Western MA Blue Lines

On Wednesday I took a trip out to the Deerfield with Aaron. I love fishing in Western MA. There's something special about the rolling hills of the Berkshires. The White Mountains are rugged and beautiful, but the Berkshires have their own charm.

We started out fishing the upper Deerfield (above Fife Brook), but didn't have much luck. We saw a couple of fish rising, and a few fry swimming in the shallows, but we weren't able to hook anything.

To finish the day we decided to move down the watershed to fish a small tributary. I knew this stream, like every other small mountain stream in the area, would have brook trout, but I'd also heard there might be a few wild rainbows around. This stream is one valley over from another stream where I caught wild rainbows last year, and the geology in area is favorable to rainbows.

Unfortunately we didn't find any, but there were plenty of brookies. The stream was classic brook trout habitat, with tons of fallen trees and plunge pools. There were also some cool narrow gorges formed by the bedrock in the area.