Fly Fishing Guide to the Battenkill

The main stem of the 60-mile-long Battenkill forms from the confluence of the East and West Branches in downtown Manchester, Vermont, home of the Orvis Company and the American Museum of Fly Fishing. Though notoriously challenging to fish, anglers from all around the world ply its fabled waters for brook trout (it’s rare for a river this size to have strong populations of brookies) and large brown trout that swim in its waters almost as far downstream as its confluence with the Hudson River in New York.

In Fly Fishing Guide to the Battenkill, local expert Doug Lyons covers the fishing access, hatches, patterns, and strategies for both the Vermont and New York stretches of the river, as well as its major tributaries, including both its East and West Branches near Dorset and Roaring Branch, Green River, and Bromley Brook. Lyons also covers other nearby fishing opportunities such as the Mettowee, Walloomsac, Black, West, and Hoosic Rivers.

Doug Lyons has a lifelong love affair with the Battenkill and probably knows it better than anyone alive.

Doug Lyons is a board member of the Battenkill Watershed Alliance and part of an ad hoc advisory group helping to guide the activities of the Battenkill Home Rivers Initiative, which he helped launch. He was the vice president and president of the Southwestern Vermont Chapter of Trout Unlimited in the mid 2000s, where he helped fundraise for early habitat restoration efforts on the Battenkill. He has written for the Manchester Journal, the Orvis.com fly fishing blog, and Upcountry Journal, and presents to local clubs on the Battenkill. He lives in Maynard, Massachusetts.

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