New Jersey amends its stocking/season schedule for Spring 2021

[frickerdog]

Because we have had no rain for several weeks and had unseasonably warm temperatures for a full week, the Ramapo is very low/slow and warm. I went out there this morning, and couldn't believe how warm the water has gotten. I'm guessing it's already close to 70. Even the blue heron who frequents my spot was not catching fish. I think I may have to find a new local location if I'm going to continue to pursue trout before work. The spring creeks up in the northwestern part of the state are still supporting a lot of trout, but the northeastern part of the state desperately needs some rain and cool nights to help any remaining trout survive.

 

[NJfishkeeper]

Because we have had no rain for several weeks and had unseasonably warm temperatures for a full week, the Ramapo is very low/slow and warm. I went out there this morning, and couldn't believe how warm the water has gotten. I'm guessing it's already close to 70. Even the blue heron who frequents my spot was not catching fish. I think I may have to find a new local location if I'm going to continue to pursue trout before work. The spring creeks up in the northwestern part of the state are still supporting a lot of trout, but the northeastern part of the state desperately needs some rain and cool nights to help any remaining trout survive.

Yeah jersey always struggles in the summer months when it comes to trout at least for me personally, especially with no rain and blistering hot heat. i start going for pickerel and bass until the fall out of my kayak and will try for some musky and pike this year, but there are a few trout spots i may hit on a cooler day.

 

[NJ Catch and Release]

Yeah jersey always struggles in the summer months when it comes to trout at least for me personally, especially with no rain and blistering hot heat. i start going for pickerel and bass until the fall out of my kayak and will try for some musky and pike this year, but there are a few trout spots i may hit on a cooler day.

I do the same.

 

[frickerdog]

The rain over the weekend really cooled down our rivers, which was very important. The one river that I frequent was up in the high 60s before the weekend. Yesterday, I fished it at a cool 52 degrees. The result was much livelier fish. Caught about 30 trout on dry flies in a catch-and-release/barbless hook Trout Conservation Area. They were banging the flies...lots of fun.

 

[NJfishkeeper]

The rain over the weekend really cooled down our rivers, which was very important. The one river that I frequent was up in the high 60s before the weekend. Yesterday, I fished it at a cool 52 degrees. The result was much livelier fish. Caught about 30 trout on dry flies in a catch-and-release/barbless hook Trout Conservation Area. They were banging the flies...lots of fun.

is this TCA areas, do you see game wardens here often? I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen people catch fish in these areas on spinning gear and bait and keep monsters out of them. cant wait until they get caught and pay that heavy fine.

 

[frickerdog]

is this TCA areas, do you see game wardens here often? I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen people catch fish in these areas on spinning gear and bait and keep monsters out of them. cant wait until they get caught and pay that heavy fine.

I've fished in this spot maybe 10 times and saw the game wardens once, right around opening day of this year. They were not checking anyone's gear....just looking for licenses and beer.

 

[NJfishkeeper]

I've fished in this spot maybe 10 times and saw the game wardens once, right around opening day of this year. They were not checking anyone's gear....just looking for licenses and beer.

Idk, I feel like if new jersey fish and wildlife want these fisheries to survive they need to do daily checks idk say 2 times a day. They will catch people here all times of day. TCA usually hold many native brook trout too. if people dont know to net this fish asap leave them in the water, remove hook and release almost immediately theres a good chance that these native fish will not last much longer. especially when they swallow a spinner or gut hook themselves from bait when they should even be fishing a TCA with that gear.

 

[frickerdog]

I was talking to a NJF&W worker at the Flatbrook River yesterday. He said that survival rates in the TCAs had been very strong this year compared to last thanks to better water quality, ample food sources, lower temps and less fishing traffic. Based on what I saw yesterday, the population of the Big Flatbrook is thriving. I am not a scientist, so I don't know what this means for the long term, but it was encouraging to see a lot of very healthy fish in August.

 

[NJfishkeeper]

I was talking to a NJF&W worker at the Flatbrook River yesterday. He said that survival rates in the TCAs had been very strong this year compared to last thanks to better water quality, ample food sources, lower temps and less fishing traffic. Based on what I saw yesterday, the population of the Big Flatbrook is thriving. I am not a scientist, so I don't know what this means for the long term, but it was encouraging to see a lot of very healthy fish in August.

how did you do ? im itching to get my fly rods back out on the water. still have alot i want to learn.

