The White is Vermont's longest free-flowing river — no main-stem dams from the Green Mountains all the way to the Connecticut — a bright, classic New England freestone of riffles, pools and gravel runs holding wild rainbows and browns alongside the stocked fish, with native brook trout up in the colder branches. Being undammed, it lives on rain and snowmelt: high and pushy in the spring runoff, dropping through summer to lows that warm in a heat wave, which is when the wild fish and especially the brookies in the headwaters need a rest. The fishing is honest freestone work — caddis and mayflies, attractor dries in the pockets, nymphs through the runs — over a long, accessible river with room to roam. A free-flowing counterpoint to the region's tailwaters, and one of the few northeastern venues whose gauge even reports water temperature.

• Mixed

• Aquatic life: Supporting