[Dave B.]

Normally on opening day I'd be on a S.J. pond or lake doing angler surveys. As much a I would enjoy the opportunity to meet some of the good folks on here unfortunately this year I have serious family commitments for that weekend that preclude both of the aforementioned activities. I will however be on a NW Jersey stream float stocking the following Fri and spending the weekend fishing.

As for the current status of the stocking schedule, right now the Freshwater Fisheries staff are and have been scrambling to cope with the logistics of re-configuring nearly the entire stocking schedule in the aftermath of having to euthanize those 114,000 brook trout along with some other issues. Their primary focus at present is on getting the fish in the rivers, lakes ponds and streams in time for the opener. Having to re-shuffle not just the locations and allocations but the truck routes and daily runs as well in such short notice is a bit of a nightmare to put it mildly.

I can assure you that as soon as is realistically possible they will be announcing the updated stocking schedule. As is generally the case some folks will be pleased, some upset and some of us will simply shrug and go fishing with the confidence that next spring things will be pretty much back to normal, with maybe a shift in predominant species.