The Deerfield below Fife Brook is the best cold-water tailwater in southern New England — a green, dam-fed river running down out of the Berkshire hills through Charlemont, holding wild and stocked browns and rainbows in water that stays cool when everything around it is cooking. The flagship is the catch-and-release fly water below Fife Brook Dam, a mile and a half of riffles, pools and ledges from the dam down to the old Hoosac Tunnel trestle, where artificial-only rules and steady cold releases keep the trout fat and the hatches reliable. It is release-driven water, so the river you wade is whatever the powerhouse is sending down — the flow can come up under your feet, which makes the release schedule a safety matter as much as a fishing one. Caddis and olives most of the season, a good wading river, and close enough to fish on a tight day.
- Mixed
