Trout Fishing in America: Addison County’s Secret Streams

Trout Season in Vermont opened April 9th without much fanfare. Fishermen along Lewis Creek in Addison County claim few fish are hooked on opening day anyway. Opening Day is more of a ritualistic celebration of the arrival of spring. It’s about getting outdoors and communing with nature.

Any trout fishermen worth his fly (or her fly) will tell you that felt soles are banned this year and the best trout streams are none of your business (but there are some in Addison County).

Felt-soled waders and boots are banned this year because their use helps spread aquatic invasive species such as a disgusting algae commonly known as ‘rock snot’.

The very best trout streams are as secret as the formula for Coke, but I have seen smiling anglers in Addison County along the New Haven River, Lewis Creek, and Otter Creek. Only years of experience or an astute guide can tell you where the best holes are. I’ve linked these river names to some great riverfront properties. If you lived in any of these Addison County homes, you’d gain that experience. You might even be cooking a trout dinner by now.

April is also National Poetry Month. The combination of Trout Season and Poetry can mean only one thing: Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America. Brautigan was a post-beat generation poet and novelist. Trout Fishing in America is his first novel, published in 1961. It is an abstract novel that became a cult classic. It’s a kind of “A River Runs Through It” on hallucinogens.

In honor of the season and the month, here is an excerpt from Brautigan’s The Return of the Rivers quoted on www.brautigan.net:

It is a warm green rain
with love
in its pockets
for spring is here,
and does not dream
of death.

image credit: www.tuswvt.org, www.litkicks.com