Massachusetts

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Chesterfield Gorge, photo by Tom Walsh

This website really started because I used to visit my dad at his condo in the Berkshires, and I couldn't find any reliable information about where to fish for wild trout. The closest "fly shop" was the Orvis Store in Great Barrington, and they kept wanting to send me to the "famous" catch and release areas, which required a two hour drive and were heavily stocked with both trout and anglers. Absurdly, I ultimately learned, there was a lovely (and extremely challenging) limestone about a 3 minute drive from the store which they knew nothing about.

The interesting thing about Massachusetts is that the state provides a superb collection of streams (small to pretty darn big) which support wild trout populations. In the uplands of the western part of the state, most any stream with an intact watershed will support brookies. But even in the valleys, due to common-law practices dating back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, you'll find most streams are not posted. If you're driving along a road and see a stream that looks interesting, and it's not in somebody's back yard, you can almost certainly fish it legally.