Catskills / Cairo NY area

[mute]

Anyone familiar with the area? Was thinking of taking a weekend trip up there this weekend. Looks like they got dumped with snow, I love finding in that environment. Any suggestions for a good days fishing up in that area would be appreciated.

 

[Jaybird]

Trout Season up that way is closed .

 

[mute]

What the hell? Upstate, colder temps, closed streams? How does that make sense

 

[D-nymph]

Some states actually value their wild trout fisheries & close them to fishing during spawning times. New York is not alone here.

 

[mcwillja]

NY has a lot of streams open to year round fishing. parts of delaware river, beaverkill to name a few

 

[moon1284]

The delaware river in NY is not open year round as far as I am aware. It is in pa. There are 2 sections for a total of 5 miles of the beaverkill which are open year round. There are 3.5 miles on the lower willowemoc that are open year round. I'm not really too familiar with Cairo, but the vast majority of NYS streams are closed from 10/15 to 4/1 "to protect spawning trout". The quotes are because its directly from the dec regs.

 

[Brianh]

The WB Delaware on the NY side is open starting where its the border between NY & PA.

 

[krayfish2]

WB from monument pool (start of PA / NY border) to the junction with the EB is open year round. Mainstem is open year round. Beaverkill and Willowemoc have sections open during the winter.

Some sections may offer later closings like a portion of the upper East and lower East.

Further north, Esopus below the portal stays open until November 30 and the trophy section of West Canada stays open year round.

All is worthless since you've already gone. Secondly and most importantly, if you are not familiar with the weather patterns in the area, be ready for an eye-opener. It's a world away from us regarding the weather. Anchor ice, shelf ice and complete ice over occurs early and often. A year or two ago, they were driving full size trucks across the river in the winter. You'd need dynamite to fish.

 

[JeffK]

I familiar with that area. It is the less fertile side of the Catskills, so the fishing isn't generally as good as the Delaware/Sullivan Co side. But on the other hand it draws less people. Being less popular there are no good special regs areas, so trout fishing is closed 10/15 to 4/1, the general closed season for New York. Plus those mountain freestones are iced in now. Wouldn't really fish there much until end of April. The stream closest to Cairo is Catskill Ck. I like the area around Oak Hill; up by Preston Hollow there are tiny wild rainbows. The NYS public fishing maps of the area are here. https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/44854.html

From Cairo can head over the mountain to Windham and the Batavia Kill drainage. The valley soils are a red clay so much of the stream in silted, but locals have a few honey holes if you can find them. Hike to the upstream tribs in state forest land for little brookies. Drainage really got hammered in the last couple of hurricanes.

The next valley south is the Schoharie Valley, which has the Hunter Mtn ski area. A less fertile stocked brown stream, tribs off the mountains have brookies. Further down just above the reservoir is where Art Flick had his place.

For crazy fishing can follow the Kaaterskill or Plattekill as they tumble off the east face of the Catskill escarpment. Tough walking along steep streams, but a different experience. Near roads plenty of swimmers, but they don't walk far.

Further south the Rondout Ck valley cuts through some limestone and is a good fishery not visited much by visiting anglers. Famous Blue Hole is now public up in the mountains, but largely ruined by over use from swimmers. Swimmers are a big issue in that side of the Catskills and have caused plenty of good holes on private land to be posted and good holes on the public land to be trashed. ie, the good hole on Catskill Ck at Oak Hill was a swimming hole for as long as anyone's memory, but got trashed in recent years from over use. Fortunately, the public access was by Public Fishing Rights (PFR) which give fishermen access, but don't allow other activities.

There is decent and less crowded fishing on that side of the Catskills and it is worth a cast if you are in the area, but I wouldn't travel far just to fish there. Plus, the fish will be lethargic until late April/early May.