Nick's

Wow- that's awesome...
 
I grew up in Niskayuna (in the 70s and 80s) and used to cruise over to Nicks Field & Stream nearly every evening after football practice during my high school days.  I used to fish a great farm pond up in Pattersonville (religously, every night) and stopped at Nick's for shiners or anything else I needed.
 
I was wondering what happened to that place- that guy was always super cool to us as kids.
 
My best memory of Nicks? Well, since the shop was located on a pretty steep hill, it was a great destination for a guy who owned a pretty crappy 1979 MG Midget his senior year.  The electronics in that thing were such garrbage that the starter would never engage reliably (positive ground in those British tubs).  So we'd always pull a U-turn in front of Nicks and park across the street.  We'd go in, get our bait, then hop in the MG (Bo and Luke Duke-style, of course) disengage the parking brake and roll down the hill...
 
Once we got going good, we'd drop the gearbox in 2nd, release the clutch and off we'd go towards Route 5S and Pattersonville!  I went back to check on that pond years ago and was crushed to find it has since been filled in.
 
We used to find some really nice bass in that old pond...  Sad how times change, but it is nice to see an new/old shop open it's doors again.  It must be a tough way to make a living...  If there was any money in bait and tackle sales I think we'd all be doing it, huh?
 
 

Heck, I remember Blatnick Park before it even existed!
 
I used to be a paperboy for the "Schenectady Gazette" (before it became "The Daily") and the Blatnick family was on my route in Avon Crest.  After the Olympics, they even changed the name of their street to "Blatnick Way".
 
Pretty funny stuff.  They are really cool people though.
 
I caught my share of fish from Blatnick Park as a kid, but the Lisha Kill was the real hidden Nisky gem in my opinion.  I still smile when I think about the sumer afternoons spent in those woods off Rt 7 as a kid.
 
I still sneak over to the Nisky/Colonie border to taunt some of those brookies and browns.  I am not so sure people even know it is a trout stream.  The section that flows under Rt 7 (near the Holy Redeemer Cemetary and Jackson's Toro) is mainly slow water with some bass- but the 'upper sections' between Route 7 and Consaul Road holds some nice trout, and I tend to think the holdover is good in that stream.
 
Sadly, good access to those 'hidden sections' requires inside knowledge only gleened from hours of pain and toil as a ten year old, and many of my favorite trails as a kid have since overgrown and are long gone.  But I still go back every now and then anyway.  Some days I would give anything for an old Mitchell spinning reel and a ziplock of WonderBread.  Man, we sure used to humilate those fish with the tactics we used back in the day!