Biggest trout I ever ssen -Paulinskill River

[Cuz]

My son and I did an excursion of the whole river. Every bridge we looked over had 20 + trout 13" and bigger. Every bridge pool had at least one breeder rainbow 5 to 9 lbs. Most were not interested in biting anything. Did manage my limit on butterworms. Drove 15 miles of river. Ended up at the Pequest River where we caught and released four more trout. Fun day checking out new areas.

[AndyS]

Thanx for the heads up on the bigguns !!

[Lard Almighty]

Aside from the Musky and the South Branch, the Paulinskill gets the most spring trout of any NJ river!

[acabtp]

good stuff, sounds like a great day

[Doug Vitale]

As Cuz said, last Friday (5/3) we decided to explore the Paulinskill. We had never fished it before. As the weather was pleasant (perhaps too sunny in retrospect) and the Kill had been stocked the previous day, we thought it was an opportune time.

We started out at the Augusta Hill bridge, off of Rt. 206 just north of Newton. Plenty of trout there (you could see them in the water all over the place!) but they just weren't in the mood to feed. They were either uninterested in my lures, or they would chase them for a few feet but not strike. It was a challenge to get them to swallow butterworms, too. There was one big breeder hanging out under the bridge, and she just wanted to be left alone. The trout behavior we saw at this bridge held true for the rest of the Paulinskill. I walked downstream and fished two pools; I saw trout all over but they weren't interested in lures or live bait.

Next stop was the CR-519/Morris Turnpike bridge, a couple of miles downstream. Same story with the trout. The river was slow here. Deep beneath the bridge; shallow upstream and downstream with the occasional pool. We only managed one trout here in about an hour. As you can see, the Paulinskill in this stretch is nice but not particularly scenic compared to other rivers.



Next stop further downstream at the Old Stagecoach Rd. bridge. Trout were again spooked and/or still full from the hatchery. Tough parking, and some "private property" signs restricted our movement. We got two trout here.

Again we made our way downstream to the East Crisman Rd. bridge in Blairstown, which is just downstream from a dam.



Standing on the bridge by the dam, looking downstream with Cuz working a pool:



I began fishing the rough, deep water below the falls. I started throwing a small, white, bassing-style spinner bait which a slightly-larger-than-average trout struck. I had him on for several seconds before he broke off. Then I noticed that every 10-20 seconds, there were trout trying to swim up the dam the way way you see salmon do in nature shows. Just then I saw what must have been a 5-pound brown trout trying to wiggle his way his way up the dam. I started fishing the around the dam with a couple of different lures...nothing! I grabbed my other rod, attached half a nightcrawler on the hook, and started casting it around. All of a sudden, the line went tight and I set the hook. Game on! Line was peeling off my spool; I tightened the drag to increase the resistance, but I made sure that it was still loose enough that the line wouldn't snap or the hook wouldn't get dislodged.

I was sure I had a state record trout on my line. I started screaming for Cuz to come watch this ~12 lb. trout come out of the water. When I finally got her close to me, you can imagine my disappointment when I saw...carp scales! I got her to my feet, and luckily the hook came out and she swam off on her own. What a fight! Pathetically, the largest freshwater fish I ever landed. She got away before I could take a picture, but this is a dead ringer of her (don't know this guy):



Our next stop was Beaver Brook, just north of Rt. 46 in Belividere. It's a picturesque little stream, with fast flowing, clean, cold water. Unfortunately, too shallow although we did find one pool from which Cuz got five trout on butter worms.


Beaver Brook

The last stop of the day was the Pequest River in Belvidere. Definitely the best trout water we saw that day. It was still pretty deep despite the two weeks of no rain. Plus, it had been stocked earlier in the day. Lots of fishermen there with trout on their stringers. I got two trout on a spoon; missed two. The fish were feistier in the Pequest than in the Paulinskill.



Above: Bruce Vitale, aka Cuz, in about his 45th year of trout fishing in NJ's streams

[Doug Vitale]

Here's Cuz as he was bringing in his "monster trout", according to him...



...which turned out to be a monster sucker!



Since we had already gotten a carp, we only needed to land a chub to hit the Garbage Fish Trifecta. Thankfully it didn't happen.

[Michael82929]

Originally Posted by Lard Almighty

Aside from the Musky and the South Branch, the Paulinskill gets the most spring trout of any NJ river!

Yea, I agree with that statement Lard... but it's all relative....

Those streams get more fish - but if you look at the length of stream & range vs the number of fish that go in versus a smaller stream that gets less fish but has less miles = it all evens out... As for brood stock / breeders as well - each primarily get the same amount give or take.

[Almaink]

I am seeing this same behavior in the D&R Canal this year. Plenty of fish, we can see them and watch them jump, but they won't bite. They follow, nibble, but are real hard to catch. They are not moving from where they were stocked either. We can see schools of them even a week after the last stocking. I've found switching lures every few casts helps as they seem to hit hard at first then loose interest. I've seen this before just never so early as it's usually warm water that causes it. The bad part is people are giving up fishing, and I'm hearing a lot of "I won't bother to buy a trout stamp next year" talk because they are not catching many.

[Capt. Lou]

Basically if you have any understanding of bluebird , low water ttoutin' you would be doing quite well !
Getting the big girls to hit needs only a couple of missing ingredients & ones on the way !
Cuz, on that bridge were you thought you saw the biggest trout ever, you left your bud empties !
Actually
the biggest trout you ever saw are the frozen species I give you when I can't get a release!!