Garden State Trout

According to some news articles I've read this morning, the state of NJ is set to allow state parks to reopen this Saturday. That's great news for people in my area that have had some major fishing restrictions placed on them by the default closure of state facilities and land access. Of course social distancing and face mask precautions must be taken, but I'm now happy and starting to see the light at the end of this long tunnel. Stay safe everyone.

yup

great news, hope it stays that way forever

Dumb day to begin the reopening IMO. Saturday is supposed to be very nice weather and the public will jam the parks and by Sunday the nation will be laughing at us on the national news networks. Open it today or wait until Monday and don't do it on the first nice weekend since the lock down. But what do I know? At least they are being reopened.

Rusty Spinner wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:14 pm

Dumb day to begin the reopening IMO. Saturday is supposed to be very nice weather and the public will jam the parks and by Sunday the nation will be laughing at us on the national news networks. Open it today or wait until Monday and don't do it on the first nice weekend since the lock down. But what do I know? At least they are being reopened.

im sure they expect something like this, maybe they're putting limits on parking after they took the time to look at the situation and how to manage the crowdings.

Or they just changed their minds, reopened, and dont give a crap anymore

38 cars in the lower lot of the KLG yesterday , from what I heard ... Open the parks , damned if you do , damned if you don't .

Jaybird wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:39 pm

38 cars in the lower lot of the KLG yesterday , from what I heard ... Open the parks , damned if you do , damned if you don't .

If you told me 38 cars could fit down there I wouldnt beleive you!! Damn!

Twism86 wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:51 pm

Jaybird wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:39 pm

38 cars in the lower lot of the KLG yesterday , from what I heard ... Open the parks , damned if you do , damned if you don't .

If you told me 38 cars could fit down there I wouldnt beleive you!! Damn!

they parked in the river, formed a dam, and turned KLG Gorge into the state's finest Lake trout fishery.

coaltrout wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 29, 2020 4:01 pm

Twism86 wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:51 pm

Jaybird wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:39 pm

38 cars in the lower lot of the KLG yesterday , from what I heard ... Open the parks , damned if you do , damned if you don't .

If you told me 38 cars could fit down there I wouldnt beleive you!! Damn!

they parked in the river, formed a dam, and turned KLG Gorge into the state's finest Lake trout fishery.

In that case my friend who lives just above the gorge now has lake front property!!!

coaltrout wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 29, 2020 4:01 pm

Twism86 wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:51 pm

Jaybird wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:39 pm

38 cars in the lower lot of the KLG yesterday , from what I heard ... Open the parks , damned if you do , damned if you don't .

If you told me 38 cars could fit down there I wouldnt beleive you!! Damn!

they parked in the river, formed a dam, and turned KLG Gorge into the state's finest Lake trout fishery.

I was there about 2 saturdays ago. vehicles was parked from hoffman bridge all the way up & down the road. I parked in my friends driveway & walked into the river. Had to be @ least 40 vehicles
that day

I cant wait. I know 1 state park I wanna fish. The main rivers for trout have been slammed lately. The lower Musky has been fished like I never seen before. You better off fishing the upper part. never seen so much trout on chains

It'll be great if this ends up spreading people out. I fish closer to home on the South Branch in Flemington when time is limited and I've been amazed at how many people have been fishing this area. Parking areas are packed with people everywhere. I'd go to the Gorge if I wanted this experience lol.

The Gorge has been very busy, with anglers and walkers, hikers, etc. and the stretch between Hoffman’s Crossing and Califon has the most anglers I have seen in all my years in this area. The opening of the State Parks is a good thing, but if you think the timing is dumb, I guess you can ignore the opening by a few days and pretend that it just opened up on Monday or Tuesday. I agree, Saturday is going to be crazy busy with warm weather and no rain forecast for this area at least.

Everyone has their own situation and risk tolerance and the science/data is still evolving day by day, but from what I am reading the chances of contracting COVID based on a passerbyer while walking outside is minimal to nil and even less if you are keeping 6 feet from people and people are using face coverings. Wind, sunshine, and humidity all help reduce ability to transmit the virus plus a passing encounter really reduces that chance, unless someone who is infected happens to get in your face and sneeze/cough right on you. Would I prefer to be in a completely isolated place fishing in the woods, yes of course. Will I lock myself in my house for the next months, no. Again I think it is important to take the necessary precautions of avoiding close contact with strangers and face covering, especially at grocery store and places like that. But again the information/guidance seems to change day by day and everyone has their own risk tolerance and decision making based on the existing guidance.

Id rather risk fishing in the remote woods without mask then to shop @ walmart with contamination suit & full face respirator on

Troutman wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 30, 2020 1:08 pm

Id rather risk fishing in the remote woods without mask then to shop @ walmart with contamination suit & full face respirator on

Well you do eventually have to food shop among the masses. And the masses will be the one's out this weekend in full force in the parks hopefully but doubtfully social distancing.

Murphy should have waited a few more weeks but he capitulated to Godfather Cuomo and followed his lead in opening the parks and golf courses. I genuinely think they both were afraid of mass civil unrest if people couldn't go outside on the 1st really nice weekend we're supposed to have since the lockdown went into effect. I think they weighed the risks of deploying law enforcement to clear out crowds vs. taking the chance of virus spread.

I'm not going near a park anytime soon and am going to try to stay out of the grocery store after this weekend for a few weeks as well.

NJ Angler will be happy though, the state parks are open and it might cull a few more of us that are diabetic, asthmatic, fat, out of shape, cancer survivor, or generally genetic weakling. The kind of people he said reap what they sow.

Drossi wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 30, 2020 2:21 pm

NJ Angler will be happy though, the state parks are open and it might cull a few more of us that are diabetic, asthmatic, fat, out of shape, cancer survivor, or generally genetic weakling. The kind of people he said reap what they sow.

I am a survivor of Windmill Cancer. Is that a risk factor?

WTF is windmill cancer?

Drossi wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:55 pm

WTF is windmill cancer?

I had to look it up too, but it seems Garden Hackle was being satirical to the fear of windmills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine_syndrome

Drossi wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:55 pm

WTF is windmill cancer?

I have it on good authority, "the best authority, everyone says so", that windmill noise causes cancer. It is not Ancraophobia, also known as anemophobia, but rather my fondness of windmills that exposed me to its cancerous affects.