New England
Fly fishing in Vermont
Short answer
Vermont fly fishing is small-river and mountain-stream fishing, with wild brown trout, native brook trout, rainbows and landlocked Atlantic salmon. The Battenkill, the White River and the Winooski are the headline waters. A licence is required from age 15, and the trout season on most streams runs from April into late October.
What makes Vermont different
Manchester, Vermont is the commercial birthplace of American fly fishing. Orvis was founded there in 1856 and is still there, the American Museum of Fly Fishing is a few minutes away, and the Battenkill runs between them. That river is the most quietly difficult trout stream in the Northeast: cold, clear, low in nutrients, and holding wild brown trout in modest numbers that have seen a great many flies. Nobody fishes the Battenkill for numbers. What Vermont gives you instead, once you leave the valley, is an enormous amount of small wild water — hundreds of miles of Green Mountain brook trout streams that no guide books and almost nobody fishes, reached by pulling off a dirt road and walking upstream. The state is small enough that both are a morning's drive apart.
What trout and other fish are in Vermont?
- Brook trout
- Native, and the default fish in the mountain streams. Small, bright and abundant.
- Brown trout
- Wild in the Battenkill and the larger valley rivers, and not easily fooled.
- Rainbow trout
- The White River and the Winooski hold wild, strong, lake-run fish in spring.
- Landlocked Atlantic salmon
- Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog tributaries, running in spring and autumn.
Where to fly fish in Vermont
- Battenkill River
- Famously hard. Wild browns, gin-clear water and a long history of humility.
- White River
- A long free-flowing river with wild rainbows and a run of lake fish in spring.
- Winooski River
- Lake Champlain tributary. Steelhead and landlocked salmon below the falls.
- Lamoille River
- Mixed browns and rainbows, good hatches, and easier than the Battenkill.
- Otter Creek
- Slower, warmer water holding big browns and, lower down, pike.
- Clyde River
- Northeast Kingdom. Landlocked salmon running out of Memphremagog in autumn.
When to fly fish in Vermont
| When | What is happening |
|---|---|
| April | The general trout season opens on the second Saturday. High cold water, and nymphs more than dries. |
| May | Hendricksons, then caddis. The rivers drop and the dry-fly fishing starts in earnest. |
| June | The best month. Sulphurs, March browns and evening caddis on every river in the state. |
| July – August | Low water. Fish the mountain brook trout streams and the terrestrials, and go early. |
| September – October | Landlocked salmon running, brown trout colouring up, and the season closing at the end of October on most streams. |
Do you need a license to fly fish in Vermont?
Yes. Licenses are issued by Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.
| License | Price |
|---|---|
| Resident, annual | $28 |
| Non-resident, annual | $54 |
Figures are the 2026 rates for an annual fishing licence, and match the fee schedule set in Vermont statute. There is no separate trout stamp. Prices change — check with the agency before you buy.
Rules worth knowing before you go
- A fishing licence is required from age 15.
- Most trout streams run a season from the second Saturday in April to the end of October. A number of waters are open year-round, and some are catch and release outside the season.
- Vermont has designated trout management areas with their own tackle and harvest rules — check the stretch before you fish it.
- Landlocked salmon and lake trout carry their own seasons and limits on the Champlain and Memphremagog tributaries.
Regulations change every year and vary water by water. The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department rule book is the only authority — this page is a starting point, not a legal reference.
Flies that matter in Vermont
Each of these is a card in the deck, and each has a full page in Our Fly-brary.
Keep reading
- Do I need a fishing license? — how licensing works across states
- How to read water — where trout hold, anywhere
- Best time of day to fly fish — the seasonal logic behind the table above
- Our Fly-brary — every fly in the deck, explained
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The deck
54 flies, drawn by hand, in your jacket pocket.
A 54-card fly-fishing deck of original hand-drawn flies, each explaining what it imitates. Made by a father-and-daughter team in Eagle, Idaho.
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