How to improve freshwater fishing in New Jersey:

[CPR1]

Indiscriminate harvesting, poaching, TXs and even the use of live bait can have detrimental effects on small waters. Ever see Larry Dahlberg's findings on live bait fishermen gut hooking 20, 30 or 40 fish to get 5 keepers? Just a handful of anglers can decimate a fishery due to delayed mortality from gut hooking. Increased enforcement is difficult because NJDFGW is short staffed. More staff means more funding. There are way too many waters in NJ that are closed for fishing/recreation. For instance, why is Wanaque Reservoir closed to the public? What a waste of a natural resource. There are so many other reservoirs in NJ that are fenced and barbed wired. Why? In FL you can launch a boat in a roadside puddle. They promote recreation on waters. Spreading out the fishing population to more waters may decrease the strain on the ones that are open to the public. Implementing recreation programs that require fees to participate (like the NWCDC) would drive more funds into the system to staff more officers to patrol.