Freshwater Fisheries Forum January 19:

[AndyS]

A public forum to discuss freshwater fisheries research, management and recreational angling in New Jersey will be held on Saturday, January 19 at the Hackettstown State Fish Hatchery in Warren County. The forum will begin at 10:00 a.m. A second forum will be held February 23 at Batsto Village in Wharton State Forest.

https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/news/2019...rumnorth19.htm

[Dave B.]

I'll be there as always! I hope to see a LOT of the members here show up! Way too many voices and opinions expounded on this forum for there to be a lousy showing of folks where your opinions could actually be heard and potentially make a difference in regs and management practices.
If you have a question, a comment, an idea or a praise or criticism for the Freshwater Fisheries staff this is your best opportunity to have your voice heard, not just by other anglers but also by many outdoor writers and the Bureau personnel who make the management decisions and recommendations to the F&G Council.

[bulletbob]

I am not sure you NJ guys realize the kind of fresh water fishery you guys have.. A testament to just how good the NJDEP Division of Fish & Wildlife is... I see the pictures here every day.. Then I look at the pictures from the NY state sites, and you guys do better in a LOT of cases.. We have the water, and yes we have big trout and salmon in the great lakes and fingers, but thats all trolling with big boats.. Yes we have the big inland waters that you guys don't have but ALL the money spent here, goes into the tourist zones... Great lakes first, Finger Lakes and Catskills... A LOT of the waters in this state are neglected, because it not in a money zone.

We have no hybrid stripers, they were stocked for a while did ok, but they stopped..

walleyes, are seldom stocked, and you might be surprised at how few lakes here have them in fishable numbers.. They are more of a river fish here, except for lake erie, again a big water big boat trolling deal

crappie are tough to find as well, again except for a few select waters, and nowhere in NY do we have a Pike fishery as dependable as the Passaic River.. Yes, they are here, and we get some nice ones, but thats more a north country fishery in selct places, not state wide.. The NY DEC doesn't stock them, they want them dead so they don't eat the trout..

Channel cats.. yes we have them in the rivers, but not in small lakes the way NJ does..

Yeah we have the water, we have the habitat, but I'll tell you what, NJ has the - Its management light years ahead of ours, unless you are a Great Lakes trout/salmon guy.... You guys in NJ have really good fishing for the limited water available... The pictures I see every day don't lie... bob

[AndyS]

NJ Fish and Game Council,
Minutes of the Meeting December 11, 2018. NJ State Federation of Sportsman’s Club Committee, Councilman Robinson reported that he went to Somerset County Federation meeting and discussed the combined freshwater/saltwater license to support our marine fisheries.

Originally Posted by bulletbob

I am not sure you NJ guys realize the kind of fresh water fishery you guys have.. A testament to just how good the NJDEP Division of Fish & Wildlife is... I see the pictures here every day.. Then I look at the pictures from the NY state sites, and you guys do better in a LOT of cases.. We have the water, and yes we have big trout and salmon in the great lakes and fingers, but thats all trolling with big boats.. Yes we have the big inland waters that you guys don't have but ALL the money spent here, goes into the tourist zones... Great lakes first, Finger Lakes and Catskills... A LOT of the waters in this state are neglected, because it not in a money zone.

We have no hybrid stripers, they were stocked for a while did ok, but they stopped..

walleyes, are seldom stocked, and you might be surprised at how few lakes here have them in fishable numbers.. They are more of a river fish here, except for lake erie, again a big water big boat trolling deal

crappie are tough to find as well, again except for a few select waters, and nowhere in NY do we have a Pike fishery as dependable as the Passaic River.. Yes, they are here, and we get some nice ones, but thats more a north country fishery in selct places, not state wide.. The NY DEC doesn't stock them, they want them dead so they don't eat the trout..

Channel cats.. yes we have them in the rivers, but not in small lakes the way NJ does..

Yeah we have the water, we have the habitat, but I'll tell you what, NJ has the - Its management light years ahead of ours, unless you are a Great Lakes trout/salmon guy.... You guys in NJ have really good fishing for the limited water available... The pictures I see every day don't lie... bob

Bob well said. Too often we take for granted what we have, concentrating more on what we don't have than what we do. NJ has a very diverse fishery and I'm sure what takes place behind the scenes to accomplish that is much more than any of us understand. Hats off to F&G, they do a phenomenal job with I'd imagine limited resources like everyone else on this world.

[bigfishy]

I hope all who have the time to go , get all of the info their searching for.....and sharing it here would be gr8 too....

[AndyS]

Murphy has declared a State of Emergency starting at 12 noon on Saturday.
Pennslytucky is doing the same thing due to incoming weather.

With the debacle that took place with the last storm it doesn't surprise me Murphy called a State of Emergency even if we get 2 inches. Current forecast is considerably more, stupid question but do you think the F&G meeting tomorrow at 10:00 is cancelled or have any idea when a decision will be made.

[AndyS]

No e mails about cancellation so it's a go by the looks of it. Not supposed to get really nasty till Saturday night from what I understand.

[thmyorke1]

Interesting meeting. Great presentations from the F&W team. Biggest topic was LL salmon. Not a whole lot of complaints compared to last year although one individual made a good point about how walleye stockings could be focused a bit more southern, such as in Spruce Run. The suggestion didnt seem to get much traction as Spruce Run already is heavily stocked with other predatory species. Im definitely for the idea of some walleye stockings more south.

Also a hint that pike may be discontinued from the Millstone; they only found 1 pike in the millstone survey, and low angler reports contribute to the idea.

F&G seem focused on shad in the raritan and will prefer not stocking predatory species there.

Rinehart brook presentation was great too. Numbers showing great progress by brook trout. And maybe this year we will see some of the natural barriers in the creek be aided, perhaps by making the bottom of these barriers shallower.
No one complained about the program and most people were interested, and F&g suggested they'll keep the program to rinehart brook for now, since it's new and they'd like to see the results long term.