The underrated north east usa

[Johnb]

I grew up fishing upstate New York, pike/musky fishing is world class. most people don't know about Ny's salmon, and trout fishing ether...new york still holds the Coho salmon world record at 30 some odd pounds(i last checked about 1 month ago). now for a report, lol. Last summer i hitch hiked/fished across the country, i stopped at west medical lake, which was decent..then a few places in montana, the best place i found was in Livingston Montana, there is a pond in Sacajawea park that is absurdly good fishing; it connects directly to the yellow stone river, I C&R'd about 12 or so native yellowstone cutts on various panther martins all about12-16 inches...i got picked up by a trucker out of billings who brought me all the way to eastern ohio...so i quit the fishing and just made it home(Saratoga NY) asap..( the whole trip took me 7 days) that summer my brother and i fished this backwater pond off the hudson river... this was the best fishing ive ever seen anywhere...average LMB was 3-5lbs, average pike was about 12lbs, and 35inches, 5lb bowfin all day long, 2lb crappies, lber perch, many types of sunfish, 20+LB blue, channel, and flathead cats, as well as the occasional 2-3lb brown/black bullhead, and some walleye too, this a large, nameless beaver pond, that barely gets fished.. about 40 or so acres reaching 12 ft deep, it feeds into a larger backwater(which i will not give the name of as this body of water is too small to handle fishing pressure from all over the country) the backwaters are off the hudson river. if anyone has any doubts i have pics on facebook to prove everything i said is true... during the spring the beaver damn floods over and at that time the fish head to shallow water to spawn, a month later the water levels drop and the river monsters are locked in...bait/tackle used-anything, and i mean anything, put a hook through a cigarette but and use it as a popper lol. truly the most impressive fishing ive ever seen, the largest fish i seen caught this year were
crappie-16" 2lb8oz--(me)
pike-15lbs-38"--(my cousin)
LMB- 9lb12oz--(friends wife)
bowfin (about)7lb-(me)
flathead cat-20+lbs it looked to be roughly 36inches or so and it was a mammoth.... (my brother)
and so on. ohh yeah...most of the fish had red fins... ive never seen this before..anyone have an idea of why that is?