Passaic River Stocking: Two Bridges to Elmwood Park

[Mark B.]

To date, the fish salvage contractor has been on site 4 days. Obviously, they lost a week due to the hurricane, and had to work around the Nor’easter last week. Below is a the short summary of fish removed:

10/25: 361 fish
10/26: 566 fish
11/5: 731 fish
11/12: 1381 fish

Total Fish: 3039

Most fish were bluegills, with a larger than expected number of black crappie. They were also surprised at the number of LMB removed (~190), but many less white perch than expected (~ 450)

At this point, there is only about 2 feet of water left in the basin, yet still 25 acres of surface area for the fish to move around. They were able to launch yesterday OK, but at the end of the day, they had to winch the boat over ~100 feet of mud to get it out. Short of using a crane, they can’t access the water at this point. The fishing club is insisting they spend a day in the east finger removing any fish that are held by a 2.5 foot weir. That will likely occur on Wed. 11/14. Based on the rate of water removal, the lake should be empty by the 15th, depending what this storm dumps.