[kcritch]

The wife and I took the day off yesterday to try to get out on a PM open boat for the striped ones and some blues. Not enough guys so the trip was cancelled. No problem...we put on the waders packed up some lunch 200 lbs of tackle 10 rods and headed to the river. I tend to over pack for these things. Figured we try for some trout and smallmouth. First stop 2 minutes from home on the NB which was supposedly stocked on Wednesday to try to get the wife her first NJ Trout....not a tap or fish in sight. Headed to Duke Island Park to have our lunch and regroup. Decided to hit a little stretch there before leaving. Fed up with the trout thing I switch to small mouth gear and Donna stays with the ultra light for trout. Look upstream and guys lined up as far as we can see so we go down stream a bit a find...of course...trout galore. Donna gets her first NJ Trout (little guy pic below) and then second and third and continues playing with them as I aimlessly throw lures to the smallie empty abyss. So we decide to leave and head to a different spot and bam I'm snagged...on a beast smallie that is. Turns out to be a nice thick 20" fish. (last pic below). Then we head a bit downstream to a part of the main stem and get into several small mouth each as well as find another pod of stockies. The "larger" bow pictured below actually hit a 4" green pumpkin Senko Texas rigged weightless on a 1/0 hook. Fished for a few more hours and had a blast. All smallies caught on Senkos and all trout caught on Panther Martins 1/8 oz Black with yellow dots and gold blade. Some pics to prove it happened.