The cabin:  Last November I was commissioned by Peter Leitner--- a Catskill Fly Tyers Guild member and active participant at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum--- to do a landscape of a cabin that had ties to his family, and Catskill flyfishers alike.  About the same time, I learned I had cancer, changing my life on a dime.  While undergoing treatment, I was finally able to paint again, something I truly enjoy, painting the landscape below. Its background history was first told to readers of the March 2022 Gazette, newsletter of the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild, and now is retold below for readers of this blog.

Pete and his family have deep Catskill fly-fishing roots, embedded along Willowemoc Creek.  Pete’s grandfather, Bert Leitner was a member of the Beaverkill Trout Club prior to 1959. In the 1920’s, he purchased property in DeBruce along the Willowemoc next to Charlie Ward that included  Anvil Rock and Sheeleys’. Then in 1959, he along with the late Bucky Sterns’ older brother Dick, and other anglers from Rockland County, started the DeBruce Fly Fishing Club (DFFC.)

In the early 50’s, Bert sold his original Willowemoc holding, which eventually became part of the DFFC water, and purchased a cabin on the south side of Willowemoc Creek at the Conklin Hill Bridge --- Bendo Covered Bridge.  Pete’s grandfather owned the cabin until 1968 when he passed. Recent investigation, plus input from one of the Catskill “old-timers”, suggest that Roy Steenrod at least stayed at the cabin while teaching fly tying at DEC’s Camp DeBruce conservation camp. It is not known yet whether Roy in-fact owned the cabin and sold it to Bert. That is what a recent tip to Pete indicates. A future visit to the county land records is planned this spring to confirm, or deny that information.

 At age five in 1962, Pete recalls catching his first trout under the Bendo Covered Bridge.  And he informed readers that the previous owner (Steenrod’s?) called their cabin “Cliff Dale”, while his grandfather renamed it the “Royal Coachman” in ’52 when he bought it. On the property there was a little spring fed pond along the cabin where sometimes a few DFFC hatchery brown trout found their way until being released into the Willowemoc early autumn.

 New York State eventually acquired this parcel, assimilating the property into their Forest Preserve. Then the historic cabin was in complete disrepair as it painfully sank into the ground.

The cabin (sold):

 The Abutments:  I was happy when my husband asked me to do a landscape watercolor for a book he’s working on.  He provided a photo of old bridge abutments, once found on the East Branch Neversink, across from the Frost Valley YMCA farm along Denning Road.  Climate change and high water has destroyed these; sadly, only rocky remnants remain.

I sat in front of this with brush in hand for three hours, as I wanted my efforts to be loose and artsy, but still recognizable.  It was completed in one sitting with a few tweaks here and there.

The Abutments (NFS):

My husband's book, The Wanderings of a Mountain Fly Fisher: Tales from a Catskill Eddy and Other Trout Waters, was published by Epigraph Books in early 2022.

Bomber & Hardy:  An underwater photo of a recent fishing outing my husband made, caught my eye, begging to be painted.  I thought the shapes and lines made an interesting composition.  These colorful trout can be a fun diversion from my typical landscapes.  He titled the watercolor “Bomber and Hardy”, which left me with questions needing answers.  I had to ask him, what’s an Ausable Bomber and why do you need so many Hardy reels?  This watercolor appeared in the September 2021 Gazette, newsletter of the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild.

 Bomber & Hardy:

 

Wintoon Waters:  Wintoon Waters--- on the West Branch of the Neversink--- has a deep, rich, Catskill history, long cherished by fly fishers and other nature lovers alike.  The Stone House, which resides along Schofield Brook, serves as the final resting place of Julius Caesar, a notorious ten-and-a-half-pound brown trout skillfully removed from these gin clear, blue-ribbon trout waters on September 4^th, 1960.  These days the pocket water across from the Stone House serves as home to brook, brown and rainbow trout, as well as landlocked salmon.

Wintoon: Stone House pockets:

Biscuit Brook Weir:  The Biscuit Brook Weir is but a foggy memory to the few who knew its existence.  It’s been almost a full decade since Hurricane Irene destroyed it in 2011, and Pigeon Lodge alongside the stream dam.  There aren’t many anglers still about who can recall it, or tell stories of BIG BROWN TROUT that used to live under the wall on the left side of the Weir.  The late Chuck White, a Frost Valley YMCA employee, eyes would glow as he told of his encounters with these mammoth brown trout.  

So, if you ever going searching for this structure, it’s not to be found except in the image of this watercolor below.  This watercolor appeared in the July 2021 Gazette, newsletter of the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild.

Biscuit Brook Weir (NFS):

Woodchuck Lodge:  The watercolor below was donated to a John Burroughs Woodchuck Lodge fund-raising online auction.  John Burroughs was an American naturalist and author of many fascinating essays about the mountains he wandered, a Catskill hero of ours.

One of Burroughs' favorite trout streams was the Rondout Creek.  In his essay, "A Bed of Boughs" the author wrote, "If I were a trout, I should ascend every stream till I found the Rondout."  He went on to write, "The finishing touch is given by the moss with which the rock is everywhere carpeted."  

The landscape below features a cane flyrod, built using a classic Catskill taper--- the Leonard 39-5, laying midstream on a moss covered rock.  It appeared in the May 2021 Gazette, newsletter of the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild.

The Rock (DtC):

Canoes:  A small lightweight watercraft, usually propelled by muscle power and paddle alone.  Once the mode of water transportation for Native Americans; now-a-days perhaps the carrier of a traveler, angler, or even a romantic wanderer.  Often found bouncing along an Adirondack dock or leaning on a sandy beach as waves lap against it's hull.

The canoe: