Junction Pool and the Roscoe no-kill
The Willowemoc meets the Beaverkill at Junction Pool on the edge of Roscoe, and the river you fish from there down is a different animal from the private club water above town. NYSDEC's catch-and-release reach begins at the Delaware County line just below Roscoe and runs 2.5 miles downstream to the old railroad trestle, and that is where the famous pools sit: Barnhart's, Hendrickson's, Cairns, Wagon Tracks. It is open all year, catch and release only, artificial lures only. Public fishing rights easements bought by the state give you a strip along the bank through most of it, and the DEC signs along Old Route 17 mark where you can drop in.
Above the county line, from the Sullivan side of the line up to the Route 206 bridge, the water through Roscoe itself is a Stocked-Extended reach with a three-fish limit, and upstream of that the river is mostly posted club water for the better part of 20 miles. Hackett Fly Fishing's practical note is that access only really opens up below County Route 7 near the Roscoe nursing home.
Horton: the lower no-kill and the two months it closes
The second catch-and-release stretch is downstream around Horton, from 1.6 miles below the Iron Bridge at Horton up to 1 mile above it, and it carries an exception the upper no-kill does not: from the Iron Bridge downstream to the first Route 17 overpass, angling is prohibited July 1 through August 31 to protect thermally stressed trout. The Dette shop repeats the reminder every summer because people drive past the signs. Between the two no-kills, from 1 mile above the Iron Bridge up to the trestle, the river is Stocked-Extended again.
The reason for the closure is in the gauge. The Beaverkill has no reservoir, and Beaverkill Books' August 2026 report had the Willowemoc touching 69 degrees and the Beaverkill reaching 70 twice in one week even in a wet summer. When the Cooks Falls temperature reads high 60s, fish the tailwaters instead; the West Branch and the upper East Branch are half an hour away.
Cooks Falls, Painter's Bend and the water below Horton
Below the Horton no-kill the river runs past Painter's Bend and the Cooks Falls pool, where the USGS gauge sits, then on to meet the East Branch at the hamlet of East Branch. Old Route 17 parallels the whole run from Roscoe down with DEC parking areas along it, and this is where the river is widest and where drift boats show up from late spring on. Beaverkill Books lists the lower pools by name, Mountain and Lower Mountain, Painter's Bend, Cooks Falls, and Hackett's tip for blind fishing this water is worth taking: when nothing is rising and the water is too clear for streamers, fish a deer-hair Comparadun through the knee-deep riffles.
350 to 500 cfs at Cooks Falls, and the July 29 flood
Dette Flies posts 350 to 500 cfs at Cooks Falls as the ideal wading flow, and the Cooks Falls gauge is the one every Roscoe shop quotes. Hackett's warning is that heavy rain turns the river muddy and dangerous somewhere above 800 to 1,000 cfs, which matches a freestone that drains 241 square miles of steep Catskill valley. The USGS record explains the calendar: monthly medians of roughly 900 cfs in March, 1,190 in April, 680 in May, 350 in June, then 165 to 215 cfs from July through September before the fall rains bring it back above 300 in October.
This summer changed the river. On July 29, 2026 a storm dropped about six inches of rain on Livingston Manor and Roscoe, the Cooks Falls gauge peaked near 20,000 cfs before dawn, and Beaverkill Books reported the stream scoured, the banks undercut and familiar rocks stripped of moss with new brush piles and side channels through August. Expect changed pools and silt on the bottom; a wading staff earns its place this fall.
Quill Gordons in April, Isonychias to October: the Van Put chart
Ed Van Put's chart of major Beaverkill mayflies, which Beaverkill Books republishes, has Quill Gordons from early April to early May, Hendricksons and Red Quills from late April through May, March Browns from mid-May to mid-June, Sulphurs and Green Drakes from late May with the Sulphurs continuing to mid-July, Gray Fox in early June, Light Cahills from June to mid-August, and Isonychias from early June all the way into October. Blue-Winged Olives run the whole season from mid-April to the end of October. Dette's September 2026 reports fill in the summer and fall with tan caddis, Tricos, flying ants and rusty spinners, and Beaverkill Books notes the Tricos come off early in the morning in August on 6X or 7X. Flylords calls the Hendrickson the start of the dry-fly season here and says the olives come just before it.
Seasons and limits, reach by reach
Four rules cover the river below Roscoe. The two catch-and-release reaches, the 2.5 miles below the county line and the Horton stretch, are open all year with artificial lures only and no harvest, subject to the July and August closure below the Iron Bridge. The Stocked-Extended reaches, Roscoe up to the Route 206 bridge, the water from 1 mile above the Iron Bridge up to the trestle, and the stretch at the Beaverkill Campground from its downstream end up to a half mile above the covered bridge, allow three trout a day with no more than one over 12 inches from April 1 through October 15, then go catch and release with artificials from October 16 to March 31. Everything else on the Beaverkill falls under the statewide inland trout rule, five fish with two over 12 inches, and the private water above town is private regardless. Roscoe's shops, Dette Flies and Beaverkill Angler, post the Cooks Falls reading daily, and Dette is clear that it does not sell licenses; buy one online before you arrive.