Garden State Trout

I was talking to a guide and good friend that lives on the lower WBD just yesterday after I posted last. He agreed that the intense pressure is changing trout behavior, and even during hatches, we are seeing far fewer trout rise to flies. I watched in horror last late April and early May when I spen...

Has anyone been fishing the the West Branch Upper Delaware lately ? The Special regulation area in particular. Its the C&R stretch in Deposit . I notice the fishing hasnt been as good as years past. when I do go. I havent even seen guided drift boats anymore either. I was told that the Cannondale d...

It's that time of summer once again where it is best to give our trout a break as they struggle with the high temps. I'm preaching to the crowd with the regulars on here, but we have a lot of people that read the site but don't post. This hot spell breaks by Thursday, but this is day 2 of intense he...

I have not been able to fish for 2 years but I was wondering how the wild trout have come along on the C&R stretch of the BFB. Pat, they are catching a fair number more of brookies, but no increase and possibly a decrease in wild browns which I see as a positive. But not sure if electro fishing has...

Nice! The Musky also has a few that either come in from the Delaware or wash over the Lake Hopatcong dam some years. They aren't much when it comes to a fight, but they make up for it on the table IMO. Very tasty fish! Yep. It came in like a wet rag. no fight. I was told it taste like lobster ??? I...

Nice! The Musky also has a few that either come in from the Delaware or wash over the Lake Hopatcong dam some years. They aren't much when it comes to a fight, but they make up for it on the table IMO. Very tasty fish!

NJpatbee wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 07, 2025 4:09 pm

Thanks Brian! Glad to hear brookies doing well how are doing well

I'm hanging in there. Turned the big 6-0 a couple weeks ago and beat prostate cancer, but all normal for us "old guys". Hope you are well, Pat!

I have not been able to fish for 2 years but I was wondering how the wild trout have come along on the C&R stretch of the BFB. Pat, they are catching a fair number more of brookies, but no increase and possibly a decrease in wild browns which I see as a positive. But not sure if electro fishing has...

Ive encountered many wild trout species in the upper Bergen county waters. Its nice to see them thriving in numbers !!!. many fisherman dont knwo where to fish for them. I prefer to keep it that way ;) Yeah, I didn't mention the stream by name for that reason although we only saw one other angler a...

A buddy and I fished a Bergen County stream yesterday full of wild browns and some stocked rainbows. We were looking for the presence of wild fish well downstream of where the current dividing line between TP (trout production) and TM (trout maintenance) waters meet. And we found them in good number...

cappy wrote: ↑

Fri May 16, 2025 3:04 pm

Ended up fishing the FB before the storm hit. I did well with streamers.

Nice! I fished the salt this weekend on a buddy's new 23' Tidewater CC for big (huge) bass before coming back inside to finish with some fluke. We also got into small, school sized blues.

I saw a few pop off last night but alas the river was hammering high and the color of weak coffee. Nice. We need another day or two of no rain to get the freestones back to fishable levels. I haven't fished in NJ in two years, but have plans to fish the sulphur hatch on the Musky once that river dr...

A few sulphurs on the Flatbrook yesterday. Some caddis and a March Brown or two I saw a few pop off last night but alas the river was hammering high and the color of weak coffee. Nice. We need another day or two of no rain to get the freestones back to fishable levels. I haven't fished in NJ in two...

Just starting to hear reports about early sulphurs showing on our northern trout waters. I typically target their presence by May 11 and no later than the 15th, so this is basically normal. It is one of NJ's best and longest hatches (Invarias, dorotheas and Light Cahills are the main "summer sulphur...

Looking forward to finishing our restoration design for a section of the mighty 'Po soon. My guess is construction in '26.

Sent you a message Got it and that's the one I thought it was. It's toast BTW. No date yet. thats why I wanted to fish it before it goes down ;) . It looks pretty deep @ the spill way. then quickly shallows out. Typical of a dam's plunge pool. Very deep, but very short in length unlike a healthy po...

Just to be clear, this is the mainstem of the Raritan River and not the South Branch as indicated by the OP's title. And it is a well known issues and has been for decades.

Troutman wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 25, 2025 7:43 pm

Rusty Spinner wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 25, 2025 10:14 am

Nice fish. Which dam is that?

Sent you a message

Got it and that's the one I thought it was. It's toast BTW. No date yet.

Nice fish. Which dam is that?

Fishing in Yellowstone backcountry, Grebe Lake, out of the tree's walks a anger, asks to see my Yellowstone license and I point to it on my vest. Out of habit I used the vinyl pin on thingy. His response was, "What a great idea, we should do that here". I guess the grass is always greener... :mrgre...