Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Town of North East sees renewed interest in fishing licenses with start of trout season

Town of North East sees renewed interest in fishing licenses with start of trout season

George Brazee of Amenia wasn’t having much luck reeling them in at Rudd Pond on April 3 due to equipment failure, but he did have his fishing license on hand in case it was needed.

Photo by Krista A. Briggs

MILLERTON — For trout-fishing enthusiasts, the time has come to cast a line — or at least obtain a fishing license to do so.

Spring trout season began in New York State on April 1. Since it started, North East Town Clerk Tilly Strauss has observed a jump in the number of local fishing licenses being requested at town hall. Strauss reported that seven fishing licenses were issued in the month of March. As of April 4, the number stood at 10 with more anticipated to come.

Renewed interest in licensing at this time of year is not unusual. Fishing licenses can be issued at any time during the year, but particular fishing seasons drive the demand for licenses. According to Strauss, what has differed recently from seasons past is the range of people applying for fishing licenses. “With hunters, you get the same sort of guys,” Strauss said, pointing out the diversity of fishing license applicants who vary in age, gender and walk of life.

While there are no trout at nearby Rudd Pond, licensed local anglers looking to reel in this particular species of fish can head to Wassaic Creek/Tenmile River in Amenia, which is home to brown trout and brook trout. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, over 9,000 brown trout are stocked on an annual basis at Tenmile River. The DEC also lists largemouth bass, chain pickerel, bluegills, black crappie and yellow perch as fish which can be pulled out of Rudd Pond.

According to deputy town clerk Marcy Wheatley, 60 fishing licenses were issued at town hall in 2024. It remains to be seen whether this figure will fluctuate in any direction over the course of 2025.

For New York state residents, $25 is the current annual fee to obtain a fishing license for ages 16 to 69. Residents of the state who are 70 and older will pay an annual fee of $5. Licenses can be purchased online, over the phone or through a license issuing agent. For more information, go to www.dec.ny.gov, navigate to “Freshwater Fishing,” and click on “Get a Fishing License.”

Latest News

Millerton wine shop owner organizes charity wine tasting for local child

Millerton Wine & Spirits owner Chris Jeans has organized a charity wine tasting to benefit the family of Crew Slater, a Millerton native with congenital kidney disease. The wine tasting is set for Thursday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pasture Kitchen on Route 44 just east of the Village of Millerton.

Illustration provided

MILLERTON — Two local business owners have joined forces to put on a charity wine tasting benefitting Millerton's Slater family.

Crew Slater, a 5-year-old Millerton native, needs a kidney transplant to survive congenital kidney disease. Millerton Wine & Spirits owner Chris Jeans and Pasture Kitchen founder Austin Cornell have organized a charity wine tasting at Pasture Kitchen on Route 44 next Thursday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Keep ReadingShow less
Cornwall Historical Society celebrates Connecticut’s Black patriots

On Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Cornwall Historical Society, author and genealogist John Mills will breathe new life into the stories of some of Connecticut’s more underappreciated patriots. The reason these heroes were forgotten? They were Black.

At a time when white colonists were fighting for their own liberty and political independence, many Black men who fought alongside them remained enslaved. Some risked their lives only to return to bondage. Though enslaved people were promised freedom from both sides of the Revolutionary War in exchange for their service, Great Britain, too, was still deeply dependent on slavery. For Black people in America, the war presented both extraordinary risks and uncertain paths to the freedom that white colonists were demanding for themselves.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

A sanctuary for second chances

A sanctuary for second chances

Stephanie Saetta runs Charlie Chicken Bones, a sanctuary in Salisbury.

Madi Long
You only get one or two of these soul connection dogs, so I do this in his honor.
— Stephanie Saetta

Stephanie Saetta has spent much of her life caring for others. A physician at White Plains Hospital, she has another calling at home in Salisbury — one that has four legs and a wagging tail. She runs Charlie Chicken Bone Sanctuary, a nonprofit dog rescue that brings dogs from overcrowded pounds and the streets of Texas to foster homes in northwestern Connecticut, where they can begin again.

The sanctuary is named for Charlie, the dog who taught her how special a bond between a person and rescue animal can be.

Keep ReadingShow less
Big ideas come to Lenox for inaugural field festival

Hunter Runnette, founder and board chair of field, has spent years fostering arts and cultural programming in the Berkshires.

Provided

What do joy, gardening, artificial intelligence, the American experiment and the creative process have in common? Quite a lot, as it turns out, at least when some of the world’s most compelling thinkers get together to talk about them.

From Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Oct. 25, Lenox, Massachusetts, will host the inaugural field festival, a three-day gathering of writers, artists, scholars and cultural figures at Shakespeare & Company. Billed as a festival of ideas, entertainment, learning and discovery, field brings together an impressive roster of voices to explore everything from the deeply personal to the profoundly political.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Pink House AM is serving up community

Mare Rubin and Maggie Levine of the Pink House AM.

Madi Long

It all started with a yoga class. Mare Rubin was working on her second act after leaving the Upper West Side, where she’d raised a family and worked in corporate marketing. Newly empty nesters, she and her husband decided to move to the wilds of northwestern Connecticut, where they had spent 15 years as weekenders, to see what life in the woods had in store for them.

Rubin started teaching yoga classes at the Union in West Cornwall, a space designated by the town of Cornwall as a community hub with couches, Wi-Fi, occasional events and a growing yoga class schedule. She was adjusting well but missed one important thing about city life: a casual coffee shop.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.