Raritan river 5/8/17:

[AndyS]

Hit the ribber bright and early at Orlando Park in Raritan Borough, just below the Nevius St bridge. Wanted to hit this stretch for a while, 1st cast, nice smallie. Worked my way down the river for a while, nothing ! Pulled up and hit Robert St., nothing. Out of desperation up to Duke Island park, not even a sniff !!

Met up with the Rutgers crew at the ladder falls. We were able to PIT tag 2 shad today, had another one on but never got it to the net.
WhitePerch-A-Palooza continues, white perch everywhere !!

Water cleared up fast from Fridays rain, pretty clear up at Duke Island.
Water went from 68* on May 2nd to 56* today.

[thmyorke1]

That temp drop definitely hit the fish somehow. Countless white perch, a few crappie, and 2 shad but nothing else somehow.

Duke Island park was hard for me to fish as well a week ago. When you got that trout out of there I think the next day I skunked.

[icebadger]

any size on those white perch?all i am getting is 5"to7" ones out on the cong,i hope to get some bigger ones soon.

[thmyorke1]

any size on those white perch?all i am getting is 5"to7" ones out on the cong,i hope to get some bigger ones soon.

The biggest I caught was posted in FastEddie's thread. A few were a bit smaller than that but the rest have been mostly 5 inchers.

[Chris_JC]

I took my 3 yr old son yesterday down to the canal and river where we had an NJ Fishing catfish meet up back in 2012 I think. In the river we got several white perch on spinners (that was a first for me) and on jigs. We went up to the canal and got a few sunfish on worms. The trip was a good sign that my limited time spent fishing over the last few years may increase as he toughed out the chilly conditions with minimal whining.

[thmyorke1]

I took my 3 yr old son yesterday down to the canal and river where we had an NJ Fishing catfish meet up back in 2012 I think. In the river we got several white perch on spinners (that was a first for me) and on jigs. We went up to the canal and got a few sunfish on worms. The trip was a good sign that my limited time spent fishing over the last few years may increase as he toughed out the chilly conditions with minimal whining.

I noticed that when ever you catch fish the temperature goes up 10 degrees

[Mark B.]

Hit the ribber bright and early at Orlando Park in Raritan Borough, just below the Nevius St bridge. Wanted to hit this stretch for a while, 1st cast, nice smallie. Worked my way down the river for a while, nothing ! Pulled up and hit Robert St., nothing. Out of desperation up to Duke Island park, not even a sniff !!

Met up with the Rutgers crew at the ladder falls. We were able to PIT tag 2 shad today, had another one on but never got it to the net.
WhitePerch-A-Palooza continues, white perch everywhere !!

Water cleared up fast from Fridays rain, pretty clear up at Duke Island.
Water went from 68* on May 2nd to 56* today.

I think there are remnants of vestigial fins visible on those feet.

Explains a lot:

Spawned in the Raritan River, perhaps, in a tire.

One of the first to crawl on to land & breathe air.

A seemingly unending quest to find the home of his birth.