Sleepy Hollow Trout
Henry John Steiner fishing the Junction Pool on the Beaverkill
In 1996, Henry John Steiner started formulating plans to restore the Pocantico River as a trout stream. Inspired by a suggestion from friend and colleague, Christopher Skelly, Steiner began working with village recreation commissioner, Henry Atterbury, the New York State DEC, a local chapter of Trout Unlimited, and a team of dedicated volunteers. Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of the program was conceptual—thinking a historic trout stream back into existence through recognition and conscious-raising. The village program soon inspired a larger “spin-off” program on the upper reaches of the Pocantico by the state.
The Village of Sleepy Hollow Trout Program
A Short Description
by
Henry Steiner
Village Historian
Chairman of The Pocantico
Fund
November 1998
Background
Historic & Legendary Sleepy Hollow
The Valley of the Pocantico
River
The Native-American term, Pocantico, means "a swift run between high hills." The name of the stream was first recorded in the 17th century, but it's Indian origins indicate a much earlier genesis. For hundreds of years, the Weckquaesgeck tribe inhabited this district harvesting trout and beaver from the banks of the Pocantico. In 1680 the leaders of this tribe sold the stream and the lands bordering it to Frederick Philipse I, a successful New York businessman, who was buying up real estate along the east side of the Hudson River.
In the years that followed, the colonial tenant farmers of Philipsburg fished the Pocantico and its tributaries until the Philipse heirs were dispossessed in the American Revolution. The largely Dutch-American tenant-farmers then became the free and independent farmers of Sleepy Hollow. They and their children continued to fish the Pocantico, and one day in 1798, a new visitor appeared with rod in hand along the banks of the stream. It was a teenager named Washington Irving. In the words of his friend James K. Paulding, "...he was the worst fisherman we ever knew..." But Irving was searching for more than trout in the haunts of Sleepy Hollow:
A thousand crystal springs... sent down from the hill-sides their whimpering rills, as if to pay tribute to the Pocantico.... I delighted to follow it into the brown recesses of the woods; to throw by my fishing gear and sit upon rocks beneath towering oaks and clambering grapevines.... My boyish fancy clothed all nature around me with ideal charms, and people it with the fairy beings I had read of in poetry and fable.
The native brook trout for which Irving fished were still present seventy years later when a pastor of the Old Dutch Church named Abel T. Stewart was the preeminent angler of the neighborhood. The Reverend Stewart is said to have frequently appeared "with a full creel when some less fortunate parishioners were laboriously whipping the stream over which he had gone."
But these halcyon days were not to long remain. The environment impact of industrial and residential development were to take their toll on the fragile stream. By the twentieth century the Pocantico was no longer a viable trout stream. An occasional trout was harvested and there was an ad hoc effort to restock in the mid twentieth century, but conditions were generally not friendly to trout.
Then in 1996 the Village of Sleepy Hollow instituted a simple, yet visionary program to reclaim the Pocantico as a historic trout stream. Recognizing the resource and the opportunity which the stream represented, the village administration authorized several stockings and the creation of a "no-kill" catch-and-release program. The program is coordinated by the village recreation department. This reintroduction of trout to the Pocantico spurred efforts to restore the stream. Residents and their children were able to experience the pleasures of trout fishing only a few minutes from home. It now furnishes visitors with an additional reason to rediscover that real and enduring little valley that Washington Irving made world-renowned so many years ago. The Sleepy Hollow Trout Program would not have been possible without the generous cooperation of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Rules and Permits
For complete information, check with the village clerk's office. The Sleepy Hollow trout section of the Pocantico lies between the old Croton Aqueduct and Route 9. This is a "no-kill" catch-and-release stream. Trout must be returned immediately and safely to the stream--no exceptions. Anglers must fish barbless and with no more than one treble hook. Except for children 16 years and under, anglers may not use live bait. Anglers are restricted from parking in the cemetery (private property). Please be respectful of the cemetery grounds while fishing the Pocantico.
Permits and current rules may be obtained at the village clerk's office. Please specify that you wish to purchase a Sleepy Hollow trout fishing permit. Further information can be obtained from the village recreation department at 914-631-1440.
Directions
The stream can be accessed via the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery or Douglas Park. The southern cemetery gate on Route 9 is located approximately .4 mile north of Beekman Avenue in the Village of Sleepy Hollow.
The Sleepy Hollow Rock Rollers
This is a volunteer organization dedicated to improving and preserving the Pocantico as a trout habitat. Meetings and stream details are held several times each year. For more information contact the address below.
The Pocantico Fund
The Pocantico Fund is a community organization dedicated to raising private funds in support of the Village of Sleepy Hollow Trout Program and conserving the precious resource which the Pocantico River represents. For more information contact the Pocantico Fund, Box 8425, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591.