Morrell:  After his Esopus, one of the first trout streams my husband frequently wandered was the upper Rondout Creek.  This little headwater brook trout stream drew the attention of such angling notables as: John Burroughs, Edward R. Hewitt, Everett E. Garrison, and Cecil E. Heacox--- all men of distinction in their chosen earthly paths.  In "A Bed of Boughs" Catskill naturalist wrote the following about his Rondout Creek, "My eyes had never before beheld such beauty in a mountain stream."  

Sadly in this 21st Century the upper Rondout is often subject to abuse and disregard by unruly summer visitors who flock to the Blue Hole, just upstream from Morrell Field and the Ulster County 42 highway bridge.  Even the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) displayed a mild level of disregard when they renamed this landmark to Trailer Field; how Catskill is that notation?

My husband and I often stop here, where little wild brook trout still make their home, while pondering John Burroughs' words above, bringing the watercolor below to life.  This watercolor appeared on the March 2021 Gazette, newsletter of the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild.

Morrell Field(NFS):

 From oil to watercolors:  Below are two paintings originally done using oil, now repainted as watercolors.

The first is Mother's Pool on the Esopus Creek, a legendary place where Old Bess, a nine-and-a-half pound brown trout was caught on April 29th, 1955 by Larry Decker.

Mother's Pool (sold):

The second landscape features the Straus Barn, a former sawmill that stands along the East Branch Neversink and is reportedly the oldest continuous standing structure in the Town of Denning.  Wild Catskill brook trout are still caught in the shadows of history.

Straus Barn:

 

Esopus Creek:  Below are two landscapes of Esopus Creek waters, located upstream of New York City’s Shandaken Tunnel. 

While the first landscape entails a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) Public Fishing Rights (PFR) section, access is now limited through recent roadside posting.  2020 was clearly a year few of us will ever forget.  It featured a worldwide pandemic, a national contested election that tore America apart, and an unprecedent number of visitors to our Catskill region.  Crowds came, including some unruly and thoughtless visitors, resulting in greater usage and misuses of our lands, waters, and forests.  Newly posted signs sprung up like weeds in unkept grass. 

Sadly, the water below is no longer easily accessed, though many a fine memory of outings gone by are held in the stones that guide these waters.  Perhaps a fondest memory includes a twenty-inch wild brown that sucked in a #16 X-Caddis dry fly attached to 5X tippet. 

Posted waters (sold):

Twenty-inch-plus X-Caddis brown trout:

Shandaken is a Native American derivative of the words “land of rapid waters”.  Below is an autumn watercolor of a rapid-water landscape in Oliverea, a mountain Shandaken hamlet.

 Rapid waters (sold):

2020 Christmas card:  The following watercolor of a Frost Valley winter on Biscuit Brook was undertaken for our 2020 Christmas card.  Happy Holidays!

Biscuit Brook winter: