Garden State Trout

Water was very high but clear near Duke Island Park in Bridgewater.

nice fatties!

I used to live on Milltown Road in Bridgewater--right up the road from Duke Island. In addition to the Raritan, the canal is right there too (fun for pan fish in the summer).

I once took two bluegills home that I caught in the canal near Millstone. They were bigger than my hand! When I got home, I put them in a bucket of water and took a shower. 20 minutes later I went to clean then them for dinner... I took them out of the bucket and they started flopping around. It was a full half hour since I caught them, they were still alive. I felt so bad that I drove them to where I caught them and released them back into the canal. Never ate a fish I caught since then.

BiggerThomas wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 09, 2018 9:36 pm

I used to live on Milltown Road in Bridgewater--right up the road from Duke Island. In addition to the Raritan, the canal is right there too (fun for pan fish in the summer).

I'm still surprised by the quality of fish down there!

Twism86 wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 1:05 pm

I'm still surprised by the quality of fish down there!

And we can't even get fall stocking, go figure.

BillSmith wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:12 pm

Twism86 wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 1:05 pm

I'm still surprised by the quality of fish down there!

And we can't even get fall stocking, go figure.

Why won’t they stock that stretch in the fall?! It looks like perfect water to hold the stockies all winter.

Reeltight wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 7:45 pm

BillSmith wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:12 pm

Twism86 wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 1:05 pm

I'm still surprised by the quality of fish down there!

And we can't even get fall stocking, go figure.

Why won’t they stock that stretch in the fall?! It looks like perfect water to hold the stockies all winter.

No one knows, try and ask f&g but only real reason is that there isnt enough stocked trout to go around in the fall, despite plenty of lil ponds getting stocked. I wanted to propose it to the trout meeting this year but that was cancelled without a reschedule. Next Fisheries forum is coming up tho

coaltrout wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 9:33 pm

Reeltight wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 7:45 pm

BillSmith wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:12 pm

And we can't even get fall stocking, go figure.

Why won’t they stock that stretch in the fall?! It looks like perfect water to hold the stockies all winter.

No one knows, try and ask f&g but only real reason is that there isnt enough stocked trout to go around in the fall, despite plenty of lil ponds getting stocked. I wanted to propose it to the trout meeting this year but that was cancelled without a reschedule. Next Fisheries forum is coming up tho

You know the deal Andy, get enough of the folks who utilize and appreciate that fishery to show up at the forum and actually speak up, as well as sending emails to the Freshwater Bureau staff and eventually that 'squeaky wheel' will be too loud to ignore any longer. The relatively few voices who presently represent the proposal simply aren't enough of a driving force to achieve the desired results. Despite our biologists relying upon sound science for the vast majority of fisheries management decisions, the Div still has to, out of necessity, respond to those who keep the lights on and the bills paid. Get enough volume and vocality of support for the proposal and it will come to pass eventually. It took a long time, a LOT of effort on the part of those proposing and pushing the idea, and a tremendous amount of angler support to get the 'Artificials Only/No-kill' regs enacted on the Flatbrook just for example, and it still required a great deal of work by the Div. biologists to develop adequate scientific data to support the decision.

Nice Bows