You are looking at a picture of the now closed, Wolfes Pond Park. This was one of my favorite
places to fish. It was a beautiful park. I would sometimes sit on the bank and marvel at
the beauty.
Trees more than 70 feet tall made walking the wooded paths special. A break from the city
within the city.
A wooded path leading to the pond and well maintained hiking and bike trails.
Hard to believe this is part of one of the largest cities in the world.
Besides the pond this park has a beach. There are a number of parks that offer nearby
access to the ocean but Wolfes Pond Park has a beach for swimming and wading on warm
summer days.
The ocean was separated by a sea wall from the pond. It will take years to restore this pond
to what it was. And maybe decades for the fishing to return to what it was!
The pond had bass, bluegills, carp, crappie and other panfish.
The rod is a March Brown Travel Fly Rod, 9 foot, 2 weight, 7 pieces. The reel is the ATP 37
semi automatic graphite reel. It has an adjustable drag.
Wolfes Pond Park is a large public park located on the South Shore of Staten Island. It is bounded on the north by the Staten Island Railway, on the west by Holten Avenue, on the south by Raritan Bay, and on the east by Chisolm Street, Luten Avenue, and Cornelia Avenue, which is also the main entry into the park's public areas. Hylan Boulevard bisects the park, and most visitors only visit the southern half of the park, where Wolfes Pond (for which the park is named), two playgrounds, and basketball and tennis courts are located, as well as numerous walking and biking paths, open fields, and a small beach on Raritan Bay. The northern, inland half consists mostly of ponds and woodlands, and the northeastern corner hugs Tottenville High School.
In 1991 and again in 2011 the dam between the beach and the pond broke draining the pond of freshwater and flooding it with saltwater, killing the freshwater fish and many of the red-eared slider turtles.[1]
From 1941 into the 1970s Robert Moses had planned to build the Wolfe's Pond Parkway into the park from Richmond Parkway.[2] Between 1995 and 1998, the park was upgraded, and public areas were expanded. With this came the addition of the second playground on the east side of the park, as well as the sports areas, a new entrance to the beach, and a new monument to the Battle of the Bulge. Every 4th of July, the park holds a fireworks show, with live entertainment and food venues. This popular show draws hundreds of Staten Island residents from the South Shore and elsewhere every year.
North Forest and Acme Pond
The section of Wolfe’s Pond Park north of Hylan Boulevard is home to
Acme Pond. Surrounding this freshwater pond is some of the most
impressive woodland in New York City. Until the 1850s, most of this land
was heavily farmed. All of the trees here sprouted after the farms were
abandoned. As a result, the sweet gums (Liquidambar styraciflua) of the low wet areas and the white oaks (Quercus alba) and hickories (Carya) of the uplands are about the same age.
Today, remnants of sidewalks built in the 1920s are visible, constructed by speculators who anticipated several new housing developments to emerge in the area. Their plans came to an abrupt halt during the Great Depression and were never resuscitated. The scattered sidewalks and an occasional fire hydrant are the only reminders of their ambition.
Throughout the woods, vernal ponds appear in the spring, when snow melts and rain accumulates, only to evaporate in the summer heat. These ponds provide the ideal environment for trees like sweet gum, sour-gum (Nyssa sylvatica), red maple (Acer rubrum), and pin oaks (Quercus palustris), as well as ferns like cinnamon royal (Osmunda cinnamomea), and netted chain (Woodwardia areolata). Easily recognizable is swamp loosestrife (Decodon verticillatus), which turns bright red in the fall. Those plants that do not take well to the water will die, but in doing so provide feeding and nesting sites for downy woodpeckers (Picoides pubescens), green herons (Butorides virescens), and flickers (Colaptes auratus). Of particular value to the birds are the many insect larvae that attach to the leafless trees.
