Rivers to fish in 2012

Tim Purinton

Director, Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration

View Tim's Bio

Each winter, I create a wish list of which Massachusetts rivers and streams I’m itching to fish once the spring flows recede and aquatic insect activity perks up. This kind of thinking, clearly a coping mechanism, helps me through the dark days of winter (especially with today's late season snowfall). 

Here are some of the rivers on my fish list, in no particular order. Note my preferences typically hinge on fishing small, wild trout streams sometimes tucked away in the corners of the state or in the midst of the suburbs and most often include rivers that we are helping to restore.

  Green River (Leyden and Colrain) – As it flows from the Vermont border, this river is picture perfect. I’m curious to see how Tropical Storm Irene has changed the pool riffle structure since my last trip in 2009. The Department of Ecological Restoration (DER) and the City of Greenfield have been closely examining dam removal options on the lower Green. The other notable Green River in Great Barrington is also a great trout stream worthy of a cast or two.

  North Hoosic River (Clarksburg) – Also located near the Vermont border, the river is gorgeous and full of deep pools that hold year-round trout. A plethora of partners, including DER, assisted with the removal of the Briggsville Dam and I’m interested in fishing the restored river reach to see if how it responds to a bead-head nymph.

 Schenob Brook (Sheffield) – The Nature Conservancy has focused on protecting land along this meandering river in the eastern shadow of Mt. Everett. The brook is relatively sluggish and low gradient and may not yield many brook trout, but I’m curious to get my waders wet in this stream and see what lurks below the surface.

  Amethyst Brook (Pelham) – Smack in the middle of the state, you are only one dam away from the ocean once you step over the banks of Amethyst Brook. As a result you may catch sight of a glass eel burrowing into the stream bottom. This year, the Bartlett Rod Company Dam is planned to be removed, but I’m interested in exploring fishing waters below the dam to see what the habitat looks like prior to river restoration.

  Mill River/Ox Pasture Brook (Rowley) – There has been a local effort to revive the sea-run brook trout population here. Reports are that salters, another term for the trout, are utilizing now accessible sections of Ox Pasture Brook since the lower dam was removed in 2010. This spot is close to home so it’s easy to hit after work.

Dozens more streams come to mind including the Weweantic River, Red Brook, Thousand Acre Brook. What rivers are you thinking about this time of year?

 

Comments

[Jonas]

Nice run down Tim and a great job your department is doing on restoring rivers around the state. I grew up in the Greenfield area and remember going down to one of the dams on the green river (on a tip from an ecologist friend) to watch two atlantic salmon practically with their noses pressed to it. It was sort of heartbreaking to see, though also gave me hope that if we do something about it then maybe migratory fish will have a real chance to do their thing. Very excited about the prospect of taking those dams out, and I hope the project moves ahead at full speed!

Anyway, maybe see you on a river one of these days.

Jonas

[Russ H]

At a recent site visit with my colleagues on the Conservation Commission, some local residents, who care ferociously for their neighborhood, accompanied us. One told a story of a Halloween party at the nearby one-room schoolhouse [currently in fabulous condition BTW] when he was a boy and how he was sent by the older kids into the culvert over Bacon Brook as an initiation of sorts. He talked of cobwebs, bats, fear and darkness. Another chum of his talked of learning to fish and then teaching his son to fish in the brook we were there to protect. We learned of an old sawmill at the site as well. Just upstream from the location the brook has been dammed for some time and the resulting pond carries a good variety of warmer water fish, but, the fisherman with his white handlebar mustache from the old Ironstone neighborhood has me wondering if I might just still be able to hook a wiley brook trout in what's left of the tributary before it pours into the Blackstone...