im mad late and this is a biggggg spot burner. Vernooykill falls. the upper vernooykill near ellenville has the most intact wild brookie water w/in 100 miles from nyc. (googled it its exactly 100 miles from downtown manhattan to yeagerville rd trail head) also last time i was there there was this grove a little below the falls (which are great falls for swimming on hot days [cold like rondout creek blue hole cold], you can slide head first down them into a plunge pool), the place had a biiiiiggg wild fire and theres all this burned down forest kinda near the falls but out of eye shot from the falls so its not that garish but mega cool. i should go back there for the first time in abt a decade to see how the forest is rebounding.
reallllllllllly good brookie fishing, great scenery, lots of wild edible berries, dark water so bright days they wont be as wary. not that bad to fly cast in for a small creek. again really really really cool spot and last time i was there there were no browns, only brookies. and its not that tiny like the rivulets off of slide mtn and other mtns, or the tiny rivulets on the upper beaverkill/willow. its prob abt 20 feet wide in places with lots of pools. the lower section where it falls into ellenville is all straightened concrete horse shit, kinda sad it could have had great brookie potential. i found it by looking up brook trout populations in each watershed near me. all the watersheds in the catskills were mostly red (indicating low populations of wild brook trout) there were a few yellow (indicating medium populations of wild brookies) but a single one was green (indicating perfect populations of brookies).
its a bit of a hike tho and
GO IN FROM THE WEST SIDE. NOT THE UPPER CHERRYTOWN ROAD SIDE (east) make sure to take this advice unless you want a big workout. the cherrytown road side is a littleeeeeee faster to get to the falls but its like vertical and a rock garden all the way up. the other side yeagerville road is a nice flat walk through nice mature forests and berry patches. early spring is a lot of mud on that trail as its used by snow mobilers and atvers. the trail head is right past a christmas tree farm on the top of the ridge. cant miss that. normally no one is there, good parking.
anyway after that research abt intact brookie watersheds (red yellow green) i ran into an older couple as i was lifeguarding on littlepond in the catskills for a summer. we hung out at their site/camper and they were maaaaad chill, smoking weed with us and shit. i asked the gentleman if he knew any good brookie waters and he spilled the beans abt vernooykill falls saying there are fatty brookies in there and only brookies. that was the last straw i had to go there. and thank god i did amazing brookie fishing in an amazing setting, great swimming, ample berries. but lots and lots and lots of bear shit and BIG bear shit all over that trail. but they prob only want the berries. Also its like one of the few streams that are tannic in the catskills (brown water) after fir brook so its a nice change. beautiful brookies too. brought my smoking hot gf there as an 18-20 year old, she loved it.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/41....0441,-73.9441485/@41.6713043,-74.287442,10.8z here you go thats the trail head. and yo cherrytown road trail head is a bit of a shorter and easier drive from the south but once again, unless you want a vigorous work out do not take that trailhead, DO NOT. im not gonna go there for awhile so id like to hear about it if someone goes there, hence the spot burn. i hope browns didnt get into there but the gradient is so steep that they would need humans and buckets to get browns in there and its far from the road
also little cool tidbit. in roscoe (i think) i saw a memorial for catskillers who died in ww2 and a bunch of the last names were Vernooy. Brookies and patriotism thats what its all abt
and again if someone goes there after reading my post. please reply to this thread to for me. or at least private message me