White oak and hickory dominate the drier sections of the forest. Wild lily-of-the-valley (Maianthenum canadense) provides a deep green carpet for the forest floor. Spots of wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis), sassafras (Sassafras albidum), spicebush (Lindera benzoin), and wild mushrooms (Agaricales) add specks of color throughout, particularly after gentle summer rains. Garter snakes (Thamnophis), chipmunks (Tamias striatus), eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), wood thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina), brown thrashers (Toxostoma rufum), and American toads (Bufo americanus) all thrive under the leaves of this forest.
Acme Pond formed during the final stages of the last ice age. As the Wisconsin ice sheet retreated north 12,000 years ago, large chunks of ice dug holes into the earth and were sometimes left behind. As they melted, they created depressions resulting in kettle ponds such as this one. Acme Pond is heavily protected from human disturbance by the tangled growth of invasive species surrounding it, such as catbrier (Smilax rotundifolia) and multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora), but these species can out-compete the native vegetation, strangling trees, shrubs, and other essential wildlife habitat. In the swampy areas, skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), tussock sedge (Carex stricta), and cinnamon fern thrive. The aquatic life of the pond is especially interesting. Brightly colored painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) and large snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) bask in the sunny areas of this pond, while red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) can be found hiding in the damp shade under logs near the pond’s edge.
Today, remnants of sidewalks built in the 1920s are visible, constructed by speculators who anticipated several new housing developments to emerge in the area. Their plans came to an abrupt halt during the Great Depression and were never resuscitated. The scattered sidewalks and an occasional fire hydrant are the only reminders of their ambition.
Throughout the woods, vernal ponds appear in the spring, when snow melts and rain accumulates, only to evaporate in the summer heat. These ponds provide the ideal environment for trees like sweet gum, sour-gum (Nyssa sylvatica), red maple (Acer rubrum), and pin oaks (Quercus palustris), as well as ferns like cinnamon royal (Osmunda cinnamomea), and netted chain (Woodwardia areolata). Easily recognizable is swamp loosestrife (Decodon verticillatus), which turns bright red in the fall. Those plants that do not take well to the water will die, but in doing so provide feeding and nesting sites for downy woodpeckers (Picoides pubescens), green herons (Butorides virescens), and flickers (Colaptes auratus). Of particular value to the birds are the many insect larvae that attach to the leafless trees.
White oak and hickory dominate the drier sections of the forest. Wild lily-of-the-valley (Maianthenum canadense) provides a deep green carpet for the forest floor. Spots of wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis), sassafras (Sassafras albidum), spicebush (Lindera benzoin), and wild mushrooms (Agaricales) add specks of color throughout, particularly after gentle summer rains. Garter snakes (Thamnophis), chipmunks (Tamias striatus), eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), wood thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina), brown thrashers (Toxostoma rufum), and American toads (Bufo americanus) all thrive under the leaves of this forest.
Acme Pond formed during the final stages of the last ice age. As the Wisconsin ice sheet retreated north 12,000 years ago, large chunks of ice dug holes into the earth and were sometimes left behind. As they melted, they created depressions resulting in kettle ponds such as this one. Acme Pond is heavily protected from human disturbance by the tangled growth of invasive species surrounding it, such as catbrier (Smilax rotundifolia) and multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora), but these species can out-compete the native vegetation, strangling trees, shrubs, and other essential wildlife habitat. In the swampy areas, skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), tussock sedge (Carex stricta), and cinnamon fern thrive. The aquatic life of the pond is especially interesting. Brightly colored painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) and large snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) bask in the sunny areas of this pond, while red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) can be found hiding in the damp shade under logs near the pond’s edge.
Know Before You Go
Wolfes Pond Park
Due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, this park is closed until further notice.
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This is Acme Pond, just across the street from Wolfes Pond Park. This is another secluded
place to fish in New York City.
One of several Large Mouth Bass I caught using soft baits and my fly rod. The fly rod is
the March Brown "Baden Powell", 8 foot 6 inch, 6 weight travel fly rod. It breaks down into 7 pieces.
The fly reel is the Franco Vivarelli semi automatic Goldstar.
