One of the best places to fish for brook trout are beaver ponds. A good beaver pond can hold Vermont's favorite fish in numbers and sizes rarely seen in streams, and a hidden beaver pond teeming with plump, colorful brookies is a treasured discovery. One of the best places to look for a productive beaver pond is Vermont's rugged Northeast Kingdom, especially in the fall, when the orange bellies and red fins of spawning brookies are a perfect compliment to the bright fall foliage. And thanks to the efforts of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Conservation Group, finding a good beaver pond is easier than ever.

Vermont has long been know for it’s fine trout and salmon fishing, and on Lake Champlain a growing number of anglers are now targeting a species that has historically been overlooked in New England. Channel Catfish are extremely popular in the south but only recently have anglers discovered that these large whiskered fish are also native to Lake Champlain. Ever since the Lake Champlain International fishing derby added catfish to its list of derby species, anglers have been weighing in giant catfish with increasing frequency. These strong bottom-feeding fish are stubborn fighters and real heavy weights and the long lovely lake of the north holds enough big cats to make any southern boy feel right at home.

When it comes to trout fishing, the upper Connecticut River is a cut above. As it winds its way south between the rugged mountains of northern New Hampshire and northeastern Vermont, New England's longest river offers miles of lightly fished water home to brook, brown and rainbow trout. And the scenic beauty is almost as good as the fishing. The best way to experience this water is to float the river, as we discovered when we hooked up with the oldest drift boat guide services in the North Country for a wonderful afternoon of trout fishing on the upper Connecticut River.

The Clyde River flows for 34 miles northwest from Island Pond, winding through Charleston, Salem and Derby before finally emptying into Lake Memphremagog near Newport. In the early 20th century the river attracted anglers from around the country, drawn to the population of land-locked salmon that would travel upstream to spawn. Trophy trout weighing upwards of ten pounds were pulled from the Clyde, making it one of the premier fishing spots in the northeast. But in 1957, the salmon run came to an end with the construction of a diversion dam, known as the Newport No.11 Dam. The dam was responsible for blocking the salmon from reaching their spawning grounds, and drying out stretches of the lower river, causing eggs to die. The self-sustaining fishery was virtually destroyed. In the 1980s a group of passionate anglers began a seven-year battle to remove the dam and restore the habitat. They organized the Northeast Kingdom Trout Unlimited chapter, and with help from the Vermont Natural Resources Council, the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department and the Clyde River Committee, they began their David and Goliath battle to shut down the dam as its license renewal date loomed. Nature unexpectedly provided a little help on May 1, 1994 when the Clyde overflowed part of the dam, destroying it. Eventually they won their battle and the dam was destroyed in 1996. Soon afterward the salmon began spawning upstream. Today, in addition to natural reproduction, approximately 30,000 salmon smolts are stocked in the Clyde each spring and fish are now monitored to determine their health. Host Lawrence Pyne joins an old friend for a little fall fly-fishing on the Clyde for salmon. And we join a biologist electro-fishing to examine the health of salmon populations on the lower section of the river.