Sunday/Monday Trouting

[AVA67]

I found out mid-day on Sunday that the wife had a work meeting that afternoon, so I wound up grabbing some gear and hitting the Raritan just before sunset. Bounced a round a bit mostly casting spinners and plugs…I was more looking to learn the bottom structure more than anything. Water was still just a little high, but it had cleared up nicely. I had 3 browns follow gold phoebes at 3 different runs, but none of them would commit, so I wound up catching the skunk.

Monday morning I got off to a little later start then I would have like, but I figured I would still head up to Blairstown to fish the waters I grew up fishing. Not much luck until I found a large school of fish feeding in very shallow water. I caught 5 fish out of the school they moved off a bit…4 Rainbows and 1 nice Brown. The fish were eating anything I threw at them, I kept changing baits each time I landed a fish (baby nights, mealworms, butter worms, mepps) I then headed down to what is probably my favorite stretch of the Paulinskill from when I was a kid, only to find No Trespassing signs all over the place.

I decided to try to hit one of the smaller Central Jersey stocked streams that I had never fished before. I finally found a good access point, the water looked beautiful. Being that I didn't know the area, I didn't really expect much, but my plan was to start at the stocking point and slowly make my way down stream until I either found fish or ran into private property. I never made it more then 100 feet from the bridge, I found the browns stacked up in a little slew, I proceeded to catch and release more then a dozen of them in the next hour. Best thing about it was the water was so clear, I could see most of the fish approaching the bait as well as the actual take. Just as I was planning on moving down stream and giving the first run a rest the sky opened up and I decided that that was enough for one day.

Final tally was 3 Rainbows kept, one released. 1 Brown kept, probably 13-15 released.

[AndyS]

Thanx for the report. Always fun to explore new water.