Raritan river float 9/13/25

[AndyS]

9/13/25: Air 75* water 75*, @ 300 CFS. Orlando Park Raritan Borough to Riverside Park Piscataway 8am to 2:30pm.
Beat it pretty good today. Once again greeted by a massive bug hatch in the AM, it was SMB from start to finish today in the low gin clear water.
Combined for over 20+ fish. Saw osprey and a bald eagle in Bound Brook.
Pulled tires as we went. Saw huge schools of quillback and lots of common carp unfortunately. Saw schools of channel catfish and even SMB. Weeds and algae starting to break loose from the bottom, a bit of a PIA. Fish ladder was a busy area, many fishing from the banks as well as people wading and throwing cast nets. Probably could have caught SMB all the way to Donaldson Park in Highland Park if we wanted to float that far. Did many floats in the past few months and had lots of fun, I think it's starting to wind down now. While others in the State are complaining about how low the streams are, we are floating a canoe down the main stem because we always have water since the river is a major supplier of drinking water.

[ALS Mako]

Way to go andy 👍

[Broad Bill]

Andy are cast nets legal in the Raritan and if so what would someone be trying to catch....baitfish? I went fishing for small mouths at the Delaware a few weeks ago and stopped to get shiners at Dows before heading up. Apparently shiners have been hard to come by this year due to issues in Arkansas where they're supplied from. Either way, I asked Laurie for a dozen herring and she said "You know you can't use or have in your possession herring on the Delaware River", something I didn't know. Apparently there was an incident at some point with a group cast netting herring, which size or type I don't know. The result is they prohibited possession of herring on the entire river. Was shocked when she told me that. Curious what the rules are on the Raritan.

[AndyS]

I don't know about using herring on the Raritan, I guess it would be ok. I think you can use cast nests on waters that aren't stocked with trout. The one guy was hauling a stringer and seemed a little "shady" if you know what I mean, although I didn't think it was necessary to call the game wardens.

[Jigman13]

Originally Posted by AndyS

I don't know about using herring on the Raritan, I guess it would be ok. I think you can use cast nests on waters that aren't stocked with trout. The one guy was hauling a stringer and seemed a little "shady" if you know what I mean, although I didn't think it was necessary to call the game wardens.

The guys cast netting def dont have licenses. Ive seen them. I snagged one at night once. Dude was standing in the river at night throwing a net with no head lamp. Pretty sure I ripped a healthy hole in his net. 100% non natuve and 100% not licensed. I dont care how hungry he was, im calling fish and game. Everytime

[NJ219bands]

Illegal cast netters kill a lot of fish 🐠 in Robert G Martin Lake every summer. My friend Dave reported them to NJF&W.

[Broad Bill]

Like everything else, its rampant and completely out of control. Most of us spend our lives complying with regulations whether we agree with them or not and a minority of shitheads cause undue damage catching and selling fish illegally especially in the spring when fish are most vulnerable on their spawning beds.

[AndyS]

It's pretty common on some parts of the river.