musconetcong gorge

[kype]

anyone ever fish this area? is it like the ken lockwood gorge? have you caught fish in the musky gorge? are you able to get around the 30' tall dam?

my plan is to park at a fishing acess point upstream and hike downstream to the gorge or i could float my pontoon down there but then i would have to set it up fpr my wife to pick me up. and like my last question about getting my pontoon around that 30' dam.

thanks for any info

[46er]

https://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/Faciliti ... reserve-24

[Rusty Spinner]

anyone ever fish this area? is it like the ken lockwood gorge? have you caught fish in the musky gorge? are you able to get around the 30' tall dam?

my plan is to park at a fishing acess point upstream and hike downstream to the gorge or i could float my pontoon down there but then i would have to set it up fpr my wife to pick me up. and like my last question about getting my pontoon around that 30' dam.

thanks for any info

Walk in from Dennis Road in Holland Twp. The impoundment above the dam is all silt, and poor fish habitat currently. Below the dam is a spectacular gorge with river right (looking downstream) state owned and river left privately owned. I am not sure if you can legally get in on the Hunterdon side or not these days (I have my own permission from the owners), but I can tell you the Warren side which is mostly state owned is not an easy walk in most places. But you can walk down the trail from Dennis Road off 519 in Holland Twp. as I mentioned. Walking around the dam is feasible, but you will be on private property. There are state stocked rainbows and some wild browns below the dam.

[joe_panella]

anyone ever fish this area? is it like the ken lockwood gorge? have you caught fish in the musky gorge? are you able to get around the 30' tall dam?

my plan is to park at a fishing acess point upstream and hike downstream to the gorge or i could float my pontoon down there but then i would have to set it up fpr my wife to pick me up. and like my last question about getting my pontoon around that 30' dam.

thanks for any info

Walk in from Dennis Road in Holland Twp. The impoundment above the dam is all silt, and poor fish habitat currently. Below the dam is a spectacular gorge with river right (looking downstream) state owned and river left privately owned. I am not sure if you can legally get in on the Hunterdon side or not these days (I have my own permission from the owners), but I can tell you the Warren side which is mostly state owned is not an easy walk in most places. But you can walk down the trail from Dennis Road off 519 in Holland Twp. as I mentioned. Walking around the dam is feasible, but you will be on private property. There are state stocked rainbows and some wild browns below the dam.

Brian, what is the status on getting that dam down. I feel like it has been 20 years now since we have been talking about it.

[Rusty Spinner]

anyone ever fish this area? is it like the ken lockwood gorge? have you caught fish in the musky gorge? are you able to get around the 30' tall dam?

my plan is to park at a fishing acess point upstream and hike downstream to the gorge or i could float my pontoon down there but then i would have to set it up fpr my wife to pick me up. and like my last question about getting my pontoon around that 30' dam.

thanks for any info

Walk in from Dennis Road in Holland Twp. The impoundment above the dam is all silt, and poor fish habitat currently. Below the dam is a spectacular gorge with river right (looking downstream) state owned and river left privately owned. I am not sure if you can legally get in on the Hunterdon side or not these days (I have my own permission from the owners), but I can tell you the Warren side which is mostly state owned is not an easy walk in most places. But you can walk down the trail from Dennis Road off 519 in Holland Twp. as I mentioned. Walking around the dam is feasible, but you will be on private property. There are state stocked rainbows and some wild browns below the dam.

Brian, what is the status on getting that dam down. I feel like it has been 20 years now since we have been talking about it.

It's only been 16 years!

Funny, it feels like 116 years. That said, the state is overseeing the removal with aid from the Musconetcong Watershed Association. An engineering team was chosen from a public bid for same. i don't know where they are at in the process, but I do know a lot of the early work like sediment analysis, depth, size, etc. have all been done long ago. Everyone that has looked at this removal closely has come to the same conclusion which is to use a gold mine dredge like you see on TV and dredge half the year until done which is at least a 2-3 year process. I'm guessing they will remove the physical dam once much of the material is out, but those are the details the engineers need to work out. A catastrophic failure would be bad for the river below if all that sediment remains in the channel. Given that we are now in year 17, I'm guessing another 6 plus years before this is all done. My firm may play a role at some point with fish habitat, so I wanted to disclose that. But absolutely nothing today is in writing about that.