 

[frickerdog]

how did you do ? im itching to get my fly rods back out on the water. still have alot i want to learn.

It was a great morning. I fished from 6:00 a.m. until 10:30. At that point, I started to get a little nervous as the water temp had risen from 60 to 64, so I headed home. Trout were active all over the river and the ones I brought to net were very healthy. As usual, I was fishing dries, and it seemed that the recipe on Sunday was using size 18 or smaller. Because I was using very small flies with crushed barbs, I missed a few and lost a few. However, I caught fish in fast water and pools at 5 or 6 different locations on the river. I was trying multiple strategies and methods, and it was a ton of fun.

Best fish I caught was a beautiful 16-inch rainbow who shot out of a fast stretch of water and nailed a size 20 sulfur that I had tied on. Most of the fish were 12-14 inches. I was fishing my light 4wt.

 

[NJfishkeeper]

At that point, I started to get a little nervous as the water temp had risen from 60 to 64, so I headed home. Trout were active all over the river and the ones I brought to net were very healthy. As usual, I was fishing dries

very glad to hear and yeah the rising temps really make me nervous as well, so I hang up my rods until September at least. DM me maybe come fall we can fish together being we are both from jersey and probably frequent the same rivers and streams lol

 

[frickerdog]

NJ has reverted to its pre-COVID stocking plan for 2022, where they do a large stocking in late March and then close stocked streams for 3 weeks prior to opening day to permit trout to spread out and become accustomed to their new surroundings. We are in the midst of the dead period. NJF&G then stocks those same streams weekly from April 9 - May 15.

During COVID, they had done only one large stocking with no following stock, and instead of doing closures, they used a 2-week C&R for all waterways.

For people who trout fish year-round, this is probably the worst time of year. I fish a Trout Conservation Area most of the time (the area supports wild trout but they stock above and below the TCA) and that area does not close since it is not stocked and is C&R only. It is about an hour away, but in terms of where I live (very crowded) to where it is (very rural), it is another world. There is no bait fishing permitted in the TCA, so it is mostly fly fishermen, but during the dead period, but the crowd on that stream (usually light to moderate) doubles during the dead period. Add to it that I can't even dip my feet in the local river because of the dead period, and this is grumpy time for me.

The good part of the doubling of the crowds in the TCA is that I have been forced to move away from my typical holes and find new locations. The issue is that the C&R area is only about 2 miles long, so there aren't too many secrets there. Also, there is another unstocked stream that I like to fish, but there is no road access to it until April 10th. The hike to it would be over 3 miles.

 

[frickerdog]

We got a LOT of rain tonight and Saturday is opening day. Most waters are already high and today will send most locations in the state above moderate flood stage. I feel bad for the kids who were lined up to fish at local rivers on traditional opening day. The 500,000 stocked trout that have been in the water for a few weeks now are not going to be as easy to find. And Saturday is likely to be downright dangerous at many locations.

 

[frickerdog]

Water levels finally came down, so I went on Saturday and fished my favorite stream in the northwest corner of NJ. It is a stream that supports trout year round, and the Trout Conservation area of the stream is a no-live-bait C&R zone and is supplemented with a stocking each season. The area is beautiful (very unpopulated) and the water is crystal clear when not high.

On Saturday, the water was under 50 degrees, so fishing was much better once the noontime sun warmed the waters, and the trout really started actively feeding. From 8:30-noon, I caught and released 3 trout despite seeing dozens of fish in the area that I was working. I also missed a few as the takes were very subtle. I moved spots to a shallower hole, and from noon-2:30, I caught and released 29 trout. I wished I had moved sooner.

Also, 27 of the 29 trout caught in the afternoon were caught by swinging a size 18 gold hares ear downstream in the current. Most of the hits happened just as the fly swung towards the headwaters, in less than a foot of water. You could see the fish waiting on the swing. Unlike the morning, the fish were actively pursuing the fly. It was a great few hours. The GHE was beaten to hell but it kept tempting fish until it completely unraveled. I can't wait for another few weeks when dry fly season really kicks in.

