The Housatonic is the big, brawling exception in Connecticut — a wide freestone river running down through the Litchfield hills, part trout water and part smallmouth water, and which one you're fishing depends a lot on the month. The Trout Management Area from Falls Village down past the covered bridge at West Cornwall holds wild and stocked browns and rainbows, with a fly-fishing-only catch-and-release stretch in the mix, and the hatches — Hendricksons, the famous tan caddis, sulphurs, isos — can be spectacular. But it's a low-elevation river that warms hard in summer, and by July the trout stack into the cold-water seeps and the smallmouth take over the open river. Fish it in the cool of the year, mind the summer thermometer, and treat it as the freestone it is.

• Mixed metamorphic

• Aquatic life: Supporting
• Fish consumption: Impaired
• Recreation: Impaired