Best month to fish the Farmington River

Month-by-month fishing quality

Why these months?

Two things decide your odds on the Farmington River: flow and season. You need the river in its fishable-flow band — so a freestone in spring runoff is out no matter how good the hatch would be, while a dam-fed tailwater holds shape year-round. On top of that, the hatches and water temperatures line up best in October and September and May and June, which is why those months edge out the rest. The Farmington River's season runs year-round goodwin dam tailwater tma; fishes most months, best in low, clear fall water and may–june hatches.

The West Branch Farmington below Goodwin Dam is New England's premier tailwater trout fishery — a 3.6-mile flies-only, catch-and-release Trout Management Area running from Riverton down through Pleasant Valley to New Hartford, holding a genuinely wild and holdover population of browns and rainbows in cold, clear, dam-buffered water year-round. Prolific Hendrickson, sulphur, isonychia and blue-winged olive hatches draw technical dry-fly anglers from across the Northeast, and because the flow rarely spikes the way a freestone does, it's one of the most reliably fishable rivers in the region twelve months a year.

Where to fish the Farmington River

The Upper TMA runs from about a mile above the Route 318 bridge in Riverton down to the Route 219 bridge in New Hartford — Church Pool, just below the 318 bridge in Pleasant Valley, is the best-known named run. Most of the TMA wades comfortably inside the 150–400 cfs band; check the Riverton gage before a trip, since releases can push flows up quickly after rain.

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