Delawareriver,

So a large percentage of the river's channel population are actually native fish? Many times I've seen pods of small channel fry along the river in the summer and knew natural reproduction took place but never thought it accounted for a majority of the population in the river. If NJ and Pa aren't stocking any numbers, then I guess the current channel population is sustaining itself. That's pretty impressive. I know last year with the cold winter we had and amount of ice there were an insane amount of channels caught through the ice. When I say caught, they were snagged by guys jigging them. If the fishery is sustained naturally, I'm actually surprised the states allow snagging. Saw guys taking 40 to 50 fish a day the fish were so stacked up in deep holes. Would be a shame to see the fishery hurt that way if it is as you say primarily dependent on natural reproduction.