Overlooked NJ Fishing Spots

[Billfish715]

Thanks to the link posted by THMYORKE, I was curious about the other link within it. It was about the warmwater fisheries stocking summaries. What caught my eye and interest was the information about the channel catfish stockings. You should check it out to see what local ponds and waters were stocked with theses great gamefish. There is probably a small duck pond in or near your neighborhood that was stocked and has a channel catfish fishery worth checking out.

I recognized many ponds in Union County, for example, that were stocked with sizeable and numerous fish. There were other ponds with names I didn't recognize in other counties that many of you might drive past without even knowing of their potential.

You will have to go through the summaries for fish that might interest you and find where they were stocked.......muskies, channel cats, crappie, bass etc. You might be very surprised at just how close to your home the likelihood of some great fishing might be. It was very sobering to see what was stocked in places where I never considered fishing for anything worthwhile.

Check out the link to warm water stocking summaries.
https://www.njfishandwildlife.com/fish_warmwater.htm

Kudos to the Division of Fish and Wildlife. And, thanks to Thmyorke for the original link.

[Sako1]

IMO, a contender for the most overlooked spot in NJ or bordering NJ has to be the Delaware River. Lots of water and big variety.

DG

[thmyorke1]

At the ponds they will also put up those' stocked by hacketstown' signs. It's tough to go through every year's pdf of stocking for every species. Those maps they give per species seem to be consistent but miss some spots.

[deaone123]

There is hidden gems all over nj that don't even have any state intervention you just have to go exploring. I have two lakes 10 minutes from my house that most people don't even know exist and im from old bridge. Also another hidden gem i found was a old farm that became a green acres project and opened to the public, well this farm had a tiny hidden pond so i checked it out, let me tell you every single cast i hooked up with a large mouth it was unreal and then other found out about it and it wasn't like that first time.
The guy above said the Delaware but i think the raritan main stem is true obviously spot many people know of but not many ever fish it

[Doug Vitale]

Originally Posted by Sako1

IMO, a contender for the most overlooked spot in NJ or bordering NJ has to be the Delaware River. Lots of water and big variety.

DG

True, and fishing it from a boat or kayak will be much more productive than from shore.

Many rivers with strong fish populations of their own flow into the Delaware -- Pequest, Paulinskill, Musconetcong, Flat Brook, Pohatcong, Brodhead, Bush Kill among others. Plus it's stocked.

[thmyorke1]

Originally Posted by deaone123

There is hidden gems all over nj that don't even have any state intervention you just have to go exploring. I have two lakes 10 minutes from my house that most people don't even know exist and im from old bridge. Also another hidden gem i found was a old farm that became a green acres project and opened to the public, well this farm had a tiny hidden pond so i checked it out, let me tell you every single cast i hooked up with a large mouth it was unreal and then other found out about it and it wasn't like that first time.
The guy above said the Delaware but i think the raritan main stem is true obviously spot many people know of but not many ever fish it

Those hidden ponds are the real gems, anything that isnt easy to get to, such as a hike, bushwhacking, etc, can produce well. The same goes for stretches of river with nice holes.

The raritan river gets attention for sure, but there's plenty of stretches that hardly get touched other than by the kayakers or those on foot that wanna walk far.

There's also so much public access on the river that it's just hard to fish it all