Harriman Res has a good population of Smallies but they move deep in the summer and can be hard to find there. The CT river is LOADED with them. Lake Morey is a good spot too. St. Catherine and Dunmore have healthy populations too. I spent many a summer racing mountain bikes down at Mt Snow and Killington so I am familiar with your area.
Regarding fish in different parts of the country acting differently that is sort of true. It's not enough that I would not read/watch how a guys whacks them in a deep Cali Res and figure out how to adapt it to where I am. A fish is a fairly simple creature, it wants to have babies, and eat in comfort. So your job is figure out where they have figured out how take in the greatest amount of calories for the fewest amount burned.
Techniques that work up here: Spring: Pointer Jerkbaits and Keitech Swimbaits Summer: Tubes, Shakyheads with little craws, Carolina Rigs with speedcraws, football jigs, and senkos. Fall: ALL heck breaks loose and fish with any of what I listed. Last October 12th I got BIG smallies from a spot where you cast East and your bait is in 4-6ft, cast West and you are in 40ft. We crushed them in 40ft with rigs and shallow with Pointers. This sort of brings up another point... Smallies up here are Fickle and as annoying as Teenage girls. One day they are shallow eating fish, then a day later they are in 30' eating craws and will not be back up shallow for days. If you ever make it up north let me know.