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Steve Piatt

Balsam Lake Mountain features big-woods hunting and fishing in southeast New York

Hunting, Lake Profile, Lake Profile, New York /

Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest gets a lot of attention from a variety of outdoor enthusiasts – campers, hikers, backpackers, cross-country skiers, canoeists, and hunters, anglers, and trappers.
But at about 13,500 acres, there’s plenty of room for everyone in this Catskills region parcel that has a well-deserved name – wild.

Balsam Lake Mountain features big-woods hunting and fishing in southeast New York Read More »

Steve Piatt: How good was the fishing? The hands tell the story

Featured, Features, Fishing, Home Page News, National Fishing, Pennsylvania /

Undertake any weeklong fishing trip and you’ll undoubtedly return home with plenty of pictures. After all, you’re fishing all week, every day. You should be able to catch fish in a bathtub on that schedule. But photos aside, there is a better barometer, a better yardstick, a better glimpse of how good the fishing may have been during the week. Just look at your hands.

Steve Piatt: How good was the fishing? The hands tell the story Read More »

Steve Piatt: Golf and trapshooting — a different range, a different game

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, New York, News /

My golfing days ended about 20 years ago when I decided to put the sticks aside and spend more time fishing and training our Labrador retrievers, or at least trying to get control of them.
What I liked most about golf was the process of improving, spending time at the range not beating balls but practicing with a purpose. These days, I still spend time at the range. But it’s instead the trap range, trying desperately to develop the kind of shotgunning form that will serve me well on pheasants, grouse, and woodcock this fall.

Steve Piatt: Golf and trapshooting — a different range, a different game Read More »

Bates State Forest: No frills, just wildlife in New York’s Schoharie County

Hunting, Lake Profile, Lake Profile, New York /

There’s nothing fancy about the Bates State Forest in Schoharie County.
No trails. No designated campsites. No formal parking areas. But in many ways, it’s everything a state-owned tract designed for recreational use should be: managed for reforestation, timber production, hunting, hiking, watershed protection, and wildlife habitat.

Bates State Forest: No frills, just wildlife in New York’s Schoharie County Read More »

Steve Piatt: Great adventures elicit great emotion

Featured, Features, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, National Fishing, National Hunting, Pennsylvania /

It has happened before, and I’m sure it will again. I don’t know exactly when, but I have a few ideas.
I’m going to cry. I won’t collapse into a blubbering mess, but certainly my emotions will kick in, as they always do, when I’m blessed to undertake an adventure that’s the stuff of dreams, something I could never have imagined when growing up longing for only a single-shot Harrington & Richardson 20 gauge.

Steve Piatt: Great adventures elicit great emotion Read More »

Pheasants are the top attraction at Klipnocky State Forest in New York

Hunting, Lake Profile, Lake Profile, New York /

Klipnocky State Forest is one of those state forest tracts that sees plenty of activity at times, and very little at others.
The 2,734-acre parcel in northeastern Allegany County, for instance, gets plenty of attention from the state’s pheasant-hunting fraternity, since it’s part of DEC’s stocking program.

Pheasants are the top attraction at Klipnocky State Forest in New York Read More »

Steve Piatt: Lake Erie is an incredible walleye fishery showing no signs of slowing down

Featured, Fishing, Fishing, Home Page News, National Fishing, New York, Pennsylvania /

This was not a good start to our day. Getting out early on Lake Erie is always a good idea, given how the lake is capable of kicking up and sending you back to the dock with much less than a limit of walleyes.
But in launching ahead of the sunrise, fishing buddy Terry Catlin and I were doing so even before Tim Horton’s was open for business. That didn’t bother Terry, who isn’t a coffee drinker. But I had to forego my customary Double Double (two creams, two sugars for those unfamiliar with the Tim’s lingo).

Steve Piatt: Lake Erie is an incredible walleye fishery showing no signs of slowing down Read More »

Steve Piatt: The trico — a tiny mayfly that’s a big deal for fly fishers

Featured, Features, Fishing, Fishing, Home Page News, National Fishing, New York, Pennsylvania /

If all goes as planned, and it usually does with the trico hatch, expect some superb fly fishing on several Northeast trout waters in the coming weeks – maybe even right now.
And don’t be intimidated by the prospect of fishing a size 22 dry fly (and sometimes smaller). You can do it. In fact, the hardest thing about it will be tying the tiny fly on the end of your tippet. After that, the rest is fairly easy.

Steve Piatt: The trico — a tiny mayfly that’s a big deal for fly fishers Read More »

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