Vermont Fly Fishers Compete at Otter Creek Classic

Min Brown has won the Otter Creek Classic three times in the last four years. That’s not a streak. That’s a problem for everyone else on the water.

On Saturday and Sunday, anglers will line the Otter Creek and White River watersheds for the Classic, one of Vermont’s few competitive fly fishing events and the unofficial starting gun for open trout season in the state. Brown will be among them, and if recent history means anything, he’ll be the one to beat when results come in.

“I usually pick one hobby and then get, like, very excessively into it,” Brown said. Eighteen years of fly fishing and eight as a working guide, all while holding down a day job at an aviation repair station. He doesn’t fish casually. He doesn’t do much of anything casually, apparently.

His 2026 margin over the runner-up was more than double. Joe Goodspeed, owner of Vermont-based Diamondback Fly Rods and a fellow competitor, didn’t mince words in an Instagram comment after the results posted: “They say 10% of the anglers catch 90% of the fish. But I looked at the OCC results and ‘Min catches 90% of the fish’ would be a better description of the situation.”

The only other angler to win the Classic three times? Jesse Haller, the competition’s founder, who now works for Orvis, the Vermont-based fly fishing and outdoor gear company. Brown matched that in four years. The Classic itself has been running since 2008, drawing Team USA anglers alongside serious locals who know these rivers well. Brown beats them anyway.

It’s not like the conditions make any of this easy. April in Vermont means snowmelt, water temperatures that can still drop toward freezing, and weather that won’t commit to anything. Steven Atocha, who helps organize the event and runs a guiding service and gear shop in Middlebury that hosts the Classic, doesn’t dress it up.

“We have fished in snowstorms, you know, sunny days, you know, rain, just about everything you can imagine,” he said.

Atocha’s been guiding since 1998. He still tells clients that catching fish in Vermont’s mountain streams is genuinely hard. The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department puts roughly 47,000 Vermonters in the water each year chasing trout and salmon, with another 15,000 coming from out of state. Most of them don’t expect easy limits. That’s not really why they show up.

The Classic coincides this year with Vermont’s open trout season start, which means anglers can keep a portion of their catch rather than strictly practicing catch and release. Catch and release is legal year-round on most of Vermont’s waters, but the seasonal open matters to certain anglers. For competitors in the Classic, it’s mostly beside the point.

Brown’s dominance raises the obvious question about what separates him from anglers who are also experienced, also read the water, also know the White River and Otter Creek systems. Part of it is time on the water. Part of it, according to Goodspeed’s Instagram math, is something harder to explain.

Students looking to try competitive fly fishing can connect with the DOC, which runs fishing programs for Upper Valley residents and students through the year. The White River, running through the region before eventually feeding the Connecticut, isn’t a backyard resource many Dartmouth students think about. It probably should be.

VTDigger covered the broader scene around Vermont’s trout season opener this year, including the Classic’s 2026 field, in a piece published April 10. Last year’s results, Brown’s triple win, and Goodspeed’s blunt Instagram arithmetic all point toward the same conclusion heading into this weekend: if you’re competing in the Otter Creek Classic, you’re probably fishing for second.