Round Valley 5/15/11:

[AndyS]

Went over to Duke Island Park falls, took the Sellers Maintenance Yard entrance in. Got to the small lot above the falls and saw the water...yuck!
Lotsa debris floating down the brown river.
Went up stream to Natirar, high and muddy, so was Peapack Brook.
Headed over to the back of Round Valley. It was very nice back there and I could walk a long way along the bank, casting and walking in the gin clear water. Some spots on the shore line the water was yellow from all the pollen.
Didn't see anyone else fishing back there.
Came around to the front by the boat ramps and fished the shore line past the rocks, a few people fishing, nobody catching. Only saw 3 boat trailers in the parking lot. This is a great Round Valley day, heavy mist, in May, light East wind, if I had more time I definately wouldn't pass up a day like today, had some of my best fishing days on Round Valley in weather like this, surprised to see only 3 boat trailers in the lot. I didn't catch anything.
They say the time to fish for the big stripers on the Raritan is AFTER the rain, we'll see what happens in the next few days, I may have to go back and try it again, without a camera !!

[Moz]

I hit RVR on Sunday for a few hours from the Causeway in the boatramp area and despite what seemed like ideal weather conditions (cloudy, fog) it was an odd day out.

I caught 2 red-breasted sunfish both which were pretty big and one was probably close 1 LB in weight. I'd never caught one out of RVR before so that was interesting. Only 3 rockbass on top of those 2 to show for 5+ hours out there. I did manage one decent bite on a 3" Gulp minnow but didn't hook up with whatever it was.

I saw a lot of small bass cruising around and a lot of baitfish but didn't see a single trout the entire day. The only fish I saw caught around me were also sunnies.

The RVTA stocked a few thousand shiners the previous weekend, might be that the big ones have been gorging themselves on the new baitfish?