BirdTrout
East Kill, New York
16.2 mapped river miles, draining 5 square miles, in the Schoharie basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 8.5 miles away, and what this page knows about its temperature is 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 12.5 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 368 days, since 25 September 2025, 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 14.9–0.0 | 16.4 | cold | — |
NYSDEC has classified 16.4 of the 18.1 miles NHD carries for this stream — 90% 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
- East Kill fishing report — what it reads right now
- How to get to the East Kill — access, parking and public land
- East Kill fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
NYSDEC classification
NYSDEC classifies this water as 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 →
Access
2 mapped NYSDEC access sites within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Colgate Lake Ada Fishing Platform (RM 13.0), Colgate Lake At Jewett (RM 13.0). 2 walk-in, 0 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
6 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 20,103 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Colgate Lake Wild Forest | state conservation department | 1,701 |
| Windham-Blackhead Range Wilderness | state conservation department | 17,045 |
| East Kill — New York City Watershed Land, Fishing Access | NYC Environmental Protection | 33 |
| Border Blackhead / Colgate | state conservation department | 1,265 |
| Dutcher Notch Primitive Bicycle Corridor | state conservation department | 37 |
| East Kill — Public Fishing Rights Easement | NYSDEC | 21 |
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
2 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Halsey Brook 2.9 mi · RM 11.7
- Roaring Brook 2.5 mi · RM 1.2
East Kill sits in HUC 8 02020005, the Schoharie basin, and drains 5 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 62 NHD reaches carry the name for 18.1 miles in total — more than the 16.2 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.