Musky Thursday

[Billfish715]

The Musky was up a bit but running clear. Most of the trout were hugging the shoreline and picking bugs in the seam near the edge. The fish were hungry and aggressive in certain areas where they could hold. The deeper runs and holes were not too productive but a few fish were hanging, again in the shallower edges of those runs near the tail outs. What I found interesting were the numbers of brook and rainbow trout that were obviously just stocked. Of the 20 or so fish I caught, only one was a brown trout. Was this the same pattern on any of the other streams? By the way, Lake Musconetcong was stocked on Wednesday. They might have been culls. Does anyone know about excess trout going out this past week?

[anthrax2244]

Bill - I've been fishing the SBR in Long Valley the past 3 weeks and the only browns i've caught have been wild. Fresh stockies have been bows only. Have had a few brookies that appear to be left from the earlier weeks in April. It also seems as though there are 2 sizes on the bows, 8-10 inches and 12".... Three weeks ago is the first time I fished the sbr in this area, so I can't compare it to any previous seasons in terms of species or numbers. However, I thought across the board on the "big" rivers, browns were stocked around week 5- so no stocked browns on the sbr in long valley is a bit of a surprise. I'm thinking, due to the significant population of wild browns, browns are just not stocked in the area. Does anyone know if this is true?

[MS22]

The state does not stock browns above a certain point upstream of Califon on the sbr. That doesn't mean there aren't any stocked browns up that way as some of the clubs don't always abide by the states rule...but, for the most part, the browns you catch in and around lv are wild.

[anthrax2244]

Good to know. Thanks MS.

[Billfish715]

So, where are the browns? I know the state doesn't raise as many browns as they do rainbows and brooks, but who got the browns? I visit the SBR in LV during the middle of June and usually only catch brookies.. I've only caught browns just after they were stocked in some of the other streams and not too many after that. That's true for the small brooks too. I guess the state just doesn't have that many browns to go around.

[MS22]

billfish, the state stocks browns last. With some exceptions and overlaps, brookies are stocked first, then rainbows, and then browns. The reason being is that brookies are thought to be relatively easy to catch and are the least hardy in regards to water temps. Browns are supposedly the hardest to catch and are thought to be fairly hardy when it comes to temps so they are stocked last. Rainbows are in the middle somewhere...tolerant of higher water temps and thought to be fairly easy to catch.

As for the water in which the browns are stocked, I am fairly sure they're stocked in most waters....but, as i mentioned earlier, they are not supposed to be stocked in the LV area of the SBR. There is a cutoff point somehwere in califon where the state restricts the stocking of browns from that point upstream. There is a large population of wild browns in the LV area of the SBR and if youre not catching them, I don't know what to tell you. As you fish, you'll tend to find that the brookies and browns tend to hold in different sections of the streams. Obviously there will be overlap but you will notice areas that have more brookies than browns and vice versa.

For a couple years I helped to stock the musky and can assure you there were tons of brown trout stocked in the later weeks...as im sure there were again this year.

[Jigman13]

Originally Posted by MS22

can assure you there were tons of brown trout stocked in the later weeks...as im sure there were again this year.

my last few trips to the musky produced predominantly browns... all caught on CD3s fire minnow, olive muddler and rainbow trout colors.