Millington Gorge Passaic River Trout

Millington Gorge has the expected strong currents in abundance, though the river does get some relief here and there where it slows a bit. Water isn't especially deep but plenty to hold trout. And while you may think of the Passaic as a mud-bottomed river where carp thrive, don't expect to catch any carp in the Gorge. Rocks are all over the place, and if you're careless while wading, you'll get wet. 

In addition to trout, Brenden Kuprel, who showed me the way today, says the Gorge has sunfish and largemouth bass. Not too many of either. While we fished, I was preoccupied with salmon eggs that seemed too soft to have been salted, very frustrated with them, as trout after trout hit and snitched them, so the thought of smallmouth bass didn't occur to me until later. Brenden had already left. Later, he told me he's caught none, heard of none, and doesn't believe any exist there. 

Smallmouths are abundant in the Passaic near Patterson.

Brenden had invited me last night. We met at 9:30 a.m. in the lot near the railroad tracks. Classic American scene of free-growing and free-flowing wilds. I fear that if we lose such access, we'll lose our nation, too. It will implode like an ancient bag woman who sits against a wall staring at a Time Square screen all day, all night, infinitely appalled. 

We each got our waders on, and I believe it was when I reached for my vest that I realized I had left my rod at home. That is the first time I have ever gone fishing and forgotten the rod. Or rods. Any amount of rods forgotten. I'm told my memory loss is normal for my age. Everyone seems to dance around the fact that both of my parents died due to complications from Alzheimer's. Just putting that out there in case you're wondering. I'm not much afraid of it. I already know from apparently normal memory loss that you can know you're at loss and not suffer. The important thing is that you're beginning to enter the final stages of a full and flourishing life.

I got my rod and got back there, parking my Honda Civic right next to Brenden's Forrester. I left my cell phone in the car, because I didn't want the responsibility. But you can see that Gorge is down there, by looking at the photos, and I got down there and didn't see Brenden. I took a few casts in some slower water, missing a hit. Later, I asked Brenden if they actually stock where we began. He thinks they do but isn't certain. In any event, we found trout everywhere in the Gorge, and plenty of water remained that we didn't fish. 

I decided to climb back up and call Brenden. He had made his way upstream and said parking exists. I drove up Pond Hill Road and took a spot from very little space left. A couple of good 'ole boy types, full of foul language, told me they had caught one trout. I said to Brenden that can mean one of two things: few trout or they left plenty behind. His smile in return seemed to be a knowing one.

The place was loaded, and I took some home. As I had been saying, I missed hits from fish after fish. Finally, I caught one after I did the obvious thing and tried a different jar of eggs. Then another after Brenden left. (He had caught some on a fake worm under a float, though I don't know how many.) I walked just a little further upstream where Brenden had caught one and began picking off one after another from that run and yet another run even further up. I ran up a total of 15 trout caught.

The second fish I hooked on further upstream from where I caught the first two was a real river horse, a trout of at least 16 inches, hooked in powerful current and hugging bottom...so I felt I had control. Water is slack at bottom. 

You don't work a fish too hard on a microlight rod and two-pound test, but you can put pressure on it, which is what I did, knowing I had to tire it out, however long it would take. It was taking a while. Instead, the hook pulled free. 

Oh, well.

 

Having climbed almost to the top.

 Basking Ridge Road

Hunterdon County Trout