This is the first of four weekly stories looking at rivers and streams in the state as trout season is upon us. Opening Day is Saturday at 6 a.m.
The visit to the L.L. Bean factory store in Maine had become a tradition, just like the trip to Canada to fish for salmon.
Dave Goulet, a fly shop owner himself, walked into L.L. Bean’s fishing department to check out the latest gear. Behind the counter, a board on a wall that reported fishing conditions in a half-dozen streams caught his eye.
“The Farmington River was one of the six quality rivers listed,” Goulet said. “That’s when I knew we’d made it. They knew about the Farmington River in Maine, which is a fishing and hunting paradise.”
The Farmington and its renowned West Branch haven’t always had that distinction, at least not since the native Indians and the first white settlers fished for salmon and trout from the banks.
Riverside factories during the Industrial Revolution built dams that made it impossible for fish to migrate. Pollution, trash and septic waste poured into the river for decades, soiling a once-pristine resource.
“There’s an old saying that you need to take care of the rivers you have because they’re not making any more,” Goulet said. “The Farmington became the contradiction to that.”
The reversal began when the 1955 hurricane wiped out most riverside factories and dams. The cleanup continued in the ’60s when the environmental movement began, and the federal government enacted standards.
In 1994, 14 miles of the Farmington River West Branch was designated as the only National Wild and Scenic River in the state, one of only six in New England and 160 nationwide.
The trout stocked by the state had made the Farmington a popular fishery for years, but in the ’60s and ’70s it had become largely a put-and-take operation with warm water, low flows and high algae growth in the summer months severely limiting survival rates until fall.
Then, in the early ’80s, something even better happened. The Farmington suddenly became a successful cold water fishery, and it was all because of a valve.
“A big storm washed away some soil at the bottom of the Hogback Dam,” said Goulet, owner of the Classic and Custom Fly Shop in New Hartford. “Lo and behold, at the bottom of the dam there was a bottom release valve.
“People said, ‘What’s this?’ No one knew it was there until it was exposed by the storm.”
The bottom release valve allowed for the feeding of cold water into the Farmington River West Branch from the depths of the Hogback Reservoir, rather than the warm water that ran across the dam spillway from the reservoir surface.
Because of the bottom release valve, water temperatures in the upper river stretches only reach 50-55 degrees in midsummer, with the water gradually becoming warmer as it flows southeast to the confluence with the East Branch in New Hartford. Wintertime, the bottom release normally keeps waters warm enough to prevent freezing, making the Farmington a thriving fishery year-round.
“It’s the best in New England,” Goulet said.
Saturday is Opening Day in the state and along the mainstream near the Hitchco*ck chair factory in Riverton and at the deep pools of the Trout Management Area in New Hartford anglers will again be lined shoulder-to-shoulder. Since late February, the DEP has stocked about 412,000 trout in 97 lakes and ponds and 201 rivers and streams, with another 300,000 to be released by the end of May.
Unique to the Farmington stocking the last seven or eight years is that some of the trout are direct offspring of trout that were born in the river. They are a known entity, in contrast to normal hatchery trout that are commercial fish grown strictly for table fare. These offspring of Farmington River trout behave like wild trout, are solitary like wild trout, take positions in the river like wild trout, and they are wary and wily like wild trout. Most important, they are not easily caught, providing another level of fishing for the angler who wants more of a challenge.
At the end of the first season these trout were introduced, fall surveys indicated there were 100 larger fish in the catch-and-release area of the Farmington. Last year, there were more than 550. Not only was that an incredible jump, but some of these trout are now nearly two feet long.
“People can’t believe the turnaround in this river,” Goulet said. “Thirty miles from the state Capitol there is a world-class fishery, better than it was just 30-40 years ago. Where else can you say that?
“I’m one of the biggest critics, but when the government is doing a good job, people should know about it. This is where some of their tax dollars are going.”
RIVER AT A GLANCE
The west branch of the river begins in Otis, Mass., and flows south 13 miles before entering Connecticut at the upper end of Colebrook River Lake, more commonly called Colebrook Reservoir. The river then flows 4.5 miles through Colebrook River Lake and 1.3 miles through the West Branch Reservoir, where a bottom release at the James Goodwin Dam, often called Hogback Dam, creates an 11-mile cold, free-flowing river section in Connecticut. The Farmington River West Branch flows through Colebrook, Hartland, Barkhamsted and New Hartford before joining the East Branch near New Hartford.
Depth
Many of the larger pools in the river are more than 5 feet deep, providing cover for larger trout. Numerous broad, moderately deep riffles are less than a foot and a half deep. Anglers can wade most riffles and pool edges or fish from the banks. While the river is accessible to anglers in canoes, it can be challenging in some sections, especially during high spring flows.
Management
The river produces some fast-growing wild brown trout and a few brook trout in the 3.5-mile Trout Management Area, upstream of the Route 219 bridge in New Hartford, but the majority of trout are hatchery stockings. Surplus broodstock trout up to 29 inches have been found in fall sampling, as well as some wild brown trout up to 24 inches. The typical trout is usually a stocked 11- to 14-inch brown trout.
Temperatures
Temperatures immediately below the Hogback Dam can reach 50-55 degrees in midsummer, with the water gradually becoming warmer as the river flows southeast to its confluence with the East Branch. As long as the cold bottom waters are not depleted, the West Branch will stay cool all summer. Bottom water releases in the winter help maintain water temperatures of 33-40 degrees, preventing ice formation in most winters and leaving the river open to fishing year-round.
Stocking
Trout are stocked several times during the spring, summer and fall from Hogback Dam, downriver to the confluence with the East Branch near New Hartford. The river is stocked with more than 30,000 trout a year in the put-and-take sections and 3,800 adult trout in the TMA, in addition to the 3,000 yearling brown trout stocked in the TMA.
Restrictions
The TMA is managed under catch-and-release regulations with a barbless hook restriction, providing anglers the opportunity to fish year-round. Outside of the TMA there is a 12-inch minimum length in effect for trout, and anglers are only allowed to harvest two trout a day.
