Peter A. Collin wrote:
Exactly what happened to the Battenkill to make it suddenly poor
fishing? Did they develop the banks and silt it in?

The river suffered a decline in mid-size fish in the mid-90s. Studies
were conducted and the river was made C&R for most of the main stem in
VT, to the NY State Line. In NY the river is stocked, BTW. Vermont have
not stocked since the 60s.

The state's studies concluded the issue was the lack of stream-side
habitat and this resulted in an absence of in-stream cover. I don't have
the number to hand, but it is surprising how many trout a dead-fall tree
trunk can incubate.

I recently re-read Merwin's "Battenkill". Written in 1992 before all
this went down, it is oddly prescient. In one chapter he invites us to
imagine the river 200 years. His description is of a slow moving stream
with lots of dead-fall and debris. Merwin identifies this as a key issue
for the river.

In the last 3 years the state has started to work with the landowners on
various projects in conjunction with funding from Orvis, TU and at least
one other interest groups.

Surveys of tributary streams reveal an astounding numbers of
young-of-the-year, so the basis is good, but the main river simply
cannot grow these fish.

My opinion is that they should fix the habitat issues and let the river
come back by itself. I don't think this opinion will prevail, so at best
it will have a neutral effect on the real problem.