Excerpted from Trout Fishing Sourcebook by Mark Williams

Lake Champlain dominates the landscape of northern Vermont. It shares borders with New York and crosses into the Canada border. Two-thirds of the lake is in Vermont. The beautiful lake is surrounded by hills and mountains and provides excellent fishing for lake trout and landlocked salmon, brown trout, and steelhead.

Fishing is best done by trolling deep offshore. Because the lake is so big, fishing pressure is spread out. Lake Champlain is stocked through a joint venture by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

The big lake also has a great reputation for ice fishing. Lodging and services can be found on both the eastern and western shores. The northern region has other quality lakes. Seymour Lake is in the northeastern corner of Vermont, smack dab in the middle of the small town of Morgan, and easily accessed via VT 111.

Anglers can fish for brown, rainbow, and lake trout and landlocked salmon in this 1,800-acre lake. Boats and canoes will get anglers to all the right spots. There are special regulations for Seymour so check the regulations.

Good Wilderness Angling

The northeastern region of Vermont is very scenic and has maintained much of its wilderness — hence the local name, the"Northeast Kingdom." Big Averill and Little Averill Ponds, Caspian, Echo, Maidstone, Crystal, and Willoughby Lakes are just a few of the stillwaters worth fishing in the Northeast Kingdom.

Lake Mephremagog produces large lakers, rainbows, and brown trout in its big waters, which stretch across into Canada. Canadian licenses are needed to fish in the Canadian side of the lake.

Woodbury Reservoir has rainbows and lake trout, but the brown trout are especially fat and feisty, making for tremendous fall fishing. In the Woodbury area are quite a few productive lakes and ponds, including Greenwood Lake, Mirror Lake, and Sabin Pond.

There are numerous backcountry ponds in northern Vermont with cold, rushing brooks teeming with small but colorful native brook trout. Most are walk-in ponds and require a topo map and compass.