Rockaway mixed bag - 7/17
 

Spent about 90 minutes tossing a spinner around in the Rockaway River. Pretty good tally for a short trip:

14 redbreast sunfish
3 northern pike
2 largemouth bass
2 yellow perch
1 smallmouth bass and
1 balck crappie.

Largest fish was a 12" perch. Pike sizes were 6", 8", and 10" which was disappointing. At least they are in there to grow bigger :)

Re: Rockaway mixed bag - 7/17
 

NORTHERN PIKE !!! :eek:

Re: Rockaway mixed bag - 7/17
 

Nice, there are actually lots of small pike in the upper part of the river, i would catch them all the time when trout fishing.
Pretty cool catching such tiny Pike, you never really see them that small.

Re: Rockaway mixed bag - 7/17
 

Cool mixed bag and pics. Background looks very similar to the Passaic. I guess these things are swimming upstream from there?

Re: Rockaway mixed bag - 7/17
 

You may be right......but these pike must have to swim alllllll the way up from the passaic through the Boonton Res? I cought pike WAY north on the rockaway past rt15.
And if they did make it that far, how would they make it over those falls in Boonton?? Or they can swim from morris canal from the Passaic/Pompton.
I cought the exact same fish in April WAY up the river. I didnt take a real long look at the fish but it ws NO pickerel.

Also, I wonder if baby musky can swim to the rockaway via stehpens brook from LH?

Re: Rockaway mixed bag - 7/17
 

I have caught a few adults in the same area but not many. Primarily sunfish water. Maybe the young are wild pike? I can't see a 2-6" pike - the size they stock - moving that many miles upstream against the current especially with the river being so high this year. Just wondering...

Skeeters not as bad along RR but still around. PR is absolutely horrible. Even in the sun they are in full attack mode.

Re: Rockaway mixed bag - 7/17
 

Hopefully our resident fisheries expert Mark B. came chime in on this one. The fact that your Pike from yesterday were so small makes it that much more interesting.

Re: Rockaway mixed bag - 7/17
 

I live on and fish the Rockaway River all the time. Never once caught, seen, or heard about a pike above the reservoir, but there are plenty of chain pickerel up here.

Below the reservoir is a different story, that area is a pike nursery.

From the design of the dam, I don't see how it would be possible for fish to migrate from the lower Rockaway into the reservoir. Also, Boonton falls is 24' iirc, I seriously doubt that anything is migrating upstream from that either. Plus there are two spillover dams in the town of Boonton that block most upstream migration after that. And then more dams in Rockaway boro... So I doubt anything is moving up river

Re: Rockaway mixed bag - 7/17
 

Morris canal is empty and dry except for a couple tiny preserved sections here and there

E.g. It is just a low spot in my neighbors' backyards

Could always have been some bucket biologist dumping them in

Re: Rockaway mixed bag - 7/17
 

So it's most likely they're swimming up from the Passaic and spawning in the lower rockaway?

Maybe recent stockers that swan upstream to stay away from their bigger cousins, lol? Have they stocked yet this year?