Hunterdon County NJ Trout Fishing

 Nishisakawick Creek near Frenchtown

The article originally found its place in The Federated Sportsmen's News. 

Hunterdon Hills Trout Streams

By Bruce Edward Litton

 

 

          Stocked streams in New Jersey offer a wide array of qualities. They range from urban settings like that of the Rahway River in Essex County, to obscure rural and mountain streams in Warren and Sussex counties like Jacksonburg Creek and Franklin Pond Creek, as well as scenic rivers like the Musconetcong, Pequest, and Paulinskill. The very high quality water of Dunnfield Creek in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area was stocked at least as late as the 1980’s, but the trend in more recent years is to protect wild and native trout streams against stocked intruders. Many of New Jersey’s highest quality waters no longer receive as much fishing pressure.

         Judging from experience fishing some of these lesser known wild and native trout streams, I can vouch for a series of streams in Hunterdon County differently. Not for water quality sufficient for trout reproduction except for two of them, but for their beauty and productiveness as Trout Maintenance Water. They range south to north from Alexauken Creek near Lambertville, to Hakihokake Creek in the Milford area, all of them flowing into the Delaware River or Delaware and Raritan Canal. Hakihokake Creek is actually a complex system of little tributaries. They host wild brown trout. Well to the south of this watershed a single finger exists near Frenchtown: Warford Creek and its wild trout.

          The other streams named in order from south to north—Alexauken, Wickecheoke, Lockatong, Nishisakawick creeks—flow through farmlands and wooded hills. Below farmland, plenty of the hilly woodland filters out farm contaminants, protects against sun, and improves in general on the relatively low quality of slow water. Healthy stream flow and rocky habitat make the trout fishing interesting. Just enough springs exist for small percentages of the trout to holdover. The hilly settings featuring fast rocky riffles and flows, holes, and pools are, in my opinion, especially conducive to the use of salmon eggs, the method depending on drifting eggs in a life-like way through currents. The water looks so good you might forget you’re fishing a stream with no wild trout present.

          Decades ago, I was first introduced to Wickecheoke Creek in February to fish for holdovers. We caught none, but on earlier occasions without me, my friend had caught one or two rainbows on worms fished on bottom in holes once and a while in January and February, while fishing the Lockatong, too. We fished a few holes of the Wickecheoke, and I distinctly remember considerable ice formations surrounding them, temperatures in the teens. I wouldn’t remember this escapade as clearly as I do, unless it were fully worthwhile despite no action from fish.

          That same year, 1975, I began fishing the Hunterdon Hills on Opening Day and on occasion otherwise during the spring season. I’ve also fished them during the ‘80’s, ‘90’s and both decades of the new millennium, drawn to their nourishment as if by homing instinct. On a foray with my son in 2014, water was high and off-color, but we still caught a lot of trout on salmon eggs. The water wasn’t all that muddy.

           Public access is pretty good on all of these streams. Hakihokake Creek gets stocked from County Road 519 downstream to Javes Road and Miller Park Road, pull-offs evident along the way. Warford Creek doesn’t get stocked. The Nishisakawick near it does, and there’s pullover access along CR 519 downstream to Creek Road. The Lockatong Creek is situated considerably further south in Kingwood and is stocked from Union Road on downstream to State Highway 29. Wickecheoke Creek flows near Stockton with pull-off access at CR 519 and along Lower Creek Road. Alexauken Creek offers access along Alexauken Creek Road in the Lambertville area.

           All of the streams are close enough together to car hop from one to another. It all depends on how much you want to do, but the charm of driving at length among the hills to explore new waters is worth at least the thought. The prettiest stretch of stream and roadway is from CR 519 to State Highway 29 by way of Federal Twist Road. It doesn’t actually shoulder the Lockatong, but several side roads—Milltown Road, Strimple’s Mill Road, Raven-Rock Rosemont Road—provide access along a fairly steep way down from CR 519 to the Delaware River. Another spot worth mention is the Frenchtown Cliffs on the Nishisakawick, a short drive upstream on Creek Road from town. Why the state quit stocking this spot about a decade ago, I have little idea, but the view of a 60-foot cliff above a nice hole of clear water is marvelous. Wickecheoke Creek features a covered bridge at Sergeantsville, a spot worth a stop, and on down along Lower Creek Road the views are beautiful and the flow is rocky and pretty quick with pockets and holes holding trout.

          Stocking continues into late April for most of these streams, mid-May for the Lockatong judging by the 2018 information available as I write. Late in May, fly fishing with dry patterns becomes productive as the rainbows acclimate to the streams and begin behaving more like wild fish. Summer shuts the trout fishing down. The few surviving holdovers find scarce springs. None of these streams receive fall stockings.

         For sheer numbers of fish, April is the month to come here, using the lightest ultra-light you own, the reel spool filled with two-pound test. You’ll probably never need a split shot. At least most of the deep flows don’t have current strong enough to warrant the use, but it’s a good idea to buy size 14 snap swivels and clip off the swivels, placing a baby pin through the remaining line loop of each swivel, and then pinning this arrangement to your vest. A couple or a few clipped swivels added to a snap is all the weight you’ll need in some situations. 

          In many, nothing but a size 14 baitholder hook and a size 14 snap is necessary. The heaviest weight you cast is a single Mike’s salmon egg. You want it to ride the current as life-like as possible, not necessarily dragging bottom but getting down there and making some contact. The streams are fairly small, and they invite you to walk and wade up or downstream of stocking points. You usually don’t have to cast very far, and any stretch you fish will remind you that stocking makes a real difference for quality fishing.

Salmon Eggs for Trout