New Jersey Trout Stocking - Fall 2020

Mid and late October can be an ideal time to go trout fishing in New Jersey as the state's fall stocking program coincides with cooler days, less crowded waters, and colorful fall scenery.

During the second and third weeks of October, the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife undertakes its fall stocking program, which consists of stocking only two-year old trout, some of which can be 18 inches in length.

Fall stocking begins Tuesday, October 6 in 2020 and concludes on Wednesday, October 14.

All trout are raised at the division's Pequest Trout Hatchery and measure approximately 14" to 18" in length.

Trout that evade anglers during the fall could hold potential for winter fishing. A few of the large, fall stocked trout survive the winter and provide fly fishermen and other anglers with early spring catches.

The Division will be stocking 6,000 additional fish for the 2020 fall trout stocking season. These extra fish equate to each waterbody receiving roughly 25% more fish per waterbody than in a typical fall season.

Approximately 27,000 trout will be stocked over the two week stocking effort. Four additional areas will be stocked as part of the Fall 2020 program.

The 4 new waterbodies are:

• Dahnert's Lake - Bergen County
• Holmdel Park Pond - Monmouth County
• Manny's Pond - Hunterdon County
• Pohatcong Lake - Ocean County
  

All fall-stocked waters may be fished as soon as they are stocked (no "closed waters" during fall stocking). all fly fisherman

The complete list of fall-stocked waters and the stocking schedule is available at www.njfishandwildlife.com or through the Trout Stocking Hotline 609-633-6765.

Other waters offer fine trout fishing opportunities even though they are not stocked in the fall. The Holdover Trout Lakes, like Lake Aeroflex and Lake Wawayanda, provide year round trout fishing opportunities. Those waters, along with Tilcon Lake in Allamuchy Mountain State Park, are included in the landlocked salmon stocking program, now in its 13th year. All three yield harvestable size salmon (12 inches).

Two Trophy Trout Lakes, Round Valley and Merrill Creek Reservoirs, are additional trout fishing destinations. Shoreline fishing on Round Valley is particularly popular in the fall, as big rainbows cruise the shallows (See the current Freshwater Digest for special area regulations.).

Source: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Fish and Wildlife

New Jersey American Shad Regulations - Freshwater

The New Jersey DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife recently announced new regulations for American shad in fresh waters of the state.
The new regulations, coupled with regulation changes for marine waters, became effective January 1, 2013

All American shad fisheries (both commercial and recreational), in both marine and fresh waters, with the exception of the Delaware Bay, Delaware River and its tributaries, are closed (no possession, take or harvest).

The recreational possession limit in the Delaware Bay, Delaware River and its tributaries is 3 fish with no minimum size and an open season all year.

New Jersey's American shad regulations were taken to comply with Amendment 3 to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) management plan for American shad and river herring.

Working in conjunction with state partners from the Delaware River Basin Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative (CO-OP), a sustainability plan for American shad was developed for the Delaware River estuary and subsequently approved by ASMFC's Shad and River Herring Board.

source: NJ DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife

Related Information

New Jersey American Shad Regulations (Delaware Bay, Delaware River)

New Jersey Fall-Winter Trout Stocking

The NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife recently published a reminder to anglers that all of the trout New Jersey stocks during fall and winter measure 14 inches to 24 inches and weigh one and a half pounds to eight pounds.

More and more anglers are enjoying the larger fish stocked since a change in 2006 to stocking only larger trout. However, 67% of New Jersey trout anglers were not aware of this major stocking change when surveyed in 2010.

A growing number of anglers have begun enjoying big fish, cool water, great weather, and spectacular scenery that occur during New Jersey's fall trout fishing season. Trout fishing action extends through the winter months until spring stocking begins again in April.

From October 9 through November 21, more than 26,000 lunker trout will be stocked in 16 streams and 40 ponds and lakes throughout the state.

