Cross River Reservoir · Bedford, NY
Stocked with brown trout every spring, a mile east of Katonah. DEP doesn’t post Cross River on its own, so the cards show the Croton System’s storage and live flow on the Cross River below the reservoir, at Katonah.
Reservoir levels · NYC DEP
The Croton System and the whole NYC system
Croton System: 100.2% of usable storage · whole NYC system 82.2% (normal for the date 75.3%) · DEP, October 22, 2026.
Cross River: DEP doesn’t post Cross River on its own. It’s one of the Croton System’s 12 reservoirs, so the Croton System number is the closest read.
Right now · below the reservoir, at Katonah
Cross River at Katonah, NY
19 cfs · normal for Oct 23 · gauge read 11:30 PM, Oct 22 ET
The water
Cross River went into service in 1908, made by damming the Cross River about a mile east of Katonah. It’s one basin, about 3.2 miles long, and it holds 10.3 billion gallons when it’s full. Its watershed covers 30 square miles of Bedford, Lewisboro, and Pound Ridge, plus a small piece of Connecticut.
It’s a little over 900 acres of water, more than 100 feet deep at its deepest, with about 12 miles of shoreline.
What makes it different is where the water goes. It leaves the west tip down the Cross River, past the gauge at Katonah, into Muscoot Reservoir, and on to New Croton and the aqueduct to the Bronx. So the flow on the card is the river leaving the reservoir. I couldn’t find a public gauge for the lake level itself.
It’s the smallest of my three, and my take is simple: “cross river is elite with also tributaries you can fish.”
Getting on the water
- A free DEP Access Permit. Five years per permit. Apply online through DEP’s Access Permit system and you can print it right away. Kids 15 and under don’t need one when they’re with a permit holder over 18. The Access Permit FAQs have the fine print.
- A New York fishing license. You need both, the permit and the license, per DEP’s fishing page. The license comes from DEC’s fishing license page.
- Steam cleaning, then the boat tag. Every boat, oar, and paddle gets steam cleaned by a DEP-certified vendor before it touches the water, to remove organisms like zebra mussels. Once you have the permit, call DEP’s East of Hudson boat office in Mahopac at (914) 232-1309 to set up the steam cleaning and registration, and bring the boat, your permit, and a government-issued photo ID. It costs nothing, and the tag runs four years. The boat stays at the reservoir in its assigned storage area. Most East of Hudson reservoirs have at least one closed storage area, with a waiting list. DEP’s boating page and boat tag FAQs walk you through.
- Metal rowboats, no motors. Between 11 feet 6 inches and 16 feet long, 42 inches wide or more, and three people at most unless the capacity plate allows more. Motorized boats and motorized fishing gear aren’t allowed. A small sealed 12-volt battery for a fish finder is fine. One life jacket per person. Under 12, it’s on at all times. After sunset, everyone wears one, and New York law says wear it from November 1 to May 1. See DEP’s recreation rules and ice and boating fact sheet.
- Ice fishing is allowed. Cross River is one of the reservoirs where DEP allows it, under DEC’s rules. DEP’s rule of thumb is three to four inches of solid ice. Shelters have to be portable fabric ones, marked with your name, phone number, and permit number, and you take them off the ice when you’re done, or by the end of the day at the latest. No gas or propane augers. A battery auger, or an auger run by a hand-held power drill, is fine. In open water, boats can go out any time of year while the reservoir is ice-free, but if the main body has any ice, DEP Police treat the reservoir as closed. See DEP’s recreation rules, its fishing FAQs, and the ice and boating fact sheet.
- Shore fishing only where posted. DEP allows it at Access Permit Areas, Public Access Areas, and certain Day Use Areas, as its signs and maps show, and not from road bridges unless DEP posts it. DEP’s recreation map shows the areas, and the recreation rules spell it out.
- Closed water for boats. Stay 500 feet back from buildings and water supply structures, and 500 feet back from the dam and spillway at the west end, shoreline to shoreline. Don’t cross floating booms, and stay off the islands. It’s all on DEP’s Cross River map.
These rules are DEP’s and DEC’s call, not mine, and they change. Check DEP’s fishing page for closures, especially before you walk out on the ice, and DEC’s fishing regulations before you go.
What swims here
DEC’s Cross River page lists smallmouth and largemouth bass, brown trout, chain pickerel, carp, and panfish. DEP’s fishing brochure rates both kinds of bass excellent.
DEC stocks it every year with over 6,000 brown trout and says browns over 5 pounds are often caught. Its 2026 spring plan called for 6,760 browns at 8 inches in the third week of March, plus 560 rainbows at 9 to 10 inches and 50 at 12 to 14 inches for the Cross River outlet below the dam. DEC says actual numbers and timing can vary.
DEC’s tips: troll spoons or sawbellies for browns, and work crankbaits and jigs along the shoreline for bass.
There are no special rules here, so DEC’s statewide limits apply. In the reservoir, browns and rainbows are open all year, 5 a day with only 2 over 12 inches. The outlet below the dam is a stream, so check DEC’s inland trout stream rules for it. You can keep bass from June 15 to November 30, 12 inches and up, 5 a day, and the rest of the year it’s catch and release on artificial lures. Walleye, northern pike, and lake trout: I couldn’t find a source that puts them here, so I won’t list them.
How I fish it
Cross River is on my regular rotation, and I fish it from a DEP-permitted rowboat. Bass, trout, pike, pickerel, walleye, and whatever bites: that’s my list across all three.
My go-to: “gary yamamoto senko 4″ baby bass green on a EWG Offset Shank.”
Skunk Bell
Back from the water? Ring it honest. Landed or skunked, one ring a day. Nobody is keeping score but the bell, and the bell only counts the year.
2026 so far: 5 landed · 1 skunked
Rung. Same bell tomorrow.
You rang today. Tomorrow is another cast.
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Throw five on it
