Connecticut packs two excellent trout rivers into a state small enough to cross in an hour. The Farmington River below Hogback Dam is a tailwater with cold releases, heavy insect hatches, and a trout population dense enough to keep the river crowded from April through October. The Housatonic in the northwest corner is bigger, warmer in summer, and famous for wild brown trout that grow large in its trout management area.
The Farmington River below Hogback Dam is a tailwater with cold releases, heavy insect hatches, and a trout population dense enough to keep the river crowded from April through October.
The Farmington is the river most Connecticut anglers call home water. The catch-and-release section through New Hartford and Pleasant Valley holds rainbows and browns that feed through the winter on midges and start rising to Hendricksons in April. Sulphurs follow in May and June, caddis fill the summer evenings, and blue-winged olives take over in the fall. Because the dam releases cold water all year, the Farmington is one of the few eastern rivers that fishes in January as well as July.
The Housatonic is the trophy river. Its trout management area through Cornwall holds wild browns that see few stocked fish and grow to serious size, and the June sulphur hatch brings them to the surface in the evenings. Summer heat pushes the trout into thermal refuges and smallmouth bass take over the main river, which is a fine trade. The Naugatuck River hosts a broodstock Atlantic salmon program with catch-and-release fishing through the colder months, and coastal rivers like the Hammonasset carry sea-run brown trout most anglers never think to look for.
The Farmington fishes year-round. The Housatonic is best from March through June and again from September through November. Salmon season on the Naugatuck runs through fall and winter. Check Farmington flows: releases change with power demand and rain.