Month: April 2026
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Sampling Bin BWO Hatch
Read more…: Sampling Bin BWO HatchToday during our Trout in the Classroom macroinvertebrate sampling we had something very cool happen: Dozens of tiny BWOs (blue-winged olives) emerged right in our sample bins! Afterward we could see the shucks in the bin. It was great to be able to show the students this happening in realtime. Also, here is a nice…
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Brook Trout Conservation on Earth Day
Read more…: Brook Trout Conservation on Earth DayCharlie’s school had an Earth Day event today and I set up a table on conserving brook trout, New York’s state fish, and the only trout native to the eastern US. I put together some stuff for all age groups: The stickers were a big hit. I ordered them from AssetArtist on Etsy. The younger…
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Spring Ramp Pasta
Read more…: Spring Ramp PastaYesterday I foraged some nice ramps out in the woods. I decided I’d make a spring pasta with them: I drove over to Tuscana Pasta, a local pasta maker here in Peekskill, and picked up some fresh cavatelli. I didn’t follow a recipe and I won’t try to write one here. I added: In each…
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Wild Westchester Brook Trout
Read more…: Wild Westchester Brook TroutToday I caught a beautiful wild brook trout today in Westchester County, just five miles from my house. I’d heard whispers that this small stream contained brook trout, and I was delighted to catch one on my first outing there. I’ve caught brook trout in Cross River, but since so much stocking goes in there,…
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Frijoles Charros y Frijoles Puercos
Read more…: Frijoles Charros y Frijoles PuercosFor this week’s bean adventure, I made Charro Beans, or Frijoles Charros. I looked at multiple recipes and cobbled together my own, which I’ll attempt to put down in words here: Notes: Since I made a full pound of beans, I had plenty of leftovers. What do you do with leftover charro beans? According to…
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Cecil E. Heacox’s The Catskill Flytyers article
Read more…: Cecil E. Heacox’s The Catskill Flytyers articleFollowing my post containing the scans of Cecil Heacox’s 1969 Charmed Circle of the Catskills articles, Ed Ostapczuk emailed that Heacox did a follow up in the May 1972 edition of Outdoor Life on Catskill Flytyers. Naturally, I had to track that one down, too. It turned out to not be online either, so I…
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Walking the lower Pocantico River
Read more…: Walking the lower Pocantico RiverI walked and fished the section of the Pocantico River running through Rockefeller Preserve to document disturbances with TU’s RIVERS app as part of the Big Apple Brook Trout program. Some main takeaways: The largemouth bass I was surprised to catch when I was casting to rising trout:
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Spotted Salamander
Read more…: Spotted SalamanderAfter three weeks of walking through the woods at night looking at vernal pools with a flashlight, I finally found a spotted salamander! They are slow on land, but pretty quick to swim away and hide in water. I had to be patient and wait about 30 minutes for this one to come back out…
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Woodland Spring Flowers
Read more…: Woodland Spring FlowersCharlie and I have been keeping an eye on the patches of Trout Lilies in our local woods, and today they were in full bloom. Much to my dismay, I learned after lugging my SLR out that I had forgotten the memory card in my card reader on my desk. So iPhone photos will have…
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First row of the season
Read more…: First row of the seasonJon and I got out today on the Croton River for the first row of the season. Charlie and I spent some time earlier this week scrubbing out the guideboat and getting it cleaned up. Despite being wrapped in a tarp in my boat racks behind the workshop, some raccoons found their way in and…
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Wax-dipped Daffodils
Read more…: Wax-dipped DaffodilsWe saw this post on Instagram about dipping daffodils in beeswax to preserve them and decided to try it out. Here they are: Amanda strung them and hung them above the mantle. Here’s one (with a bonus mini one) in a dry vase on my bookshelf, still looking great after 6 days.
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A few thoughts on DEC NY’s 2026 trout stocking
Read more…: A few thoughts on DEC NY’s 2026 trout stockingI looked at the trout stocking pages on the DEC’s site for the first time today for Westchester and Putnam counties: I prefer wild fish, but there are only a few streams in this region with wild populations, so the state stocks the others. Two things stick out to me: They didn’t stock the regular…
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Caramelized Beans with Tomato & Cabbage
Read more…: Caramelized Beans with Tomato & CabbageI’ve been lax on the bean dishes the last couple weeks, but I’m back with a good one: Alison Roman’s Caramelized Beans with Tomato & Cabbage. It was good! Pretty easy to make. Not a lot of active time, mostly waiting on things to cook. I used cabbage and tomatoes from my freezer, since I’ve…
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Month of March 2026
Read more…: Month of March 2026I am thankful March 2026 was much different than March 2025, when I was in the hospital for a blood clot in my kidney. I’m doing fine now, and I reflected more on that in my birthday post. March started with some fly tying and catching my first trout of the season with snow on…