Housatonic mixed bag

I continued my fall fishing tour and fished the Housatonic for the first time on Saturday. I kept with my theme of only fishing streamers in the hopes that I’d stick some bigger fish. I checked out 3-4 spots and did pretty well on a mixed bag of fish. The Housatonic is a beautiful river set in a great valley. The first section I fished was downstream of Great Barrington. The river was wide, meandering, deep, and somewhat slow. Unsurprisingly I didn’t find any trout down that far but I hear there are some monsters in there! I connected with several smallmouth bass (including the big girl pictured below), rock bass, and fallfish.

The next spot I went to was in the lower catch-and-release area upstream from Great Barrington proper. This section looked much more like classic trout water with higher gradient and faster flows, larger boulders, pocket water and the like. Again though I was bombarded with smallmouth bass, fallfish, and a few rock bass. The scenery was impressive.

The final spot I visited on Saturday at the Housatonic was upstream in the upper catch-and-release area. I parked and waded up through a long stretch of ankle deep flat water before finding a really nice bend pool. Here I got into several brown trout along with the mixed species assemblage I was catching prior. The browns seemed particularly aggressive smashing my streamer hard and fighting with abandon. Nothing huge but overall some solid fish came to my net. I’m still searching for the real big ones but those don’t often come easy so I’ll be patient and time on the water will eventually lead to good things.

My first trip to the Housatonic was quite interesting and a pretty good trip. I’ll certainly be back as I’m sure the river harbors some monster browns just begging for a well-placed streamer. The lower sections also seem intriguing for as a potential summer smallmouth fishing location. It also looks like like a sweet river to float for ducks later in the season!

Anyone else have much experience on this river? How is the fall fishing season going for everyone out there?

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6 thoughts on “Housatonic mixed bag

  1. The housi C&R is my fly fishing stomping grounds. If you'd like give me a shout & I'll meet you there and introduce you to some spots that aren't there and won't speak about. I've been going to the Deerfield river in Florida Ma because the water on the Housi is so low, but hopefully it will rebound.

    1. Hey dude, thanks, I'd love to get out there with you and learn the river better! I'll keep your secret spots secret. I've been hitting up the Deerfield some as well but haven't done too great yet this fall. I'll send you a message.

  2. Nice fallfish! That thing is massive! I'llfish for anything that'll crush a big streamer like that, if you ever want to get into some monster browns with big streamers like that on the Farmington in CT hit me up!

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