations. You're allowed to keep 2 a day, but nothing between 10"-14", and only 1 over 14". This is a regulation that makes sense to me, and shows me that the Vermont Fish Commission understands their resource and how to protect it.
On Sunday we fished up a tributary to the Mettawee. This was an interesting experience. My friend's son managed to catch his first trout on a fly rod, a little wild rainbow. During the day, this tributary produced mostly rainbows. I didn't catch a single brown out of it, but I did manage one beautiful native. The fish my buddy caught were all bows as well. Around 4pm we headed back to the cottage, had a nice BBQ with our families, then went out to the trib and fished the same beat we fished earlier in the day. This time, in the evening, 75% of the trout I caught were browns.
As we came up to a nice run, it was getting dark, and cahills started to pop. I walked up to a nice long run and saw about a half dozen rising trout in front of us. I called to my friend's son, and had him come up. I cut off his dry-dropper and tied on a cahill, and started having him cast to the rising trout. The last hour of the day was spent watching him try to catch risers on his dry. He had some takes, but didn't manage to land any. Still, the thrill of seeing trout rising to his dry fly, even if he got snubbed, was enough to really get him hooked on fly fishing. I remember having those same experiences when I was about his age and learning, and it lights a fire in you that just makes you want to keep casting and casting and casting til you can't see anymore.
One thing about Vermont that surprised me was this. First, the Green Mountains are absolutely stunning. When you're driving up 87 and you start seeing the mountains, the Catskills and then the Green Mountains, it just takes your breath away. Very very different than my beloved Allegheny mountains. Not "better", just different. Secondly, the geology of the streams are different. I'm not a rock guy at all, but one look at these streams, and you see a physical difference. Just in the color of the soil, the color of the rocks, it's a very dark soil with sharp contrasting golden, white, sparkling rocks. Just beautiful geology all around.
On our way home on Sunday, we took some dirt roads around Dorset, and I already have a few more stretches of this stream, as well as a few tribs, to try out next time. We talked about fishing the Battenkill, but decided against it due to the difficulty of the stream combined with the newbie status of my friend's son. We didn't want to frustrate him too soon ;-) Maybe next time, although streams with crowds have no draw to me. The people at the Orvis flagship store were great too. They have a nice map of the Battenkill available in the store, and the one guy marked out some access points for us next time we're up there, more of where the "locals" fish, away from the crowds on the famous stretch.
