New Jersey Trout Anglers for Browns Stocked

Brown Trout Petition Surprised to see the petition launched in 2019, but it just goes to show that the sentiment gaining strength now is not new. I guess it's being communicated more. The growing call among New Jersey trout stamp holders to see brown trout stocked again. I know many of us talk about brookies stocked again, too, but that seems very unlikely, now that the new law is in place. That brook trout in the Trout Conservation Zone must be released. The zone dominates northwestern New Jersey. Once a legal precedent is set, it's difficult to go back on it.  

Why is New Jersey special? Furunculosis happens in state hatcheries across the country. A common disease that other states deal with, without discontinuing brown trout stockings. Perhaps more research would serve me well, but since I'm cramped for time, I'll suggest that anyone who wants to know more about why can look for answers online. I just point out, as we all know, that having only rainbow trout stocked makes for a less interesting fishery.

Scott Fisher's petition needs more signatures. It's not that I know about politics in New Jersey. I'm not very informed, because I spend my time otherwise. But anyone can tell that a petition with a large percentage of signatures from among everyone who buys the stamp, is a moving document in and of itself. It makes the difference of objectifying our cause. Whether the people in office do anything or not. They can't help but listen when collectively we become loud. 

I, for one, have felt very proud of Pequest. Just read my article from 2020, which I link to at bottom. I've felt as if New Jersey must be an exceptionally well-stocked state. But when it comes down to division, I'm on the side of the trout fishermen, being one of them, of course. And it's come down to division, already, when we should be a whole community--the Division of Fish and Wildlife and us together. Tom Kean used to say it. "Perfect together." People in the Division don't really want to be left out, nobody does, but maybe the onus is on them to make the difference only they can, through hearing our petition. 

Whether we're well-stocked or not, we're certainly a state like no other when it comes to attitude among anglers. I've done a little searching out of Facebook trout communities, and I never found another like Trout Fishing in Nj. Now we have NJ Multispecies Mayhem on Facebook, too, and I doubt it's possible for any online fishing community as brash to arise anywhere else. Maybe I could have looked harder, but I doubt it. As we all know, New Jersey is the most densely populated state. That gets us at each others throats, but it also concentrates the passion among us. It makes us the most socially vibrant trout community anywhere in the world, I'll bet.

Pequest Hatchery

Pink Worm Bobber and Salmon Eggs Trout

Brenden Kuprel and I began fishing mid-morning on the Musconetcong River near Waterloo Village, and though the water was high with a strong current, clarity was good, and I got hit pretty quickly. I missed some more hits before I caught two trout on my microlight rod before Brenden caught his first, photographed above, on a pink worm under an arrangement of split shots of descending heaviness on the line under a float. Nice trout with a kype. I hoped the fish would holdover. Soon, he caught another, though after I lost another almost at the net, hits quit coming and we left. 

We tried a few spots near Tilcon Lake, where Brenden caught his third on the worm. It's a productive arrangement for a river. I miss a lot more hits on salmon eggs than he misses on the worm. If I got hit here once near Tilcon, though, it was a very subtle take.

At Stephen's State Park, we separated. Brenden decided to fish a couple of big eddies in front of the parking lot, while I walked downstream an eighth of a mile or so. Flow seemed even heavier, With so much water in the river, fish have far to go if they please. I situated myself far from the stocking point, but surely some of the trout had made it much further downstream. My second cast yielded an 11-incher, and no more hits came after that. I had made the walk with a certain spot in mind, and it was occupied by two fishermen who looked like they wanted to stay a long time.

I marched back to the lot.

Brenden had caught nothing, and we drove off for Changewater. There I thought that with some weight on my line, it was possible to get hit, but that never happened, nor to Brenden. By then I had had it with the high water and Lockatong Creek felt promising. I never got hold of my feelings to realize I could, of course, put even more weight on the line and fish right down the torrent. Because at bottom, the current is slack. Trout hold down there.  

Brenden set a new destination on his mobile device. I believe I've made my way there from Changewater without one, but it got us there faster. Midway, we stopped at Mulhockaway Creek. The water was beautiful. Clear like tap water. I never saw a trout and never got hit. Nice hole six feet deep, too. Brenden never got hit, either, and his float arrangement might have felt out of place to him. He began talking about the appropriateness of microlight method to little streams. I made a mental note to be sure my book emphasizes the fit sufficiently.

I can't remember ever getting skunked on the Lockatong, but my favorite two spots yielded nothing and possibly not a hit, as the three I thought I got were so subtle I'm not certain that's what they were. Brenden cast a spinner for nothing, and on downstream a few miles, taking Federal Twist Road, we tried a beautiful pool full of shale in its depth, and I got hit hard. Three taps followed and then no more, so I figured the trout got fed up on the four eggs. Brenden had a few taps on his pink worm that took some of it, and he thinks they could have been sunfish. 

Enough.

We took State Highway 29 southward along the D & R Canal and Delaware River, getting onto U.S. 202 East above Lambertville. We were near Three Bridges when Brenden remembered Tuesday is the South Branch Raritan stocking day. I shot a look at the clock--4:51.

We got to the river where the hands of middle-aged men standing in a line had begun to turn reels. Right about opening time at 5:00. 

Almost always, it's like taking candy from a baby on stocking days. When you use a microlight rod. Drifting eggs naturally along the bottom. Even when the South Branch Raritan is full of water as it was today. (Though rather clear.) But you do miss hits. Many. And you lose trout almost at hand. (And it's easier to release them by a quick pinch at the hook rather than netting them.) So when you hookup and catch three or four in row--or even 25 or 30 sometimes--that's your reward after all the preceding effort. After all, Brenden and I had spent all day for six fish. No complaint, but effort should eventually culminate in success. 

Brenden did get another on the pink worm. I caught seven more on the eggs. You see the nice one in the photograph below.     

Near Tilcon Lake

Running high

High but clear

Lockatong Creek

South Branch Raritan

Musconetcong