Jim, I was up that way on Saturday. My girlfriend and I had been eyeing up a BBQ place called A-OK BBQ up in North Adams and brought the fly gear along for the ride. The food was delicious and highly recommended. We fished a few different runs with the most promising looking spot a canoe portage near a bridge, the exact street name eludes me. The only place we landed fish was at the Beaver Mill parking lot (I believe). However, there was a decaying deer carcass we failed to notice until the stench pushed us out of the spot. We landed two small bows before the smell overwhelmed us.
Yes, A-OK is an excellent BBQ joint, located in the Mass MoCA complex where I usually work.
(Right now, due to Covid, my office is having a lot of us work remotely from home or satellite locations).
From your description, I suspect you were fishing the Main Branch of the Hoosic (which runs along Route 2 from the Mass MoCA complex and west into Williamstown before it then doglegs to the north into Pownal, VT before eventually turning west again and flowing into the Hudson River in NY) - - in which case the canoe portage would have been by the Ashton Avenue bridge.
I'm glad you caught some fish - - although it's too bad about the deer carcass - - which I did not run across, and so that's part of the reason I believe you were on the Main rather than the North Branch.
There's some bigger fish on the Main Branch, but overall it's harder to wade/fish.
To get to the North Branch from the center of North Adams, you would take Route 2 east and then hook a left onto Route 8/Beaver Street toward Stamford/Readsboro, VT. The North Branch runs along the left side of the road - - at least for the initial stretch.
If you see a cliff with an American flag flying from it (that's Old Glory Rock), you know you're headed in the right direction.
A little past that is the Beaver Mill condominium and then the entrance to the Natural Marble Bridge State Park.