[Troutman]

I have fished the Musky George many of times in the past. I fished it last in November 2023. I used to legally access just signing in @ the guard shack. Also used to have a pass to access the trail on that side to fish. But its all be rescinded in the last 3 years. When I fished it in November I trespassed in . I wanted to fish it for the last time before the dam went down. Fishing was pretty good there. I caught some really nice size fish there. But its a hit & miss the past few years. I fished that place about 10 years. I will miss it in its present form as far as fishing goes. But understand its gonna be better for the ecology of the river. From what I understand you can still access it from the state owned property side. You have to slide down the mountain and make your way to the dam like a billy goat. & its a tuff wade. As I did it from the dam down to the mill on the private side in the river. Took all the juice out of me when I got back to the car . I have to take a 3 hour nap just to drive back home . But fishing has decline in the years there imo. when it was getting more known. More chain guys decimated the bigger fish there

[Rusty Spinner]

I have fished the Musky George many of times in the past. I fished it last in November 2023. I used to legally access just signing in @ the guard shack. Also used to have a pass to access the trail on that side to fish. But its all be rescinded in the last 3 years. When I fished it in November I trespassed in . I wanted to fish it for the last time before the dam went down. Fishing was pretty good there. I caught some really nice size fish there. But its a hit & miss the past few years. I fished that place about 10 years. I will miss it in its present form as far as fishing goes. But understand its gonna be better for the ecology of the river. From what I understand you can still access it from the state owned property side. You have to slide down the mountain and make your way to the dam like a billy goat. & its a tuff wade. As I did it from the dam down to the mill on the private side in the river. Took all the juice out of me when I got back to the car . I have to take a 3 hour nap just to drive back home . But fishing has decline in the years there imo. when it was getting more known. More chain guys decimated the bigger fish there

Some day, long from now, that will be a TCA or No-Kill stretch. I hesitate to post all I know for any variety of reasons, but wild fish will take up residence and could grow big if C&R regs are put in place.

[46er]

You have to slide down the mountain and make your way to the dam like a billy goat. & its a tuff wade. As I did it from the dam down to the mill on the private side in the river. Took all the juice out of me when I got back to the car . I have to take a 3 hour nap just to drive back home .

For me, my best memories of places I have fished always are those hard spots; to find, to get to and to catch anything.

[kype]

brian, lets just say that dam did have a a major failure after the restoration project was done downstream at the club. would all that restoration work be for nothing? just from locals around town, i heard they were gonna truck the sediment out to a parking lot nearby and allow it dry? then dispose of it. of course im not sure how true that is.

[Rusty Spinner]

brian, lets just say that dam did have a a major failure after the restoration project was done downstream at the club. would all that restoration work be for nothing? just from locals around town, i heard they were gonna truck the sediment out to a parking lot nearby and allow it dry? then dispose of it. of course im not sure how true that is.

There's no reason to believe this dam is ready to fail soon, so I wouldn't worry too much. But if it were to fail fully, it would be an issue for the river below all the way to the Delaware for years to come for certain.

As far as how the sediment will be dealt with, the engineers are not even at that point yet although I went through this exercise with IPPE a bunch of years back and there is tons of space by the old factory on the Warren side to do a major gravel quarry during the life of the project. The trouble (cost) is where to now truck those materials to. The original plan we had called for making benched wetlands on the Hughesville Mill property using all the materials from behind the bid dam upstream, but that mill is long removed and a solar farm sits on the lands the soils were to be spread over. That's on the State for dragging its feet and now taxpayers are paying for increased costs whereas our model used mitigation banking to pay for what would have been a lower cost solution when IPPE didn't lease (sell?) the Hughesville Mill lands for solar generation.

[Troutman]

I have fished the Musky George many of times in the past. I fished it last in November 2023. I used to legally access just signing in @ the guard shack. Also used to have a pass to access the trail on that side to fish. But its all be rescinded in the last 3 years. When I fished it in November I trespassed in . I wanted to fish it for the last time before the dam went down. Fishing was pretty good there. I caught some really nice size fish there. But its a hit & miss the past few years. I fished that place about 10 years. I will miss it in its present form as far as fishing goes. But understand its gonna be better for the ecology of the river. From what I understand you can still access it from the state owned property side. You have to slide down the mountain and make your way to the dam like a billy goat. & its a tuff wade. As I did it from the dam down to the mill on the private side in the river. Took all the juice out of me when I got back to the car . I have to take a 3 hour nap just to drive back home . But fishing has decline in the years there imo. when it was getting more known. More chain guys decimated the bigger fish there

Some day, long from now, that will be a TCA or No-Kill stretch. I hesitate to post all I know for any variety of reasons, but wild fish will take up residence and could grow big if C&R regs are put in place.

