Rockaway River from Boonton Falls to Jersey City Reservoir

[briansnat]

Jersey Ciity Reservoir in Parsippany is generally not open to fishing, but I have to think that over the years a some of trout stocked in the Rockaway eventually end up there. There has to be a pretty good population of trout in that reservoir, possibly including browns and brookies that where stocked in the river in years past.

It got me to wondering if there is spawning activity in the Rockaway between Boonton Falls and the reservoir. Has anyone who has fished this stretch noticed any evidence of this?

[AndyS]

Years ago the mayor of Parsippany would fish there, he was a crook and a thief. He must of done well as it still remains closed to the public. Bet there are monstahs in there !

[icebadger]

i grew up in boonton twp and fished that stretch often.the only fish that spawned in that river were the smallmouth. they can get further up now after the storms changed that section, the only obstacle is the morris ave dam.. as for trout they do not seem to be going up that river. as for big trout living in the jersey city res that is a possibility but there are very big slime darts and alot of cormorants there so the probability of them surviving is small plus the fishing pressure is high as well. they do not stock any fish below the old police shooting range off of plane st. we used to fish the res by the mouth and get chased out we would argue that we had rights for 200 ft during trout season and they said that we were trespassing and had to leave. we really did not get that many trout down there anyway but we would get a bunch of huge bass there on spinnerbaits and jig-n pigs. later in june we would switch to sinking rapalas in the silver and black and get both lmb and smb.

[Dave B.]

If that Boonton Res would be opened to fishing it could be possible to persuade the Div to stock some of the land-locked atlantics in there. They of course would not be able to successfully reproduce but they very well could make an attempted spawning run up the Rockaway thereby creating an opportunity to actually catch river-run LLS in a whitewater river environment right here in NJ. However as long as the res is closed to the public the Div will not, and legally cannot stock the salmon or trout in the res.
The thought of battling a 4-5 lb LLS in a fast moving river environment without having to drive 1/2 a day or more to do so is quite inviting! Anyone know how to get the powers that be to open the res to the angling public?!

[icebadger]

it was open to the public but after 911 they closed it.. i had a permit that i had to stand on line on green bank rd to get. you could only fish from shore and the dam area was off limits. the parsippany side is really shallow a far way out from shore the boonton side has the river bed were old boonton used to be. i am ont to sure that landlockies would do well there.

[Bill Willix]

I grew up in Boonton twp also and use to fish the mouth. I did catch 1 giant brown one time. But mainly caught huge bass. Also back in the 70's it was a diffrent river. I believe it got stocked more heavily and had a great deal more fishing pressure. The resivoir had giant catfish in it

[bunker dunker]

i grew up there and have seen some big browns taken from that mouth when we could fish there years ago. that mouth was alive in spring with fish coming up to spawn.you could stand up on 287 and watch the water change color with all the perch running up.the herring would come too and when that started all hell would break loose.my favorite lure was the rapala cd-11 in blk & silver.we would cast toward the bridge count down to 6ft and then work it back.small & large mouth,pickerel,big crappie,big perch and every now and then someone would get
one of those big browns.biggest i ever saw was 25" and had teeth like a tiger.we
would fish for suckers by the foot dam every spring and would catch big bows
every once in a while that would be up there too.i'm not sure what goes on there now
with the changes the storm made but i'm sure its still a great place to fish.

[briansnat]

Originally Posted by icebadger

it was open to the public but after 911 they closed it.. i had a permit that i had to stand on line on green bank rd to get. you could only fish from shore and the dam area was off limits. the parsippany side is really shallow a far way out from shore the boonton side has the river bed were old boonton used to be. i am ont to sure that landlockies would do well there.

I recall when they announced that they would issue a limited number of permits for shore fishing. I think they were available for a very short time and I meant to get one but missed the window. I think that was in the mid 1990's

[icebadger]

the river has improved since the 70's the storms have made the river more accessible to spawning fish, but i am not sure that the trout spawn there. the res must have trophy quality fish in it but access to them was limited to shore fishing. the slime darts in there were huge and the smallmouth are big in there.they have great forage to sustain themselves. it would not surprise me if a state record fish was caught there. as bunker dunker said the fish were huge in there and would cloud the water with their numbers. the potential for a giant fish to come out of there is probable no matter what species you want to fish for.

[Drossi]

The river from Grace Lord down to the reservoir is tough sledding, not something i'd recommend as a solo outing or when the water is up. I've gotten some trout but more smallies and rock bass. I've heard the rumors of fall run fish but never have had any luck in the limited times I've tried it.