Fly Fishing Road Trips
Good People      Good Water       Good Fish

I left Rhode Island late in the evening after a night in torrential rain at my Rhode Island campsite and slept in a seedy motel outside Farmington, Connecticut. The following day I drive up roads following the crazy beautiful winding Farmington River across to the Massachusetts side of the Farmington. My career commitments made me not stop and fish the Farmington, but I drove all the spots I researched, which gave me a complete picture of the area. The Farmington has to be one of the best rivers I have ever seen.

I stopped into a coffee shop to do my conference calls with my mask on, it is May 2021, and Covid is still on. Just outside the coffee shop is another trout stream. I researched the East Branch Housatonic River, but there was no time to fish again.

​

After work, I drove to my campsite Mohawk Trail Campground (42.63823, -72.93628). I was hoping this would be the best campsite as my site is right on the Cold River; I was not disappointed. The campground was almost empty, with it being the early season and Covid still in place.  

​

The Cold River has large boulders and clear water. Locals and state forest rangers informed me that a big flood took a lot of trout cover away, and recent rain flushed the stock trout from the stream three weeks ago downstream to the Deerfield River. However, I fished my first evening in what should have been good trout water into silence. After releasing so many other good fish while traveling in the Northeast, I wanted a trout dinner.

​

I got some advice from a park ranger on fishing the Deerfield River, the Cadilac of rivers in the area. The Deerfield is a tailwater fishery with many dams. The water generation is consistent and starts in the late morning, with water level drops again in the evening. The following day I drove up to the dam, Lower Reservoir Bear Swamp, around 9 am, just before a day's conference calls. I fished just downstream with no luck. The river was starting to rise, and I had no chance. I felt out of my element as Deerfield is a wide river, and it could take several days to figure it out, which I didn't have as I was working during the day. However, in the following days, I did see serval cars where I was fishing, so I knew it was a good spot.

​

On my last day, as I was getting very nervous about not catching a trout in Massachusetts, I researched and decided to fish above the Lower Reservoir Bear Swamp, hoping the river would be smaller. The place is Dunbar Brook Trailhead below Deerfield River Reservoir. Unfortunately, I had a two-hour break between meetings and a 20-minute drive to Dunbar Brook around noon. So I've primarily been doing my calls in a pullout on the Deerfield River (Sunpike Rest Area 42.63599, -72.90589) with significant bandwidth near Charlemont, even though I never fished the spot.

​

Dunbar Brook parking lot (42.70429, -72.95017) was perfect as there was not a single soul there, plus there was a trail down to the Deerfield. Following the path while climbing over trees and large boulders, I arrived at the river. It was just like a Colorado stream. Clearwater with colored granite boulders, tall pines, and mountains peering up.   

Once in the river, I was at home as the river was not as comprehensive as the lower sections, and large boulders created holes. I found two holes right away. I laid my Yellow Stimulator and Red Copper John into the cold water with lots of boulder climbing. The water was deep in narrow channels, there had to be a trout, and there was! I nailed a good size brown trout on my red nymph!

​

Massachusetts Done!

​

I caught two more fish, a Brook, and another Brown, before heading back down to my rest stop to start up work again.