Winter solstice trout - South Branch Raritan 12/21

[Doug Vitale]

Tried my hand for the first time at winter trout fishing. It got dark so soon I only had a little over two hours by the time I got to the Lockwood Gorge. Very pretty scenery, and what a relaxing environment. The water was clear, cold, fast and fairly high. The KLG offers plenty of rapids, pools, and eddies to play with. I'm happy that it's now 'catch and release only'.

The bite was tough, but at least I beat the skunk. One rainbow around 2 lbs., and one stockie brown. You can see the lure in the photos. Both released healthy.

The SBR upstream from the KLG to Califon was full of fishermen today, and quite a few of them were fly fishermen. With temperatures in the 50s it's not surprising. It was 44 degrees when the sun went down.

Lessons learned: Snow-covered rocks are slippery. My hip boots aren't going to cut it for winter troutin' so I'm going to need a pair of neoprene waders. And next time I'm wearing thermal underwear! That water is ice cold. I went out dressed for fall fishing and I got lucky it didn't get down into the 30s, otherwise it would have been a very chilly lesson to learn.