Summer in the Catskills is prime time for excellent trout fishing. Many of the region's lakes are stocked full of lake trout, browns, rainbows and even salmon.

Waters available to eastern New York anglers include natural and man-made lakes, and many of the best lakes are New York City reservoirs.

To fish a NYC reservoir, anglers need a Department of Environmental Protection Access Permit. In addition, boaters will need to apply for a boat tag. While these tags are not difficult to obtain, the process can be time-consuming. The DEP recommends applying for a boating permit four weeks in advance, and boat tags are specific to the impoundment you plan to fish. To get a boat tag, you must first possess a general-access permit. On NYC reservoirs, only rowboats are allowed -- no canoes or motors.

Aide from these stumbling blocks, the NYC waters and other lakes listed here are worth your summer angling attention.

KENSICO RESERVOIR
New York City has at least 10 reservoirs in which the New York Department of Environmental Conservation stocks trout or salmon. The impoundment that receives perhaps the least press is Kensico Reservoir in Westchester County. And that's a surprise because, according to the DEC's Region 3 biologists, Kensico Reservoir is the only one of the 10 that contains rainbows, browns and lakers.

Each spring, Kensico Reservoir is stocked with over 8,000 brown trout that provide angling opportunities throughout the summer. Special regulations apply for the reservoir's lake trout population.

The reservoir covers a sizable 2,218 acres, but is also user-friendly, since it contains numerous small and mid-sized coves. One area worth a closer look is Louden Cove.

Many of the coves in this lake contain fast, steep dropoffs, and it's in those deeper zones that the best summer lake trout fishing will be found.

A good place for shallow-water trout is the point on the south end of the Route 22 bridge that separates the reservoir from Rye Lake. Also try the water along Route 22 as well as the Route 120 island cove.

Kensico Reservoir flows into the Bronx River, which flows into the East River. Two upper arms of Kensico Reservoir contain a considerable amount of shallow water. There are two shallow-water rises on the southeast side of the lake that feature very fast dropoffs. These are good places to find cruising trout. The lake's maximum depth is 130 feet, but it has a mean depth of 43 feet.

When fishing for lake trout on Kensico Reservoir, remember that in this impoundment the predominant forage species is the silver-sided alewife, also known in these parts as a sawbelly. When you're using artificial lures, silver or chrome tones will produce the most fish.

For laker trout, the minimum size is 21 inches, with a daily creel limit of three fish. Other trout have a 12-inch minimum-size limit, with a daily creel limit of three fish.

According to Ron Pierce, a DEC biologist, lake trout stockings in Kensico Reservoir have been cut back dramatically because the population of lakers has increased. Unfortunately, he noted, lake trout growth rates have declined, and brown trout yearlings are being gobbled up by the voracious lakers.