Quote:
Originally Posted by Delawareriver
Pretty sure when they have surplus they spread them out on the bigger river. When they stock a couple thousand trout in the pequest, musky, south branch it's hard to notice a couple hundred extra especially when they stock miles and miles of river. Any single spot might only receive a few extra trout
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You're right on the mark with that 'D'. Particularly on those largest rivers even when they get an extra 1,000 fish, when spread over tens of miles that amounts to maybe an extra 30-40 per stocking point. Not a strongly noticeable difference in larger water bodies.
Given this is the final week of spring stocking and only the primary waters are being hit, and it's leading into the big holiday weekend plus the NJ Free Fishing Days being only 2 weeks after, I suspect you'll see a great abundance of fish going into those majors rivers this week.
Also unlike past years when the surplus fish didn't begin leaving the hatchery until week 6, this year they began supplementing stockings on an 'as allowable' basis in week 4. By that I mean if they had room in the trucks on a given day/run they would load extra fish as space permitted. Occasionally a truck would be so heavily loaded the driver would be hard pressed to reach his first couple of stocking points just to alleviate the overcrowding in the tanks to avoid any loss of fish due to oxygen depletion.
