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[Our readers, who enjoyed Don’t 
to Mr. Winfield T. 
referred to in 
“Camp 
duction Sherwood. 
camp and the “Observatory” 
howling gale coming out of the north; investigated 
trout and of the good people who may not fish these 
O those who have either fished on the 
Esopus, or hope to do so at some future 
time, the question naturally 
“What effect will the building of the Ashokan 
reservoir have upon the angling possibilities of 
arises: 
that creek?” 
In order to form a‘reasonably accurate con- 
to the of 
course necessary to consider both the position of 
clusion as what results may be it is 
the reservoir and the position of the creeks con- 
tributing to its supply. 
Although the very comprehensive plan which 
New York city has adopted for watering itself 
from the Catskill Mountains 
the Esopus, the eventual 
includes, besides 
of the Rondout, 
Catskill and Schoharie creeks, the Esopus is the 
only one which will be brought into requisition 
for some time to come, 
use 
Perhaps the subject can 
be more clearly explained by reversing the order 
of their creation and definitely locating the reser- 
voir first, leaving the streams until later. 
On many maps the Catskills appear as a nearly 
round group of mountains, and in a general way 
But one 
them that on the 
southeast edge there isa place where it looks 
that is quite an accurate description. 
who is familiar with knows 
as if three or four good big mountains -had, at 
some time, the otherwise 
compact As one approaches this region 
been extracted from 
body. 
from the east he ‘is confronted by a great gaunt 
gap, where it would seem that these missing 
mountains really ought to be. Their 
occupied by an uneven tableland, ranging from 
five hundred to six hundred and fifty feet above 
sea level, and upon this 
reservoir is to be built. 
space 1s 
plateau the Ashokan 
By some curious provision of nature a‘ chain 
of low hills, about a hundred feet higher than 
the main body of the tableland, stretches along 
its southern and eastern edges, reaching from 
the mountains on the west to the mountains on 
the north. It is as if an army of fabulously 
large men had used the place for a battle field 
and had thrown up breastworks on its exposed 
edge, commensurate with their own size. Or, to 
reduce the figure to more man ugeable propor- 
tions, these hills stick up around the rim of the 
Hurry’’- 
the cairns of the caddis larve, now high and dry 
waters again, the while we sat among the boulders 
The Ashokan Reservoir 
Its Effect on Trout Fishing 
By WINFIELD T. SHERWOOD 



which began in Forest anp Stream of December 15 last and closed with the issue of March 2--need no intro- 
They will readily understand that the region he describes in the present article is one that is dear 
his serial. Not long ago, with “Robert Bruce’ of the story, we tramped and drove and waded all over the site of the great res 
and the spring; watched the 
“old sockers’’—big brown trout—that will 
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not rise to the 
sight, as if to tantalize the angler; cast: our flies for rainbow and brown trout in the famous pool below Boice’s house at dusk: 
those 
ervoir, visiting the old 
the Bushkill bridge, in plain 
waded the rift at The Dugway in a 
to him and to all 
fly, but lie under 
on-the shingle among the willows; and listened to tales of big 
at the creek’s side after the trout had ceased rising.—EpI1TorR.] 
plateau, just as the crust sticks up above the 
filler of a regularly’ constructed custard pie. 
The Esopus Creek, upon leaving the moun- 
tains proper, across the western end of 
this tableland and cuts for itself an 
through the breastwork hills. 
flows 
opening 
So very diligent 
is the stream that it has not only cut the open- 
ing deep enough, but has overdone the job by 
some thirty feet, creating the beautiful little cas- 
cade known as Bishop’s Falls. Of course this 
opening forms a leak in what at some time may 
have been a lake. However, it is not the only 
leak there is. From the Esopus the low main 
body of the tableland extends eastward nearly 
eight miles, and there the accumulation of some 
springs and marshy land forms a small creek 
which. makes a_ second opening through the 
breastwork hills. 
The general engineering proposition of the 
reservoir is to close these two Openings and so 
impound the waters of the Esopus, not only in 
its own valley, but to flow them out over the 
eastern wing of the plateau. This will result 
in forming a lake, which will be about the shape 
of a very much wrinkled boot. By laying the 
boot on its side and imagining the Esopus flow- 
ing in through a hole in the toe, and out through 
a hole near the heel, one will gain a fair impres- 
sion of the relation between the acutal Esopus 
valley and the entire amount of land to be flowed. 
Using this illustration further, the Ashokan dam 
will be located at the heel of the boot and a 
great dyke will close the eastern opening, at 
about the top of the boot leg. Near what would 
be the ankle it is proposed to divide the lake, 
so that one portion can be drained at a time. 
When one considers the undertaking from a 
standpoint of size, the use of the boot as a com- 
parison should be promptly abandoned. There 
are some figures connected with the project 
which must seem large, particularly to. those 
who have to pay the bills and do the work. The 
dam will be one thousand feet long, one hun- 
dred and ninety-six feet wide at the base, and 
two hundred and twenty feet high, built of con- 
crete. Over ten thousand acres of land must 
be cleared of all vegetation and everything re- 


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