Esopus Creek · Coldbrook, NY
The creek that feeds the Ashokan. Live flow and water temperature from the USGS gauge, against USGS’s normal for the date. Real numbers or none.
Right now · Coldbrook
Esopus Creek at Coldbrook, NY
1,030 cfs · 55°F · above normal for Oct 23 · gauge read 12:00 AM, Oct 23 ET
The water
New York City dams Esopus Creek to make the Ashokan Reservoir. Water from the Schoharie Reservoir comes 18 miles through the Shandaken Tunnel, enters the Esopus at the Shandaken portal, and flows 11 miles down the creek into the Ashokan.
The card reads the USGS gauge at Coldbrook, below the Shandaken portal and above the reservoir. It drains 192 square miles above it. A gauge reads one spot, so take the number as the river’s mood, not the depth at your boots.
Normal is USGS’s own call: the middle half of the daily flows on record for this date, across every year the gauge has run. You know your water better than a chart does.
From the Ashokan, the water goes down the Catskill Aqueduct to the Kensico Reservoir in Westchester. The Westchester page has DEP’s storage numbers.
Water from the Schoharie Reservoir comes into the creek upstream, so the flow can change. Check the live number before you wade.
Rules on this water
- April 1 to October 15. From the Ashokan Reservoir up to Lost Clove Creek, DEC lists the Esopus as Wild Quality water, which means 3 trout a day, no more than one longer than 12 inches.
- October 16 to March 31. Catch and release only, artificial lures only.
Seasons, sizes, and limits are DEC’s call, and they change. Check DEC’s inland trout stream rules before you go.
Throw five on it
