BirdTrout
Bush Kill, New York
4.4 mapped river miles, draining 6 square miles, in the East Branch Delaware basin watershed. A USGS gauge stands in it, but its record is too short for a measured July mean, so what this page knows about its temperature is today's reading and NYSDEC's classification of the water itself.
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.
The nearest live reading
The nearest gauge is 12.1 miles away, at Esopus Creek — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — it has sent no water temperature for 1366 days, since 1 January 2023, so no number here comes from it.
Thermal classification
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 4.4–0.0 | 7.5 | cold | — |
NYSDEC has classified 7.5 of the 8.2 miles NHD carries for this stream — 92% 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.
Questions about this river
- Bush Kill fishing report — what it reads right now
- How to get to the Bush Kill — access, parking and public land
- Bush Kill fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
NYSDEC classification
NYSDEC classifies this water as Class A — drinking water source, Class B — swimming and contact recreation, and Class C — fishing. 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 spawning waters, 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 →
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 52 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Village Of Fleischmanns Land | city land | 5 |
| Bush Kill — Public Fishing Rights Easement | NYSDEC | 48 |
Species
NYSDEC designates this as trout water — Trout spawning waters, 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.
- Vly Creek 10.0 mi · RM 4.4
- Red Kill 7.5 mi · RM 2.9
- Emory Brook 5.7 mi · RM 4.4
- Little Red Kill 3.6 mi · RM 4.2
Bush Kill sits in HUC 8 02040102, the East Branch Delaware basin, and drains 6 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 31 NHD reaches carry the name for 8.2 miles in total — more than the 4.4 miles of drawn mainstem, because NHD counts side channels and braids as their own reaches.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.