Category: Outdoors
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Brookies in Putnam County
Read more…: Brookies in Putnam CountyToday I fished the small headwaters of a stream I drive by daily that eventually empties into the Hudson River. When I say small, I mean small. The average depth of the section I fished on state land is probably 6in, with an average width of 5ft. I saw lots of eastern blacknose dace in…
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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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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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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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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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Trout in the Classroom 2026 Releases
Read more…: Trout in the Classroom 2026 Releases2026 Trout Release season is underway for the Trout in the Classroom program here in the Croton Watershed! I went out on Monday to help with the macroinvertebrate sampling, student macro identification, and the releases. It was spring break for Charlie and my parents were in town, so the three of them came along for…
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Green frogs
Read more…: Green frogsAnother nighttime walk in the woods with rubber boots and a flashlight. Lots of green frogs out tonight.
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Wading Around
Read more…: Wading AroundCharlie and I went and explored a creek about 13 minutes away from our house. I heard rumors that there is a native brook trout population there and Charlie jumped at the chance to try out his new waders. Win-win. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we only needed a light jacket. The first…
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Spring Peepers
Read more…: Spring PeepersCharlie and I went out in the woods after dark searching for yellow spotted salamanders. I think it might be a bit early yet for the salamanders, but we were lucky to find the spring peepers out in full display in the vernal pools. The moment we stepped out the front door, we heard their…
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Casting Out Winter
Read more…: Casting Out WinterOvernight we turned the clocks forward an hour. This afternoon the temperature on our weather station reached 66F (18.9C). The sun went down an hour later as the clock reads, so Charlie got to play outside longer than normal. The skunk cabbages are emerging. It feels like we turned a corner and spring is on…
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Cecil Heacox’s Charmed Circle of the Catskills articles
Read more…: Cecil Heacox’s Charmed Circle of the Catskills articlesLast weekend I read Ed Ostapczuk’s Ramblings of a Charmed Circle Flyfisher. Recommended! In it, Ed writes: In 1969, I read a two-part article written by Cecil E. Heacox that appeared in the March and April issues of Outdoor Life titled “Charmed Circle of The Catskills.” That poetic, yet simple, set of articles about the…
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Big Apple Brook Trout
Read more…: Big Apple Brook TroutTrout Unlimited is doing a citizen science project in our area: Environmental DNA sampling to locate hidden brook trout populations in the NYC suburbs: Fairfield, Westchester, Putnam, and Long Island. Their plan is to cover 400 miles of streams, starting with locations where there was historic Brook Trout presence, but no recent state sampling. Then…
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Winter gift for the birds
Read more…: Winter gift for the birdsFor the past three years, we’ve started the new year by going for a walk in the woods to collect pinecones and make a little treat for the birds. We roll them in peanut butter and birdseed, then go back out the next day and leave them on logs, tree stumps, and branches for the…
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Fallfish on the fly
Read more…: Fallfish on the flyI went blue lining today in search of brook trout in NY near the CT border. I didn’t find any brookies, but I did catch 14 fallfish. Fallfish are a large native minnow species. All of the ones I caught were 6-10in long, but there were dozens of fingerling size in the stream, too. Even…
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Trout Releases & Macroinvertebrate Sampling
Read more…: Trout Releases & Macroinvertebrate SamplingLast Thursday and today I volunteered with the Croton Watershed chapter of Trout Unlimited to assist with a trout release and macroinvertebrate sampling at Cross River as part of the Trout in the Classroom program. In the fall, the New York State Department of Conservation sends trout eggs to schools. The students watch them hatch,…