Housatonic River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Connecticut

About the Housatonic River

The Housatonic runs south out of the Berkshires through the northwest corner of Connecticut, past Falls Village, Cornwall and Kent, and on toward Long Island Sound. Through the Litchfield Hills it is a wide, shallow, ledge-and-boulder river with long flats, hard pocket water and a covered-bridge kind of beauty. It is a very different river from the Farmington: bigger, warmer, more freestone, and fished as much for smallmouth as for trout.

The trout management area between Falls Village and Cornwall Bridge is the famous water, holding brown and rainbow trout with good hatches, including a well-known hendrickson and a strong fall olive period. Because it is a freestone river it warms in midsummer, and thermal refuge areas near the cold tributary mouths are closed or restricted in hot weather to protect stressed trout, which every angler should check before fishing in July and August. Below the trout water the river becomes an excellent smallmouth fishery, with northern pike in the slower reaches and large carp on the flats for anglers who want them.

The Gaylordsville gauge sits on the lower river below the trout water. Moderate readings mean wadeable ledges and good float conditions; spring melt makes the river big and pushy, and the ledge drops that are fun in a raft at moderate flows get serious at high water. Late-summer low water is warm, clear and best fished at dawn, and that is when the smallmouth fishing below Kent is at its best.

Cornwall Bridge, West Cornwall, Kent and Falls Village are the base towns, with fly shops and outfitters. The Appalachian Trail runs beside the river for several miles.

Access

Falls Village: the top of the trout management area.
Housatonic Meadows State Park: campground, parking and the best-known trout water.
West Cornwall and the covered bridge: mid-river access and pocket water.
Cornwall Bridge: shops, guides and the bottom of the trout water.
Kent and Bulls Bridge: the transition to smallmouth water.
Gaylordsville: lower river access at the gauge.
New Milford and Lake Lillinonah: the bottom of the smallmouth reach.

Seasons

April and May: high water, Hendricksons and the strongest trout fishing of the year.
June: the last good trout weeks before it warms; smallmouth start.
July and August: warm water, check thermal refuge closures; excellent smallmouth fishing at dawn.
September through November: cooling water, fall olives, big smallmouth and beautiful weather.