Willowemoc Creek is a tributary of
Beaver Kill
The Beaver Kill, sometimes written as the Beaverkill or Beaverkill River, is a tributary of the East Branch Delaware River, a main tributary of the Delaware River, approximately long, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Kill (bod ...
. It is a popular
trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...
fishing stream near the
Catskill Park
The Catskill Park is in the Catskill Mountains in New York in the United States. It consists of of land inside a Blue Line in four counties: Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster. As of 2005, or 41 percent of the land within, is owned by ...
in
Sullivan County, New York
Sullivan County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,624. The county seat is Monticello. The county's name honors Major General John Sullivan, who was labeled at the time as a hero in the Am ...
.
[Francis, Austin M. , ''Catskill Rivers: Birthplace of American Fly Fishing,'' Nick Lyons Press (1983) Ch. 9.]
Course
The Willowemoc is long,
[U.S. Geological Survey. ''National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data.']
The National Map
accessed April 1, 2011 and flows almost directly west from a few miles due north of the hamlet of Willowemoc, through
Livingston Manor
Livingston Manor was a tract of land in the Province of New York granted to Robert Livingston the Elder during the reign of George I of Great Britain.
History
Livingston Manor was a tract of land in the colonial Province of New York granted ...
to
Roscoe, where it joins the
Beaver Kill
The Beaver Kill, sometimes written as the Beaverkill or Beaverkill River, is a tributary of the East Branch Delaware River, a main tributary of the Delaware River, approximately long, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Kill (bod ...
at the Junction Pool, noted for trout fishing. It has many tributaries that flow into it from both the north and south. Going from east to west, from the source to the outlet at the Beaver Kill, these are: Butternut Brook and Fir Brook; Fall Brook (at Willowemoc), Hunter Brook (from Hunter Lake), Mongaup Creek (at
Debruce), Little Beaver Kill and Cattail Brook (at Livingston Manor), Bascom Brook, and Hazel Brook and Stewart Brook, just east of Roscoe. The creek is spanned by two historic covered bridges: the
Bendo Bridge and the
Van Tran Flat Bridge.
Fishing
Large sections of the Willowemoc are open to public fishing. It is an especially popular and picturesque fly fishing stream. The
Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum is on the Willowemoc, not far from Livingston Manor, on old Route 17.
Brown trout
The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...
are stocked from the Catskill Mountain Fish Hatchery located a few miles north of Debruce.
Brook trout
The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...
thrive in the upper reaches of the stream.
Rainbow trout
The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...
do not fare as well. The lower part of the Creek, between Livingston Manor and Roscoe, is paralleled by
New York State Route 17
New York State Route 17 (NY 17) is a major state highway that extends for through the Southern Tier and Downstate regions of New York in the United States. It begins at the Pennsylvania state line in Mina and follows the Souther ...
, from which exceptional views of the Catskill Mountains can be seen. This part of the Willowemoc becomes 40 to 100 feet wide, with many pools three to five feet deep. The opening day for trout fishing is April 1.
Designations
The creek has been spelled many ways over the years: Weelewaughmack, Weelewaughwemack, Willikwernock, Willerwhemack, Willowwemoc, Williwemock, and so on. The name is derived from a
Lenape language
The Delaware languages, also known as the Lenape languages ( del, Lënapei èlixsuwakàn), are Munsee language, Munsee and Unami language, Unami, two closely related languages of the Eastern Algonquian languages, Eastern Algonquian subgroup of ...
term. Fishermen sometimes just call it the Willow.
See also
*
List of New York rivers
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
References
{{authority control
Rivers of New York (state)
Tributaries of the East Branch Delaware River
Interstate 86 (Pennsylvania–New York)
Rivers of Sullivan County, New York