Trout on Anything

We slaughtered them at the Zoo this afternoon. It got ugly. A small number of fish caught and released dead on bottom. More than the dead are hitting eggs and lures again. Everyone there caught trout. Almost all of the dozen or so others besides the three of us caught many. Little plastic worms worked. Fake eggs worked. Trout magnets. Salmon eggs. I watched Mark Licht fish a trout magnet under a center-pin float and catch one.

One of my eggs got in front of a trout as big as the steelhead I caught when last at the Salmon River, but it didn't take. The largest I caught fell a little short of 14 inches. I saw no other larger caught.

Mark and I had planned on fishing the Musconetcong at Stephen's State Park. I got a phone call from him early this afternoon, when he told me effective at 2 pm, Governor Murphy will have closed all state parks. We planned on another river spot instead. Before Mark phoned again, a nice, high mood felt appropriate in the sunlight as I began loading the Honda. Soon I learned he was right over here at the Zoo about a quarter mile from where I sat, catching trout steadily. I told him we would meet him there in 15 minutes.

The spot on the Musconetcong we would have fished is about an hour away. Instead, we had a grand time right near my home, saving my son and I about two hours' travel time when I have a lot to get done. That faraway spot--and we all know about faraway places--is worth another time.  Today my son and I fished about two-and-a-half hours. I actually stood in the river halfway up to my knees a good part of the time, wet-wading in early April, and the water didn't feel numbing at all. Between the three of us, we probably caught more than 90 rainbow trout.

 Mark impressed me as a Master of the center-pin. In any case, you can see how the method is perfect for floating a fake egg right along that visible seam, where he caught rainbow after rainbow.  Mark's last words today, after I complimented him on some aspect of his method, "I think of this as practice for the steelheads!" The center-pin is extremely effective on the Salmon River.

Musconetcong