Lower Musky Still giving up trout
 

Fished many spots from Bloomsbury south. Most spots I caught cookie cutter rainbows on bait.
I was hell bent on catching some trout using hardware today. I fished hard today. I would fish spoons down a stretch. Come back the same stretch and fish spinners. Nothing. Third time using big butterworms I just received in the mail from Elliotsbutters.com. Bing, bang, boom the same stretch. Go figure. My fishing buddies and son now have named me the butterworm king. They're the only thing that has been producing for me the past three years. I don't think I caught one trout this year on a worm, salmon egg, or power bait.

I posted last summer about a very large channel catfish I caught in the Musky. It was the best fight in a stream I ever had. Today I caught another one in the exact same area. About two and a half pounds which I released.

Re: Lower Musky Still giving up trout
 

Last year every single trout I caught was on some type of lure. I didn't fish with any type of bait at all and I caught my limit or more almost every time I went. This year is another story. I caught 3 on opening day on a white roostertail, and 4 others that first week also on roostertails, but that was it. Not a single fish on any of the CD Rapala's I bought, last year they were deadly. This has been IMO, the worst year trout fishing I can remember.

Re: Lower Musky Still giving up trout
 

The Pequest, Paulinskill and Flatbrook are al still full of trout and producing quite well. Sunday before last I hit a fair sized stretch of the Flatbrook and landed over 3 dozen trout in about 5 hours just tossing roostertails. Walked away from some holes with the fish still biting just to get through the stretch in time to hit a section of the P'kill before dark.

Managed another 2 dozen + on the P'kill on spinners. Plenty of fish out there and with the water levels holding up as well as they have been there should be decent trouting well into July if it doesn't get too warm!

Re: Lower Musky Still giving up trout
 

I would say try different bodies of waters. I enjoy going to new spots and reading each stream remembering what I found for future trips.
It's been a banner year for my son, some friends, and myself.
Don't give up yet. Right now the streams are in primo shape for the first time this year. And the water temperature has started rising which equates to better fishing.