D&R Feeder Canal

[Almaink]

I went yesterday for about an hour and caught two, went today and for the same and caught one. Someone asked for pictures so here ya go. As you can see it's wide open I only saw two other people fishing and they didn't catch anything.

[Bruce Litton]

I wonder what the extent of the stocking along the length is. Always have stocked north around Lambertville & to Bull's Island.

[River Renegade]

Cool pics and nice catches, fished there for smallies plenty of times. Did good there for them.

[AndyS]

Looks nice and clean, low impact fishin' too !! Thanx !!

[Almaink]

Smallies are all gone. I have no idea what happened to them I used to catch a lot of them there but none in the last 3 years. Not much of anything in there now, I've been there every day since this past Sunday and I have not see anyone catch anything. I have caught 5 trout and today two pickerel but I've yet to see anyone else catch anything. Guys using worms aren't even catching Sunnies. Slim pickings for sure.
Pickerel pictures attached.

[AndyS]

That's a shame about the smallmouth, I think the State should stock as many smallmouth as they do trout, at least they would hold over and grow big.

[Almaink]

I sent an email to F&G and got this quick response.

I'm sorry to hear of the disappointing experiences you've had on the canal. I've forwarded your message to staff involved with the program for review. PT

Then I got this response
I heard back from Mark Boriek who says you are in the feeder canal and confirmed it got 4,160 trout during the pre-season. As you noted, it is not stocked the first week of in-season, but it is stocked in-season weeks 2- 7, getting 1,670/week, for in-season weeks 2 - 5 and 1,040/week for in-season weeks 6 & 7. This means a Grand Total of 12,920 trout for the popular water.

The Upper Ferry Rd. Bridge is our lowermost stocking point. We stock upstream of there at points along the D&R towpath in Washington Crossing State Park (Scudders Falls Area) & all the way up to Bulls Island.

The D&R Canal's source of water, & fish, is the Delaware River @ Bulls Island - the river is still quite cold now (51 by Lambertville) and trout aren't feeding very vigorously. The pickerel do bite when the water is cold, like now, unlike Smallmouths & Crappies that bite when the water is warmer.

The trout are there,....we don't know why they are not biting other than the cold water temperature.

During the preseason stocking, Mark got a call from an angler who caught & released some trout @ the next bridge down from The Upper Ferry Rd. Bridge. So, some moved downstream.

I hope the above is helpful. PT

So at lest they listen but I wonder about this cold water thing. We will see...

[Matt A.]

I don't know if it's helpful to you or not, but I've caught about 30 trout at various places since the season opened this year and I cannot buy a hit on anything but powerbait this year. Nothing on worms or lures, dunno what techniques you're using but thought I'd share my experiences. good luck

[Skunk City]

Originally Posted by Almaink

I sent an email to F&G and got this quick response.

I'm sorry to hear of the disappointing experiences you've had on the canal. I've forwarded your message to staff involved with the program for review. PT

Then I got this response
I heard back from Mark Boriek who says you are in the feeder canal and confirmed it got 4,160 trout during the pre-season. As you noted, it is not stocked the first week of in-season, but it is stocked in-season weeks 2- 7, getting 1,670/week, for in-season weeks 2 - 5 and 1,040/week for in-season weeks 6 & 7. This means a Grand Total of 12,920 trout for the popular water.

The Upper Ferry Rd. Bridge is our lowermost stocking point. We stock upstream of there at points along the D&R towpath in Washington Crossing State Park (Scudders Falls Area) & all the way up to Bulls Island.

The D&R Canal's source of water, & fish, is the Delaware River @ Bulls Island - the river is still quite cold now (51 by Lambertville) and trout aren't feeding very vigorously. The pickerel do bite when the water is cold, like now, unlike Smallmouths & Crappies that bite when the water is warmer.

The trout are there,....we don't know why they are not biting other than the cold water temperature.

During the preseason stocking, Mark got a call from an angler who caught & released some trout @ the next bridge down from The Upper Ferry Rd. Bridge. So, some moved downstream.

I hope the above is helpful. PT

So at lest they listen but I wonder about this cold water thing. We will see...

Very detailed response, kudos to F&W.

[NJSquatch]

Originally Posted by Skunk City

Very detailed response, kudos to F&W.

Yeah Paul is a good guy. Been working with him to update the places to fish page with links to google maps

Should just about all be fixed

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/fishplc.htm