Pequanick River
 

A friend fishing the Pequanick river said he observed a few freshly posted signs saying that brown trout in this river are c & r only.
Is this something new and why this regulation?
I have only fished this river a hand full of times. Mabey it has been a long time reg that I was un aware of.
I have caught some obvious wild trout from that river, some real colored up 6 inch little guys.
If this is some type of natural reproducing river why not stop stocking it all together so it will get little to no fishing pressure so the trout can do there thing.
It would be nice if we can actually get good numbers of trout to reproduce in the garden state.

Re: Pequanick River
 

i caught many nice size browns in that river. And yes C&R!

Re: Pequanick River
 

So is it some kind of trout conservation river?
It would be interesting to know why only brown c & r.

Re: Pequanick River
 

I saw nothing in the regs about Browns being C&R only there.

Re: Pequanick River
 

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/2013/trtregs13.pdf

it talks about the peq. being C&R.... in a certain area...

Re: Pequanick River
 

Love the pequanick. Ever fish the Flatbruk or the Raretin? :p

Re: Pequanick River
 

There is a section of Trout Conservation Area. I have only released the browns.

Re: Pequanick River
 

I made it to the pequanick on Monday. The signs were not put up by the state. They were color flyers in plastic bags basically giving info that the state no longer puts browns in the pequanick. It explains how browns have adapted and sucessfully spawn in this river. it is a suggestion of c & r based on this reason.
The sign was put up up by some trout orginazation.
I have caught plenty of 6-7 inch obvious wild browns in that river and my friend had one that day. Beautiful little guys.
A few years ago I caught a 18 inch brown in there with the start of a kype jaw. Back in he went.
The signs were observed in the butler area by an auto body shop.
We did well covering over 15 miles of river moving every 20-30 Min. To different spots catching over 20 fish which all but 4 were returned.
Aside from the fish bitting I cane home to find a brown tic bitting me as well just along my belt line. luckily I was able to remove without incident as it was not in yet.
Exploring the river climbing thru brush has its consequences.