For more information on the fall and winter stocking program, visit www.njfishandwildlife.com/trtinfo.htm or call the Trout Hotline at 609-633-6765.

source: NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife

Raritan River Dam Removal Projects

The removal of old dams from the Raritan River in New Jersey will allow migrating fish to fully access the middle and upper portions of the river for the first time in more than a century.

The dam removal project is being done and financed by El Paso Corp. (now Kinder Morgan, Inc.), under the terms of a landmark agreement secured last year by the DEP as compensation to the public for harm to natural resources caused by past pollution facilities operated by or affiliated with El Paso.

This second Raritan River dam to be removed is known as the Roberts Street Dam and was previously known as the Dead River Dam. It straddles Bridgewater and Hillsborough townships. Its removal will open up a large segment of the Raritan River for fish spawning.

The elimination of the Roberts Street Dam will further increase water flow and habitat improvements realized from removal of the Calco Dam in Bridgewater last summer, which was the first phase of this three-step process.

The removal of all three targeted dams will open up 10 miles of migratory fish habitat along a stretch of the Raritan that twists through a highly diverse residential, commercial and agricultural portion of Somerset County that includes Bridgewater, Hillsborough, Bound Brook, Somerville and Manville.

It also will open up about 17 miles of tributaries, including portions of the Millstone River, to spawning. None of the dams were built for flood control.

The targeted dams include:

The Robert Street Dam, a 6 ½-foot-high sheet piling and concrete dam located at river mile 27.9. It was constructed prior to 1930 for purposes that are not known today. This dam failed and was reconstructed in 1963.

Calco Dam, located at river mile 20.9 and built by the Calco Chemical Co. in 1938 to disperse chemicals from its facility. The dam was essentially a large concrete pipe spanning the river that most recently carried and dispersed wastewater into the river for the Somerset Raritan Valley Sewerage Authority. The authority constructed a new outfall for that purpose. Calco Dam was demolished in 2011.

The Nevius Street Dam, located at river mile 27. The rock and mortar dam was built in 1901 for aesthetic purposes and later retrofitted to provide water to ponds on the Duke Estate. The DEP and El Paso are working on a future plan to ensure the river continues to feed water to these ponds after the dam is removed. Removal is anticipated in 2013.

Fish that will benefit from the removal of the dams are American shad, American eel, herring, and striped bass, which once migrated in prodigious numbers through the gravelly shallows of the Upper Raritan.

The voluntary settlement with El Paso resolved Natural Resource Damage claims made by the DEP against the Houston-based company that stemmed from contamination at EPEC Polymers Inc. in Flemington, Hunterdon County; Nuodex Inc. in Woodbridge, Middlesex County; EPEC Polymers Inc. in Burlington City, Burlington County; and the Eagle Point Refinery in West Deptford, Gloucester County. Investigations and/or cleanups are under way at those sites.

The DEP uses funds secured from Natural Resource Damage settlements toward ecological restoration projects, typically in the same watershed or general area where resource damages occur.

For a copy of the settlement agreement, visit: http://www.nj.gov/dep/docs/elpaso-nrd-settlement.pdf

For more information on the DEP's Office of Natural Resource Restoration, visit: http://www.nj.gov/dep/nrr/

source: NJ DEP

New Jersey State Record Bowfin

A bowfin caught by Chris Hoffman of Hamilton, NJ, has been confirmed as a new state record for the species by the NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Mr. Hoffman was fishing for largemouth bass from his boat in the Delaware River near the Mercer Generating Station in Trenton, NJ. on July 4, 2011, when the fish grabbed a 4" soft plastic Senko lure on 6 pound line.

The 10 lb. 14 oz. bowfin, was 29.9" long and had a girth of 14.6". It broke the old record, set 23 years ago in 1988, by 2 lb. 10 oz.

The bowfin is a predatory fish that feeds on frogs, fish, and other prey.

For details on the New Jersey State Record fish program, see: www.njfishandwildlife.com