BirdTrout
Black River, New York
19.4 mapped river miles, draining 50 square miles, in the Black basin watershed.
50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands, breaking at 58, 64 and 70°F, that the app paints. Grey is water nobody has measured.
Thermal classification
There is no USGS gauge within 40 miles of this stream in the record this site holds, so there is no live temperature on this page and no measured July mean. Everything below the bar is NYSDEC's own classification of the water.
NYSDEC's classification of this water, reach by reach. A class, not a temperature — no July mean, because none was measured here.
| Reach | Typed miles | Band | NYSDEC type |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM 19.4–17.6 | 50.2 | cold | — |
NYSDEC has classified 50.2 of the 133 miles NHD carries for this stream — 38% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, cold. The untyped reaches are not warm water — they are water NYSDEC's inventory does not reach, and the mile ranges above span only the reaches it does.
The lake run
The Black River is a Lake Ontario tributary with 1.5 miles of run corridor on it — salmon, steelhead and lake-run brown trout, on their own calendar and under their own rules. Run timing, species and access on the Black River →
Questions about this river
- Black River fishing report — what it reads right now
- How to get to the Black River — access, parking and public land
- Black River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
NYSDEC classification
NYSDEC classifies this water as Class A — drinking water source, Class C — fishing, and Class D — fishing, natural conditions limit the fishery. More than one class appears because the classification changes along the river. The thermal bar above shows where. On those reaches DEC also designates it trout waters — which is the half of the classification that is about temperature, and the half this map paints by. The class is a designation of best usage under 6 NYCRR — what the water is protected for — and not the season and creel rules, which change yearly and live with the agency.
NYSDEC water quality classifications and standards →
Access
1 mapped NYSDEC access site within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Black River Angler Parking (RM 8.3). 1 walk-in, 0 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
13 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 19,548 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Watertown Land | city land | 654 |
| Watertown City Of Land | city land | 40 |
| New York State Lands | another state agency | 16,515 |
| Black River — Municipal Land, Fishing Access | Municipal | 39 |
| Waterworks Park | city land | 16 |
| Black River — Public Fishing Rights Easement | NYSDEC | 979 |
| Dexter Marsh Wma | state conservation department | 1,242 |
| Whitewater Park | city land | 4 |
| Factory Square Park | city land | 2 |
| Glen Park Hydro-Electric Project Fishing Access Area | city land | 3 |
Species
NYSDEC designates this as trout water — Trout waters — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.
Tributaries and watershed
4 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Philomel Creek 11.9 mi · RM 4.8
- Felts Mills Creek 5.0 mi · RM 19.4
- Kelsey Creek 5.0 mi · RM 8.1
- Trout Creek 2.5 mi · RM 2.8
Black River sits in HUC 8 04140301, the Black basin, and drains 50 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 339 NHD reaches carry the name for 132.7 miles in total — more than the 19.4 miles of drawn mainstem, because NHD counts side channels and braids as their own reaches.
Other water nearby
The closest 5 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.