The river is managed for wild brookies, browns, and rainbows, as well as stocked rainbows. The upper sections have the more consistant wild trout fishing and the fish are going to generally run small, like 4" to 8". Lower down the river is often wide and shallow and the fishing gets spotty, but it will also have huge pools as well as larger stocked trout. Sometimes snorkeling the big pools is a good way to find fish. A lot of those pools will be used as swim holes. Down by the mouth of the Winooski you may find smallmouths as well as trout. A good place to look for big smallmouth bass nearby would be Waterbury Reservoir. A good place for big trout would be the Winooski in Duxbury and Waterbury, such as in the trophy section.
