A bright, wonderful day, but without rod and reel because the herniated disk in my lower back has given me trouble since Friday. I did get out and enjoy Round Valley Reservoir scenes at lunchtime, taking some photos. If any of you are classical music afficiandos like me, Biedrich Smetana's The Moldau was fitting music, signaled from WQXR, New York.
I thought I would revise a story I wrote for Recorder Newspapers of New Jersey's Highlands almost a year ago, get the piece out early, although we do have some cooler weather now, which hints at what's less than a month away.
With Cooler Temperatures
Trout are Game
Streams are cooling—at least in the mornings—below the 68-degree threshold,
above which--more or less--trout do not survive lactic acid trauma after struggle on a hook
and release. That’s a general rule—brook trout need cooler water, rainbows
tolerate slightly warmer, and browns fare even better through summer—but it’s
worth keeping in mind when fishing trout during the heat of summers like this
and the previous two we’ve got through.
Many small spring-fed streams, may never warm
above 68. But my son, Matt, and I fished the Paulinskill River in Sussex on the
hottest day of the year last summer through stretches with ample springs, and we finished
our short afternoon by swimming—in water that felt about 82. A visit to the Paulinskill late in July this year saw no trout at all, whereas a month prior browns were everywhere. Most of them probably got through the heat having found spring holes.
The Musconetcong River in Morris,
Warren, and Hunterdon Counties is spring fed especially below Hackettstown on
down through Asbury, and the Pequest is noted as a limestone river by Tom Gilmore in his book Fly Fishing the Big Apple. Trout
holdover in all of the streams I’ve mentioned and more; reproduction
occurs in smaller spring streams.
Trout fishing for both fly anglers
and those who prefer spinning tackle should improve with cooler temperatures
with streams and rivers at normal levels, and it
won’t be long before rivers like the Musconetcong, Pequest, Paulinskill, Black, Rockaway, and North and South
Branch Raritan receive a generous stocking of 14 to 16 inch, and larger, trout
from the state the second and third weeks of October. The volumn of fish
stocked is less than during spring, but plenty escape angler’s intentions and
remain in rivers for a productive winter fishery; a few holdover into spring and
beyond.
However, New Jersey trout are not all
about the Pequest hatchery. Native brook trout with genetic lines extending
back to the end of the Wisconsin Glacier exist in many pure water streams. Some
clean and cool water streams are not stocked, yet have abundant populations of
rainbow and/or brown trout which have reproduced since stockings many years
ago. Some streams feed into rivers that are stocked; trout migrate upstream in turn.
The headwaters of the Passaic River
in Bernardsville are full of wild rainbows and browns, accessible at
Scherman-Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary. Angers are required to release what they
catch, and use artificial lures (flies or otherwise) with barbless hooks. Make
sure to check at the office for additional regulations. Hooks can be rendered
safer to released trout easily by crimping barbs with needlenose pliers. Most
Passaic River trout are five to seven inches, few a foot long, and the very
rare catch reaches 17 inches.
Trout in small streams such as the
Passaic headwaters spook easily and require stealth and skill. It’s easier to
fish a wet fly, nymph, or streamer in a deep pool where your quarry
will more likely be unaware of your presence. Rivers allow greater casting
range to reach unsuspecting shallow water trout, but many years ago I
caught plenty of nine inch brook trout in the small, crystal clear Dunnfield
Creek of Warren County on small shad darts, jigs used in the spring Delaware River
shad run. Use no more than two pound test line and cast anywhere you need to reach.
I must confess before I attempt to
enlighten you on dry flies that I have yet to catch a trout on any. I’ve only
dabbled in fly fishing, although this year and the past, my son and I have tried a number of
times, as yet catching more smallmouth bass than trout, and all of our fish
this year on nymphs. Matt gets the crown for two browns that rose ferociously
for a large, size 10, Adams dry fly. He missed both.
I refer to Fly Fisher’s Guide to the Big Apple: Great Waters within 150 Miles of
New York City, by Tom Gilmore for my advice to you. Parachute Adams, size 18-24, Parachute Blue
Winged Olive, size 18, Blue Quill and Blue Dun, 16-18, Gray Wulff, 10-12
represent hatches that may be encountered.
Terrestial patterns come in
fascinating variety which the folks at Effinger Sporting Goods may have further
advice to help you, but ant, inchworm, and caterpillar patterns are good
into October. The Wooly Worm, a wet fly caterpillar pattern I loved in my
teens, is effective tied to as large as a size six hook. Find a few fly
patterns you like, and this may get
you started better than trying to outsmart nature.
I have to confess that my motive to go today, all the way down to Seaside Park, then up Route 35 to Brielle and Manasquan Inlet, was as much to get an issue of Lake Ontario Outdoors at Betty & Nicks and two pints of killies for smallmouths, as it was to fluke fish, although I was completely open to letting the fishing take me. But by the time we had eaten on the boardwalk and taken our time to get to the inlet, we had only two hours to fish. I could have stayed longer, but right now I'm glad I have the magazine to read since I want to write for it.
