Long Pond Makes Smithville a Tiger Musky Map Pin

Long Pond State Forest gives Smithville a fish story with enough details to stay honest. The forest covers 3,254 acres, with the 117-acre Long Pond as its recreational center. Before the woods take over the imagination, the water does. The DEC lists a hard-surface boat ramp at the northwest corner, a beach launch at the northeast corner, and a motor limit of 25 horsepower or less.

The hook is tiger musky, but the pond is not a tall tale. Chain pickerel, largemouth bass, and tiger musky are among the main game fish. Long Pond is popular for ice fishing, a former state-record tiger musky was caught there in 1983, and the pond is stocked annually with about 350 tiger musky. That makes the place memorable without promising every angler a trophy.

Around the water, the forest adds walk-up campsites, a day-use area near the dam, a snowmobile corridor trail, horseback-riding windows, and grassland bird habitat. So Smithville gets a real outdoor anchor instead of a pretty pond name alone. Summer boats, winter ice fishing, quiet campsites, grassland birds, and that 1983 tiger musky all give Long Pond a place in the local story.