 

[frickerdog]

It has been a year since I posted in this NJ-centric thread. I have spent the last week again waiting for water levels to drop, so based on last year and this year, I guess I should expect high water in early May here. Regardless, I have not been fishing in over 2 weeks. I hope to get out this Sunday, anticipating hat flows on my favorite stream (noted in my May 2, 2022 post) will drop below 200 cfs for the first time since mid-April. For perspective, ideal flow for trout in this waterway are 100-150 and have fished it as low as 60 in the winter. It was up over 2000 last weekend, so it has taken some time to drop. 2 weeks ago, I fished it at 400, which forced me to find some new spots that were not as impacted by fast water.

 

[dtaylo1066]

I departed New Jersey in 1980 to reside in Colorado. From a trout fishing perspective I empathize with those in the Garden State, though it has better trout water than many N.J.-bashers would think. And you can always drive to PA or the Catskills. But I am happy to be in the Rockies, right now looking at glacier out of my home office window and off the local stream in about an hour.

 

[RCST11]

I don't get why they try to force trout into some of the waterways. I'd rather catch healthy naturally occurring smallmouth bass and panfish than see dying stocked trout, native to the west coast floating belly up every summer. I guess it feeds the otters and birds though, so they aren't wasted. I did remarkably catch a rainbow last year in the middle of July in the Delaware Canal while I was targeting some bass. It was probably 90 degrees outside.

 

[frickerdog]

I departed New Jersey in 1980 to reside in Colorado. From a trout fishing perspective I empathize with those in the Garden State, though it has better trout water than many N.J.-bashers would think. And you can always drive to PA or the Catskills. But I am happy to be in the Rockies, right now looking at glacier out of my home office window and off the local stream in about an hour.

As you know having lived here, the northwest corner of NJ is very similar to Catskills and eastern PA. The Appalachian Trail runs through the corner of NJ and then up into New York State. The streams in that corner of NJ are only about 50 miles south of the "birthplace of fly fishing" and are in the same watershed, so there are natural trout populations there, and the fishing is very good most of the year. The only time I would need to drive to PA or the Catskills is in the dead of summer, but I have managed to find a few spring-fed streams that stay cool enough most of the summer, and have brown and/or brook trout populations. Also, I enjoy fishing bluegill and smallmouth for those times.

 

[frickerdog]

I don't get why they try to force trout into some of the waterways. I'd rather catch healthy naturally occurring smallmouth bass and panfish than see dying stocked trout, native to the west coast floating belly up every summer. I guess it feeds the otters and birds though, so they aren't wasted. I did remarkably catch a rainbow last year in the middle of July in the Delaware Canal while I was targeting some bass. It was probably 90 degrees outside.

I agree that some of the stocked waterways are ridiculous because they get WAY too warm, but it's probably one of those things where offering equal opportunities to residents of all counties, and they want to spread out the fishing. Much of the state has at least some water that would support holdovers, and has some rivers that have wild populations, but the breadth of the stocking waters is a bit absurd.

 

[dtaylo1066]

As you know having lived here, the northwest corner of NJ is very similar to Catskills and eastern PA. The Appalachian Trail runs through the corner of NJ and then up into New York State. The streams in that corner of NJ are only about 50 miles south of the "birthplace of fly fishing" and are in the same watershed, so there are natural trout populations there, and the fishing is very good most of the year. The only time I would need to drive to PA or the Catskills is in the dead of summer, but I have managed to find a few spring-fed streams that stay cool enough most of the summer, and have brown and/or brook trout populations. Also, I enjoy fishing bluegill and smallmouth for those times.

VCG has few wild ones in its cold water. I used to spend part of my summers on Lake Owassa in the 1960s and 70s in my early and mid teens. Attended many a Sussex County Farm and Horse Show in Branchville. Only fished for sunfish, perch and bass in the lake then. Did not know of trout or the Big Flat Brook until I was in college. The AP was very near and we would hike it several miles each year and would also go up and over the Kittatinny ridgeline and slip over into Tillman Ravine for a chilly dip.

Sussex County was very rural and bucolic then.

Tocks Island Dam was a reality then. Glad it bit the dust, though it would have likely created a tailwater downstream through the Water Gap that would have the largest trout fishing mobs in the world on it.

Blew a tranny on my aging car in college going up to High Point from the N.Y. side after fishing near Hancock on the Delaware one day.