Brook trout and the NYS Conservationist:  Ever so often a photograph we take while hiking or fishing these Catskills is used by some agency, whether it is NYS DEC, USGS, Soil & Water, a local town, or someone else; and we are flattered, happy to be of help.  Recently the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation used one such photo, in their website announcing the 2016 trout season and also on the rear cover of the April issue of NYS Conservationist magazine.  That brook trout was caught, and released, on the upper reaches of the East Branch of the Neversink on September 3^rd, 2015 using a #16 Sofa Pillow dry fly--- a western classic--- and an A.J. Thramer F.E. Thomas Fairy 3 weight cane rod, a sweet piece of bamboo for late summer brook trout fishing.

Not the typical landscape, but an underwater finny creature with scales and a fly stuck in its mouth.

But first, the April NYS Conservationist:

Brook trout and the Sofa Pillow, 11x14: