Fly Fishing Adventures

Local Fly Fishing Opportunities

Fishing in Southwest Connecticut can be both fun and rewarding, with plenty of places to fish in-season.

There are many areas to fly fish locally in Fairfield County, in Southwestern Connecticut. These rivers offer terrific access and fly fishing in season. With the exception’s of tailwaters like the West Branch of the Farmington River, the season for most of these rivers is from February to mid-June, then from Mid-September through November.

Fishing in the summer is not recommended. The trout that are in these rivers do not fare well to being caught in the summertime when the water temperatures in the stream are above 68F and the mortality rate is high.

Local fly fishing streams and rivers include:

  • Aspetuck River (Weston and Westport, Connecticut)
  • Byram River (Greenwich, Connecticut)
  • Mianus River (Stamford & Greenwich, Connecticut)
  • Mill River (Easton & Fairfield, Connecticut)
  • Norwalk River (Ridgefield, Wilton, and Norwalk, Connecticut)
  • Pequonnock River (Trumbull and Bridgeport, Connecticut)
  • Rippowam River (Stamford, Connecticut)
  • Saugatuck River (Danbury, Weston, Redding, and Westport, Connecticut)

Other areas nearby to fly fish include:

  • Housatonic River (Litchfield County – Garylordsville, Sherman, New Milford, Kent, Cornwall, Sharon, and Falls Village, Connecticut). During the summer months this river is an incredible smallmouth bass fishery!
  • West Branch Farmington River (Litchfield County – Canton, Collinsville, New Hartford, Barkhamsted, and Riverton, Connecticut). This river is a tailwater that mantains cool water temperature much of the year for trout fishing-especially during the summer months!
  • Naugatuck River (New Haven and Litchfield County – Beacon Falls and Litchfield/Harwington, Connecticut). Beside fishing for trout, during the late fall and winter months the state stocks salmon!

A state of Connecticut fishing license and a trout and salmon stamp is required to fish in all these rivers. Downloadable pdf topographic fishing maps and an interactive trout stocking map are available on the Connecticut DEEP website. These provide locations to park and river access.