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Fly Fishing Guide to the Battenkill: Complete Guide to Locations, Hatches, and History
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.
288 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 18, 2023
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2023
The author is not a “local expert” as the jacket copy states.
He lives in Boston, 3 hours and 150 miles away.
Some good information here. Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of betraying the trust of many many local anglers who live on or near the Battenkill here in Vermont, and who have also worked tirelessly with the state, TU, Orvis, Battenkill Watershed Alliance and others to help bring the Battenkill back to a healthy state, but it is still not out of the woods and doesn't need the pressure of someone giving every reader/angler a total breakdown of each and very section of the river.
I was the TU President and met personally with the Wildlife commissioner when we fought the Fish & Widlife Dept. and led public hearings to stop the proposed stocking of rainbows and rallied the agency to instead focus on the restoration of habitat. As a member of the Orvis Conservation board, I helped select the Battenkill as a project that raised 100s of thousand of matching funds as Orvis formed an alliance with the state and feds TU and others to restore habitat, projects that continue today, 13 years later.
I live 2 minutes from the Kill and have for 20+ years.
I know the author, and have for 20 years. We worked together in that effort.
He gleaned much of his lifetime's knowledge from from other anglers that put him in their trust when he said he was going to write a book about the history and conservation of the river, not a "Guide to Fly Fishing."
He would have written a great book about that.
He didn't write that book.
While the Kill is famous, the info is base, hot-spotting at its worst.
If one truly cares about a river, they do not expose it in this way, unless they put themselves, and being seen as an "expert" above the river.
The Battenkill in Vermont is all of 18 miles long and remains in a tenuous state despite its improvement over the past decade.
While it is "famous" it is still vulnerable.
It can be loved to death.
The Kill is one of only four truly wild trout fisheries of size in the entire state, and is the state's one true gem.
This is not the West. The Kill is not surrounded by scores of other famous rivers to choose from when pressure gets too high. It is not a watershed like those out west that vary so much over their long courses that the angling methods are nearly infinite. It is not the 200-mile long Madison or 700 mile Yellowstone, or an of other of scores of western rivers that are 100s of miles long with dozens and dozens of other famous and unknown blue ribbon gems to choose from within a short drive.
This book gives away information learned from others and puts it all up for sale so the author can be seen as an expert.
As well, the tributaries he targets certainly can do without added pressure.
I know many many actual experts on this river, anglers who are on it 150 days a year, fishing or observing. Anglers who don't just come up during peaks of hatches. Anglers and conservationists both, who would never give what they know away for anything. If they did, it was in confidence, and that confidence has been betrayed.
This book breaks the code of both conservationists and anglers.
The author is not a “local expert” as the jacket copy states.
He lives in Boston, 3 hours and 150 miles away.
Some good information here. Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of betraying the trust of many many local anglers who live on or near the Battenkill here in Vermont, and who have also worked tirelessly with the state, TU, Orvis, Battenkill Watershed Alliance and others to help bring the Battenkill back to a healthy state, but it is still not out of the woods and doesn't need the pressure of someone giving every reader/angler a total breakdown of each and very section of the river.
I was the TU President and met personally with the Wildlife commissioner when we fought the Fish & Widlife Dept. and led public hearings to stop the proposed stocking of rainbows and rallied the agency to instead focus on the restoration of habitat. As a member of the Orvis Conservation board, I helped select the Battenkill as a project that raised 100s of thousand of matching funds as Orvis formed an alliance with the state and feds TU and others to restore habitat, projects that continue today, 13 years later.
I live 2 minutes from the Kill and have for 20+ years.
I know the author, and have for 20 years. We worked together in that effort.
He gleaned much of his lifetime's knowledge from from other anglers that put him in their trust when he said he was going to write a book about the history and conservation of the river, not a "Guide to Fly Fishing."
He would have written a great book about that.
He didn't write that book.
While the Kill is famous, the info is base, hot-spotting at its worst.
If one truly cares about a river, they do not expose it in this way, unless they put themselves, and being seen as an "expert" above the river.
The Battenkill in Vermont is all of 18 miles long and remains in a tenuous state despite its improvement over the past decade.
While it is "famous" it is still vulnerable.
It can be loved to death.
The Kill is one of only four truly wild trout fisheries of size in the entire state, and is the state's one true gem.
This is not the West. The Kill is not surrounded by scores of other famous rivers to choose from when pressure gets too high. It is not a watershed like those out west that vary so much over their long courses that the angling methods are nearly infinite. It is not the 200-mile long Madison or 700 mile Yellowstone, or an of other of scores of western rivers that are 100s of miles long with dozens and dozens of other famous and unknown blue ribbon gems to choose from within a short drive.
This book gives away information learned from others and puts it all up for sale so the author can be seen as an expert.
As well, the tributaries he targets certainly can do without added pressure.
I know many many actual experts on this river, anglers who are on it 150 days a year, fishing or observing. Anglers who don't just come up during peaks of hatches. Anglers and conservationists both, who would never give what they know away for anything. If they did, it was in confidence, and that confidence has been betrayed.
This book breaks the code of both conservationists and anglers.
December 18, 2023
strange book.
Neither fish nor foul.
The author starts book talking about the mystique of the river that drew him to it and kept him enamored over many years.
But then breaks the river down into sections to tell the reader all the spots to fish, where to find riffles and pools, etc. etc. He basically takes all the mystique out of the river for anyone wishing to discover it themselves.
It's sort of a how to, but not really. Sort of lore and history and conservation, but just dabbles in each.
Needed focus.
Neither fish nor foul.
The author starts book talking about the mystique of the river that drew him to it and kept him enamored over many years.
But then breaks the river down into sections to tell the reader all the spots to fish, where to find riffles and pools, etc. etc. He basically takes all the mystique out of the river for anyone wishing to discover it themselves.
It's sort of a how to, but not really. Sort of lore and history and conservation, but just dabbles in each.
Needed focus.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews