Garden State Trout

So now that I live just over a half hour from the special reg section of the Toms River I will bring up a past topic. I understand that it may be years before the NJF&W breed and stock brook trout but in the past there has been discussion about stocking brook trout from the Connetquot Hatchery in the Toms River. I understand the hatchery was infested with a disease (IPN?) a number of years back but I have read that they have been back in business again. Some of the brook trout in the Connetquot have been known to head to the Atlantic and return as "Salters". Also, I believe that the brook trout can tolerate the tannic water of the Toms better than the browns or rainbows. Anyone know of any plans to re-introduce brook trout in the Toms from the Connetquot, or any other hatchery?

I'm not aware of any plans to revive that program but you are correct that it was in the works and if I remember correctly all necessary approvals had been obtained before the disease problem at the Connequot hatchery ended it.

I might add that for at least several years, this goes back probably 12 -14 years, there were 10 's of thousands of surplus brookies 4-5 inches stocked in the Toms well below the TCA. Some of those fish made it back to the TCA and above shortly after stocking but I never heard of any kind of recapture of larger fish in the following years or any salters either. Brookies do very well in the Toms as do Browns to some degree, Rainbows not so much.

Thanks for the update.

There's one other small caveat to the thought of reviving that plan. They presently have no brook trout in the Connie hatchery, so the only way to obtain any of that particular strain would be to recover some from the river itself which we know they would never allow. Still, it would be nice if some could be obtained from another source of 'salters' somewhere in New England if any exist.

What's the history of salters in NJ? I'm guessing they once used to spawn in Nj waters but in modern times don't and just the local freshwater trout remain? What causes this change is ambiguous? Maybe back to last ice age?

I could not find any documented report of salters in NJ but I suspect that if you went back 500 years or so there may have been some with a large number of waters having wild brook trout. As far as establishing a salter run in the Toms it would most likely have to be supported by stocking of brook trout from salter stock since the NJF&W has tried unsuccessfully as mentioned above with brook trout in the Toms. There is also no documented evidence of trout spawning in the Toms River.

That is too bad about the Connetquot hatchery having no trout and I do not know if States like Massachusetts use salters in their hatcheries. It may not be possible to get salters stocked in the Toms at this time but based on other anglers' reports brook trout survive well in the acidic Toms, but in the near future they will not be available from the Pequest Hatchery. I am too new to the area to know if there is enough angler interest to support a private stocking of brook trout in the Toms.

To give an idea of the holdover potential of the Toms we electro fished about 100 yards of the TCA on Sept 5,2007 which was prior to the Fall stocking and 4 months after the last Spring stocking. We got 39 brookies, 18 Browns and 1 rainbow. Also a catfish, 3 pickerel, 1 lm bass, darters, sunfish and many, many eels. One of the Browns measured 22 inches. Prior stockings included all 3 species of trout, mostly brookies.

That's impressive , lots of variables but that's pretty good .

We used to get lots of these all over the Raritan river, then they stopped stocking Brook Trout and it all went away.

I sorely miss the brook trout. And the browns too.

Those are impressive fish! How far up the Raritan did they run?

Through the fish at ladder at the Island Farm Fish Weir all the way up to the Headgates dam.

Johnw wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 30, 2018 12:02 pm

To give an idea of the holdover potential of the Toms we electro fished about 100 yards of the TCA on Sept 5,2007 which was prior to the Fall stocking and 4 months after the last Spring stocking. We got 39 brookies, 18 Browns and 1 rainbow. Also a catfish, 3 pickerel, 1 lm bass, darters, sunfish and many, many eels. One of the Browns measured 22 inches. Prior stockings included all 3 species of trout, mostly brookies.

I remember that day.

BTW, I am confused... I thought the plan was to stock sea run browns from the Conny, not salters. Though, as my wife points out with joy, I'm prone to misremembering things

I'm part of the misremembering thing also, it comes with age. It was salters for sure. By the way the striper fishing has been excellent the last few days in Monmouth County in a very rough surf. No keepers but seems several year classes are here with fish ranging from barely 12 inches up to about 24.

Johnw wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:58 pm

I'm part of the misremembering thing also, it comes with age. It was salters for sure. By the way the striper fishing has been excellent the last few days in Monmouth County in a very rough surf. No keepers but seems several year classes are here with fish ranging from barely 12 inches up to about 24.

yeah, well it was not quite so good down in seaside LOL.

glad you found them, I ran into one of the little stiped ones last week in the cold with one other angler, yesterday with about 40 additional anglers, we all tried
and got squat.... seems they bunch up.