Trout Meeting

[UglyStick]

This has been discussed already in other posts - Studies show that 15 days after the end of administration salmonids are safe for harvest and human consumption. Catfish is even less at 12 days.

[Mark B.]

Originally Posted by UglyStick

This has been discussed already in other posts - Studies show that 15 days after the end of administration salmonids are safe for harvest and human consumption. Catfish is even less at 12 days.

Correct,..........they will be held @ Pequest for the specified amount of time before they are stocked.

[Almaink]

Originally Posted by Dave B.

The omission of Mercer Lake on the one list was a typo. The other list which was posted on the Div. website on Feb 21 had Mercer listed for 8,000 as it still does. You may have mis-read it initially but I have the Feb 21 printout in hand showing the 8,000 number for Mercer. I also have a copy of the proposed list direct from the Div showing Mercer recieving 8,000. Hopefully there are no other mis-leading typos, I haven't checked the entire list myself. Given all that our limited Freshwater Fisheries staff have had to deal with throughout this entire situation I think I can forgive them a minor typo here and there.
Naturally the muskies are going to have a blast chowing on those trout but some of them will find their way upstream into the creek around Edinburg.
As for the other area waters if you check the list against last years you'll see they are all getting much higher allocations already. Some examples, Assunpink Crk 2013 Season total-1,380...2014 Total-2,280 Rosedale Lk 2013-1,520...2014 Total-2,470 Stony Brk 2013-2,930...2014-3,800 Colonial Lk 2013-1,210...2014-2,030


Also keep in mind the bulk of these fish are going in pre-season although the in-season numbers are slightly higher than usual too in most cases. Some pre-season numbers...Assunpink-1,400 Colonial Lk-1,330 Rosedale Lk-1,390 Stony Brk-2,440
I hope this helps to answer some of your questions. If you check the entire list you'll find that the normal numbers on just about all of the normally stocked non-trout waters are scheduled to be greatly exceeded this spring. Ought to make for some fast action fishing for a good while in alot of places!

Well, apparently not. In todays paper it said Lake Mercer will get no fish at all now. It seems Mercer Counties biologist told F&G she didn't want those fish put into Lake Mercer, because they could contaminate the other fish in the lake. So we get no fish at all now. I'd like to know who this woman is and who gave her this power. I didn't think it was a good idea to put those trout into Lake Mercer in the first place but not for her reason. I wonder where they will put them now. The paper also said Shadow Lake won't be stocked now either. Thats 12,000 preseason fish going where? Nothing at F&G website either about any of this yet.

[Dave B.]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'Mercer Co's biologist'. Does this mean the county has it's own biologist? If so I don't believe such a person would have the power to dictate policy to the Div. F & W is responsible for managing all the fisheries in the state. This even extends to private ponds and lakes, a stocking permit from the Div.is required even for private waters.

All that aside it is possible that Mercer may be removed from the list as may other waters. As well some numbers may yet be changed. I can assure you that no final decisions have yet been made despite whatever rhetoric may be floating about but they should be forthcoming very soon since we are now officially into the pre-season closure period.

[Almaink]

Here is what was in the paper.

http://www.trentonian.com/sports/201...-in-new-jersey

[Dave B.]

Thanks for the link 'Almaink', I appreciate it. Since I was unable to attend either the trout meeting at Hackettestown or the NJF&W council meeting I've been relying on private contact with the Div. to try to keep everyone as updated as possible.
If Pat H. did indeed make the statements attributed to her then you can bank on the accuracy on them. In addition to covering the upper Delaware watershed/N.W. Jersey territory she is, as many here know, in charge of the overall trout program in the state including the WTS program, although in recent years biologist Ross Shramko has taken on the duties of handling the vast majority of the stocking program.

So it would appear that 2 lakes have been removed from the '1-time' list. As for the Mercer Co. naturalists' purported stance of not wanting the possible introduction of the bacteria into the lake, apparently she's not that informed. The bacteria was there before the lake since the Assunpink has been stocked since at least the early '60s, which means it recieved thousand of those potential carrier fish from the old Hackettestown hatchery. As well it is still getting those potential carrier fish stocked immediately above the lake into the Assunpink at Edinburg.

Regarding the 'Bonus Broodstock Lakes' program, I've been purposely avoiding that subject since there have been no solid decisions made yet, except that there would be some sort of continuation of the program this year.

Regarding the author's comment on the number stocked last year versus the proposed number for this year in relation to Lisa's comment, the 614,000+ figure from last year is the actual total stocked. However the baseline proposed total was the same as this year at approx. 570,000. With very few exceptions the Pequest hatchery staff manage to produce 30-50K more fish each year than the baseline number, a real testament to the knowledge and skill of those folks.

Finally, thanks to Michael82929 as always for helping to keep us informed on the stocking program. Always useful and valuable info, this time he's tossed us a pretty intense teaser that I'm certain will be of interest to just about everyone.

[Almaink]

This whole thing is turning into a soap opera. Better information between the hatchery and the places the fish are going would be nice, they have a web site and should use it better. If it wasn't for this site and Dave B. we would be completely in the dark. Thanks again for the updates Dave.