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3. Native Brookies

I live in the Northeastern part of Massachusetts and have a lake house in the middle of New Hampshire just past Concord. I usually fly fish for smallmouth bass in lakes and ponds up here. I recently took a trip to Colorado and was lucky enough to fish the dream stream, along with the Blue and Colorado rivers. I was wondering if there was any rivers in the northeast that could yield the same excitement. Now what I actually mean is what river, brook, or stream, that will have the same level of thrill that discovering a pool of rainbows, browns, or cutthroat out west, will have up in the Northeast finding brookies or rainbows?

I think comparing trout fishing out west to trout fishing here in the east is like comparing the ny yankees to the pittsburgh pirates, it really isnt fair to compare the two, I think the closest trout fishing to out west youll find east of the mississippi in terms of quality and size is probably the limestone streams of central pa.

Being from Massachusetts and being a huge yankee fan it is nice to here a friendly fly fishermen compliment the yankees. But getting back to the matter at hand I have heard that the catskills have the same amount of brookies and rainbows but the size of these fish are far less than that of the cutbows and browns out west.

I grew up in western mass near springfield but Im no yankee fan lol, I have family that lives in gloucester maybe near where you are somewhat. I dont think anybody can deny that the west is the best when it comes to trout fishing.

I have little experience N. of Pa and even less experience out west. That being said don't write off the streams on the east coast just yet.
Speaking only of Pa I feel we have as good a concentration of top notch trout fishing as anywhere in the country. The fish can be tougher because of the pressure they recieve on the popular streams but once you unlock their secrets they are very productive. In my opinion the major difference in Eastern trout vs. western trout is the scenerey. My recomendation would be to buy a few delorme atlas's and start exploring I think that you will be very pleased w/ what you can find. By the way this is not intended to belittle western trout waters, the time i spent in rocky mountain national park(mostly hiking) was incomparable to any trip I have taken before. I just think that if you compare the experience accepting that the appalacians are not the rockies you could say a more proper analogy would be the colorado rockies to the pittsburgh pirates. Maybe my love of the yankees just puts them to high for the previous analogy to work,
or better yet we could draw a comparison between bbq ribs and steak, both delicious just different.
jeff

Nice one Jeff--or Cicadas and Hoppers.

I think that we must also consider the pollution and dams that some of the eastern rivers have. Out west i know that there a huge fines for albody littering, never mind dumping garbage in or near the rivers and streams. The fish here in the east are hardy and are used to this but this may also play into their spawning cycles and others natural events that can be impeaded by dams and bridges. Out west their are no dams on the river but i still think that some of the popular rivers out west recieve far more pressure than up here in the Northeast.

There are a lot of dams on rivers out West.

One I have watched before going out West to the Henry's Fork in Last Chance, Idaho is here: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/id/nwis/uv/?site_no=13042500&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060.

If I had it my way, I would start on the Delaware River in April / early-May. Then go to Northwest Wisconsin (Namekagon & Bois Brule) for mid-May and June and then go out West (Madison River & Henry's Fork) for July and August. And down in Argentina & New Zealand during our winter months!

Its not necessarily in your "neck of the woods" but it is closer than out west- try the Telico River tributaries in Tennessee. There are great rivers in upper Michigan including the mainland and U.P. that have many offerings. PA has some outstanding streams, crystal clear and challenging. Out west is good but not the end all.

I currently live in Western North Carolina and fish the smokies, lots of great places. I've also lived in Vermont and fished many great waters there and in Maine for wild brook and landlock salmon. There's lot of great fishing within driving distance of Mass. A little research and a little exploring will get you onto some good fish.

Tight lines

Teddy

John S. your totally right about the dams. i wasn't really thinking. i ment to say that the eastern streams where i am have a lot of little dams impeading native trout to spawn. Out West your right in saying that there are huge dams but i would say there aren't as much on the actual trout river, the dams out west are at the ends of lakes.

In no way is the east bad for trout fishing, there are tons of good places, just saying that if you had to call the fight the west would win hands down because it has more fish, bigger fish, healthier wild populations, better habitat, less pressure, more cold water, the list goes on on and on. Ive only been out west once when I was a kid and only now do I really appreciate how good it actually was. cant wait to go back.