How to improve freshwater fishing in New Jersey:

[bassnblues]

I think the fresh water fishing is better now than ever. We have the opportunity to catch muskies, pike, walleye and hybrids, fall and winter trout stocking. None of these were around a couple of decades ago.

As far as deputizing people...the last thing we need is a bunch of mall cops hassling everyone while they're trying to fish.

[Almaink]

I'd like to see an end to the dumping of trout into mud puddles when other suitable water is available. I still can't wrap my head around the state putting trout in lakes so shallow you can walk across them, when streams are available nearby where those trout would thrive.

[baetis]

Bass limit - 2 fish at 14".

Mandate catch and release at all ponds less than 4 acres in size (except trout stocked, if any).

2 fish limit on trout in rivers in the fall.

I would love it if the state could open a park similar to what the Connetquot was in NY years ago.

Find a way to get brook trout back in the mix as quickly as possible.

[Jigman13]

While its a good idea in theory, and may work on private lakes, I don't think deputizing people would work statewide. The inherent dangers of potential confrontation leading to violence would be a major liability, regardless of whatever legal documentation one would have to sign to volunteer their services.

I've seen "non-natives" flip the f out when confronted about the illegal fish they were poaching. I've seen major arguments, and I've seen things escalate to fisticuffs.

In my opinion, if you want to help improve freshwater fishing, even just a tad, save the game warden phone numbers for the counties you fish and use it when you see illegal activity out on the water. Yea, they can't always show up...but the day they do, hopefully someone gets busted and their gear gets confiscated. This would a be a huge lesson learned for the poacher and would likely make them think twice about doing it again.

C&R only trophy lakes would be a cool experiment. And I agree with Eddie on the fines for dumping. Some watersheds are simply f'ed bc of illegal dumping. Time served and major fines levied would theoretically decrease illegal dumping.

[bassnblues]

Originally Posted by Almaink

I'd like to see an end to the dumping of trout into mud puddles when other suitable water is available. I still can't wrap my head around the state putting trout in lakes so shallow you can walk across them, when streams are available nearby where those trout would thrive.

A lot of people share you opinion but I'd respectfully say that you're missing the point of our trout stocking. The purpose of it is to provide recreation and access to people and yes, put some money in the coffers of F&G by selling trout stamps. NJ is at the southern limit of trout's range and there's very few waters in our state that can support trout. A century ago, that may have been different, but not today.

I think that F&G does a great job of protecting trout in those waters that they can survive such as KLG, RV, MCR and a couple of small streams in Sussex Co.

I'd like to add, as a disabled person, I'd like to see better access for disabled people. There's very few places right now.

Maybe it would make sense to identify some areas in the northern part of the state to stock brown trout and try to create a thriving fishery for them...

[Doug Vitale]

My first suggestion would be for all conservation-minded fishermen to practice and encourage catch and release fishing whenever possible. This would include not just returning fish to the water, but also following proper fish handling guidelines such as not touching the gills, keeping the fish in the water, not squeezing it, etc. as well as using barbless hooks to minimize damage when hooks are removed. Here is a great example of what I mean:

http://www.njfishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76805

As mentioned by Almaink, the NJDF&W should stop stocking trout in the damn duck ponds. Stock only largemouth bass, catfish, and crappies in these waters instead.

I would also suggest a change of approach to stocking in which smaller quantities of fish are stocked, but the average size of stocked fish would significantly increase. I think the NJDF&W relies far too heavily on stocking fingerlings, and the results from this strategy are mixed. For example, the Millstone River has been stocked with hundreds of thousands of pike fingerlings since the 1990s, but I have never caught a pike in the Millstone and all the other fishing reports from there which I've seen never mention pike either. You can take a look at the stocking statistics yourself:

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/hacktown.htm#summaries

As you can see, nearly all the fish stocked are eight inches or less in length. In my opinion the mortality rate for fingerlings is very high and I think the NJDF&W would improve our freshwater fishery by stocking larger, hardier fish that are a few years older than fingerling age. This change would increase the cost per fish but it would even out as the overall quantity of fish raised and released would decrease.

(I'll grant you, however, that the stocking of pike in the Passaic River has been a wonderful success story).

[jimmythegreek]

I think the state should listen more to the anglers who frequent certain bodies of water or species, and not go by net results and surveys. I have said it many times, 5 yrs C+R on all our stocked species except the put and take trout fishery. Then after 5 yrs make a small slot window for these fish like up north waters do. There are definitely not enuff officials to enforce the laws, and deputizing would be good IF that was handed down to REGULAR law enforcement officials somehow. Not sure how it would work but maybe a booklet could be made and given to ALL law enforcement and when we see the bucket bridages or idiots poaching a simple phone call to police will have someone there with authority and a gun

[Chrisper4694]

i didn't read every word everyone posted here but i skimmed through a lot of it.

honestly, NJ isn't the best place to catch a monster of any species...but it very well might be one of the best multi-species places to fish in this part of the world. think about it where else can you get decent sized fish of so many vastly different species from walleye to bass to muskie to catfish.

as far as the guys that keep everything...good luck stopping that, maybe we can put a dent in that stuff if we can bust a few of them here and there keeping over the creel limit or under the size.

And the one thing that never gets said:

KEEP SMALL LEGAL FISH! i'm talking bass too! keep a 12-14" bass now and then guys! (if the water is safe to eat from) it helps create and environment where bigger fish can get even bigger instead of creating all these lakes we have where 90% of the bass are 12" even though there is enough food in that environment to grow a good amount of 5-8 lbs fish! I'm guilty of never keeping bass too it just feels weird but i've read some articles about small private lake management and this is a big thing.

maybe give the bucket brigade some small keeper bass and tell them to leave before they catch the big ones and keep those haha two birds with one stone???

[Skunk City]

NJ F&W does a GREAT job. Remember, if it wasn't for their stocking efforts, our only gamefish would be Pickerel and Catfish!!! I really have no complaints.

That being said, I'd love to see stocking efforts made in the RARITAN and HACKENSACK RIVERS. These are two great fisheries that could be even better if they received some sort of supplementary stocking (Walleye? Hybrids?).

[UglyStick]

F&W does a great job and we do truly have an amazing and diverse fishery in this state... that said...

I really like Jimmy’s idea of including regular local police to assist the conservation officers. Specifically, if a citizen could report a F&W violation to the local police and have them dispatched the same as any other non-emergency report received AND have the ability to issue summons, etc. if it is determined that a law is being broken. An alternate method could be if a report is called into Game Thief the way it is today, they then dispatch either a CO or a regular police officer, whoever is closest to the scene and can respond the quickest and most effectively. If every call got a reasonably quick response from empowered law enforcement, I’m quite sure more people would call in violations and the state could really capitalize on such a crack down effort.

As others have mentioned, I too am in favor of certain trophy water bodies being catch and release only and certain species such as muskies being catch and release only. I also think that introducing slot limits would help. I would also like to see where summons can be issued for improper fish handling.

In addition, I think increasing educational efforts around catch and release, safe fish handling, not leaving garbage behind, etc. could go a long way.