If you’re a true trout nut, then you need to pack your bags and visit—or even move to—one of these places. We selected these five locations for the quality of their local rivers, as well as your ability to access different types of trout fishing without traveling far from one central location. In all of these places, you can fish for trout year-round and purchase flies and lures at the many local fly and tackle shops in town. These are America’s top trout towns.
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Durango, Colorado
Except for the eastern plains, the entire state of Colorado is a trout fisherman’s dream. Even so, it’s hard to top Durango. Located in the southwestern part of the state, the small city is filled with primo fishing opportunities. The Animas River, which runs through town, is a Gold Medal Water freestone river. Public access throughout the city is plentiful, and the river is home to big browns and rainbows. Durango is also within easy driving distance of one of the country’s best tailwater fisheries—the San Juan River, which is less than an hour from Durango. It used to be relatively untechnical for a tailwater—it’s where the San Juan worm got its name, after all—but the fishing has become more technical in recent years (think: small flies). If that’s not your thing, you’ve got hundreds of miles of alpine streams in the area, where you can target rainbow and cutthroat trout that will shock you by how big they are despite the small water they inhabit.
Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman is one of America’s most well-known fly fishing destinations for a reason. It nearby some of southern Montana’s most famous rivers, and the Gallatin, the river featured in A River Runs Through It, skirts the edge of the city. Gallatin River trout aren’t known to be especially large, but they’re willing to take dries and streamers and fight hard. Other than the Gallatin, you have access to a number of good wading and float-fishing rivers—the Yellowstone, the Madison, and the Missouri, as well as several productive spring creeks. And if you want to target Yellowstone cutthroat trout, the drive to the famed national park—and its countless fishing opportunities—is less than 3 hours from town.
Redding, California
Redding is the Golden State’s only real trout town—and it’s a good one, situated close to several high-quality fisheries. The Lower Sacramento River runs through town, offering great float trips all year long. The Pit River offers nymphing for big fish, despite challenging wading conditions. Hat Creek is a spring creek known for its technical dry-fly fishing. Then, to the north, you have the Fall River and the famed McCloud River, which has steep banks and a lot of brush to get hung up on—and some of the best rainbow trout fishing in the Lower 48. That’s not to mention some of the area’s high-quality stillwater fisheries or the backcountry streams and alpine lakes in the Trinity Alps.
Roscoe, New York
Roscoe, New York, has more fly shops than bars. It’s a small town but it’s the place to be if you want to regularly test your metal on the Catskill’s world-famous trout streams. The Beaverkill and Willowemoc both flow through town, and the East and West Branches of the Delaware River are just a short drive away. The dry-fly fishing in the area is notoriously difficult—perfect down and away presentations are a must for fly anglers—but the fish are big and the hatches can be spectacular.
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Grayling, Michigan
Grayling is a small trout town in Northern Michigan, situated on a prime stretch of the Au Sable River. It’s where Trout Unlimited was founded. Today, the Au Sable offers anglers a chance to hook into a big brown trout either by wading or fishing from drift boats or canoes. Its most famous hatch is the Hexagenia in late June, which can make for an incredible night-fishing experience. If you tire of the Au Sable, you can hit the nearby Manistee River, which has trout, steelhead, and salmon fishing opportunities. If you’re willing to drive a couple of hours, you can even visit the same rivers where Ernest Hemingway learned to fish in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—the Two Hearted River and the Fox.
