New Jersey Trout Fishing

 

Fred Matero with Rainbow from North Branch Raritan (Photo care of Fred Matero.)

I've already written a post on wild trout in New Jersey (you can click the link below), so I will focus mostly on the stocking program but very little at that. I'm keeping this post very short, compared to what might be written. By clicking on such labels on this blog as "trout" and "rivers," you can find numerous articles on trout fishing here. Some of them are pertinent to trout fishing nationwide. 

Prior to the furunculosis disease at the Pequest Hatchery during fall 2013, brown trout and brook trout also got stocked; recently only rainbows got stocked by the state, although private organizations, such as South Branch Outfitters in Califon, Round Valley Trout Association of Lebanon, and the Knee Deep Club of Lake Hopatcong have stocked brown trout and perhaps some tigers and brookies.

The state has also recently been stocking landlocked salmon at Tilcon, Wawayanda, and Aeroflex lakes, as well as Merrill Creek Reservoir. 

Traditionally, the state stocks trout in every New Jersey county. Drawing for a moment on my own experience, I recall catching trout in Ocean County's Metedeconk River, from its small stream headwaters in the pines, while fishing during my teens with my mentor, Joe. As a quick aside, I don't recall if I noted in my article on wild trout that information is available online about native brook trout existing in a remote Pinelands region where cold spring water is released. Many other sources indicate that about 50% of native brook habitat produces this species from Somerset County northward. 

What lies ahead regarding stocking anywhere in the state is a guess, but an educated guess is that the state will return to normal after the COVID pandemic. I have found no information online about fall and winter trout stocking yet to come in New Jersey during 2020, and this past spring was not a normal season. 

From tiny streams to the largest lake in the state--Hopatcong--trout stocking in New Jersey has historically supported a major recreational enterprise paid for at least in part by trout stamps. It has a history as an intricate and excellently executed program involving many dozens of waterways--from streams and ponds where trout don't survive the summer to streams and reservoirs where they reproduce. (Don't forget that lake trout were originally stocked in Round Valley Reservoir; they now reproduce there, the southernmost reproduction of this species besides a lake in Arizona, from what I've heard.) 

Thus far, only 2020 has seen such a major disruption of the state's stocking program. The furunculosis outbreak might not seem to compare, because although the spring stocking schedule of 2014 was shortened to four weeks, none of the feeling of uncertainty ensued like that we felt when trout season was arbitrarily opened in March before Opening Day April 11, 2020. A large number of brown and brook trout infected by the disease had to be destroyed during spring 2014, but there was not quite the disruption of the schedule to stock streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and reservoirs, as there was during spring 2020 due to COVID-19. (Rainbow trout were not affected by furunculosis, and to avoid any future infection of furunculosis at the hatchery, the state now stocks only rainbows.)

Note 10/1/2020: The good news is that information is online about fall trout stocking in New Jersey 2020. I wish I had checked again sooner.

Rainbow from Round Valley

Nineteen- and some-inch brown trout from Round Valley.

Stocker brown from North Branch Raritan.

Stocker Rainbow from Pequest River

Round Valley Reservoir Brown

Stocker Brook Trout Lockatong Creek

Tiger Trout from South Branch Raritan (Care of Oliver Round)

I'll mention that the brook trout is the state fish under a recent photo of a native. (Care of Oliver Round)

Mike Petrole with Round Valley Lake Trout

Native and Wild Trout of New Jersey