BirdTrout
Lisha Kill, New York
10.0 mapped river miles, draining 19 square miles, in the Mohawk basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 5.7 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 8.1 miles away, at Mohawk River At Cohoes Ny — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — its water-temperature series is empty, and was last stamped 1 April 2026, 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 8.6–0.6 | 7.9 | cold | — |
NYSDEC has classified 7.9 of the 10.5 miles NHD carries for this stream — 75% 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
- Lisha Kill fishing report — what it reads right now
- How to get to the Lisha Kill — access, parking and public land
- Lisha Kill fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
NYSDEC classification
NYSDEC classifies this water as Class B — swimming and contact recreation. 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 →
Public land on the river
7 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 5,324 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Lisha Kill Natural Area | land trust or conservancy | 136 |
| Albany Pine Bush Preserve | state conservation department | 1,476 |
| Erie Canal | another state agency | 2,864 |
| Town Of Niskayuna Land | city land | 221 |
| Lisha Kill — Municipal Land, Fishing Access | Municipal | 6 |
| Albany Pine Bush Preserve | city land | 164 |
| Albany Pine Bush Preserve | land trust or conservancy | 456 |
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
Lisha Kill sits in HUC 8 02020004, the Mohawk basin, and drains 19 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 20 NHD reaches carry the name for 10.5 miles in total — more than the 10.0 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.