Top Ten Trout Fishing Spots

Top Ten Trout Fishing Spots

Arnold Gingrich, an avid angler who also happened to found Esquire magazine, once wrote, “A trout is a moment of beauty known only to those who seek it.” According to government statistics, some 12 million anglers in the U.S. and Canada search for that moment of beauty every year. President Obama joined the ranks this week when he went off with his fishing gear to go trout fishing in Montana.

North American anglers are surely blessed. The continent has some of the best trout fishing in the world. And unlike the British Isles, where most trout water is private, the best trout fishing on this side of the pond is open to the public and relatively easy to access.

Depending on where you live, the summer might not be the best time to take up the sport since some rivers and streams have warm to the point that the fish stop eating during daylight hours. But spring creeks (streams formed by ice cold springs) and rivers known as “tailwaters” (rivers fed by the dams that release cool water from the bottom) fish well all year round, even in the dog days of August.  With the fall, all rivers will begin to cool off. Superb trout fishing is right around the corner. And we’ve got some great places to do it.

Admittedly, the best trout fishing is wherever you can do it, and people tend to favor their home streams.

East Coast Spots
In the East, Roscoe, N.Y., in the heart of the Catskill Mountains, calls itself Trout Town USA. The hallowed Beaverkill River-a favorite haunt of the late Arnold Gingrich and the New York City literary set, and the charming Willowemoc River flow right through town. Nearby, the East and West branches of the Delaware River provide some of the best wild brown and rainbow trout fishing in the East.

You might think of State College, Penn., as just a college football town, but the area surrounding it is veined with what locals call “limestoners,” which are creeks and rivers fed by cool springs. Penns Creek and Spring Creek, which flow through town, are two world-famous trout streams. “The springs keep the rivers fishable all year,” says Weamer. “And they hold some big trout.”
In the West, Montana has earned the reputation as perhaps the best trout fishing spot in North America. Missoula and West Yellowstone are two of the most prominent, but really any place in the western part of the state could fit the bill.

Missoula is a laid back college town with a serious trout fishing addiction. Anglers can fish the bouldery Blackfoot (A River Runs Through It, author Norman Maclean’s home river) and the cottonwood lined Bitteroot, both of which empty into the Clark Fork, named after explorer, William Clark, which has 300 miles of fishable water.

West Yellowstone is in the epicenter of some of the best trout fishing in the world. It’s a quirky place, where the frontier greets thousands of RVs that cruise through Yellowstone National Park.

“It’s a honky tonk town with everything a fly fisherman needs,” says Tom Rosenbauer, the marketing director for Orvis Rod & Tackle, manufacturers of some great trout fishing rods. “And it’s a gateway to so much great fishing.”

In the park, anglers can hit the famous Firehole and Gibbon Rivers. Also nearby is the Gallatin, the trout rich Madison and Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, one of the most beautiful and challenging trout rivers in the world.

But there is great trout fishing found all over North America, from Michigan to Arkansas to California to Calgary. Time to rig up the rod and get out there