I was hopping to experience it in my fishing lifetime what you just mentioned

[Rusty Spinner]

I have fished the Musky George many of times in the past. I fished it last in November 2023. I used to legally access just signing in @ the guard shack. Also used to have a pass to access the trail on that side to fish. But its all be rescinded in the last 3 years. When I fished it in November I trespassed in . I wanted to fish it for the last time before the dam went down. Fishing was pretty good there. I caught some really nice size fish there. But its a hit & miss the past few years. I fished that place about 10 years. I will miss it in its present form as far as fishing goes. But understand its gonna be better for the ecology of the river. From what I understand you can still access it from the state owned property side. You have to slide down the mountain and make your way to the dam like a billy goat. & its a tuff wade. As I did it from the dam down to the mill on the private side in the river. Took all the juice out of me when I got back to the car . I have to take a 3 hour nap just to drive back home . But fishing has decline in the years there imo. when it was getting more known. More chain guys decimated the bigger fish there

Some day, long from now, that will be a TCA or No-Kill stretch. I hesitate to post all I know for any variety of reasons, but wild fish will take up residence and could grow big if C&R regs are put in place.

I was hopping to experience it in my fishing lifetime what you just mentioned

I look at it this way, there has been ongoing efforts to remove this dam for at least 16 years (longer, but the first attempt failed and was ended for a few years). Now it is funded for removal, but the state is in charge which means it will meet with significant overages in time and cost. Then, once permits are issued, the engineering team working on it thinks it's a two year process to remove the sediment using a gold dredge. I think it will be 3+ years because the engineers don't yet understand all the closures for wood turtles and trout stocking that will keep them to only about 5 months out of each year when they can do their work. But it WILL be removed in our lifetimes. That said, removal doesn't mean instant No-Kill or TCA. The Division has certain criteria for those that will have to be measured and met before they can recommend new regs for what is today general regulations waters.

[Vance]

Hello Rusty, Just read your comment about the gorge and you are right except you said in our life time. Heck, Rusty maybe in your life time but mine I don’t think so. I am now pushing 88 and now it is all down hill. So all you youngsters out there enjoy the gorge when the dam finally comes down but the way the State works it maybe in your children’s life time. Happy Spring, Brrrrrrr when it finally gets here. Bill the mailman

[Rusty Spinner]

Hello Rusty, Just read your comment about the gorge and you are right except you said in our life time. Heck, Rusty maybe in your life time but mine I don’t think so. I am now pushing 88 and now it is all down hill. So all you youngsters out there enjoy the gorge when the dam finally comes down but the way the State works it maybe in your children’s life time. Happy Spring, Brrrrrrr when it finally gets here. Bill the mailman

Bill,

I certainly hope you are there to see it down!

Rusty/Brian

[Troutman]

Hello Rusty, Just read your comment about the gorge and you are right except you said in our life time. Heck, Rusty maybe in your life time but mine I don’t think so. I am now pushing 88 and now it is all down hill. So all you youngsters out there enjoy the gorge when the dam finally comes down but the way the State works it maybe in your children’s life time. Happy Spring, Brrrrrrr when it finally gets here. Bill the mailman

Bill,

I certainly hope you are there to see it down!

Rusty/Brian

Hope you get to see it go down to vance !!!!

[Troutman]

Some day, long from now, that will be a TCA or No-Kill stretch. I hesitate to post all I know for any variety of reasons, but wild fish will take up residence and could grow big if C&R regs are put in place.

I was hopping to experience it in my fishing lifetime what you just mentioned

I look at it this way, there has been ongoing efforts to remove this dam for at least 16 years (longer, but the first attempt failed and was ended for a few years). Now it is funded for removal, but the state is in charge which means it will meet with significant overages in time and cost. Then, once permits are issued, the engineering team working on it thinks it's a two year process to remove the sediment using a gold dredge. I think it will be 3+ years because the engineers don't yet understand all the closures for wood turtles and trout stocking that will keep them to only about 5 months out of each year when they can do their work. But it WILL be removed in our lifetimes. That said, removal doesn't mean instant No-Kill or TCA. The Division has certain criteria for those that will have to be measured and met before they can recommend new regs for what is today general regulations waters.

Appreciate the education !!!!