[AndyS]

8/9/2025: 290CFS - water 79*, air 83* I had my coffee at 7am while sitting on the Nevius St bridge, I watched a near blizzard bug hatch and thought how far this river has come in the past 15 years. All the years with Central Jersey Stream Team and now the newly introduced New Jersey Clean River Crew. All the garbage and tires that were taken out of the river. Today I went to work in Somerville taking advantage of the low clear water. I didn't have my canoe today so I used a float tube I got from WalMart for $3.00. I worked the area off Petersbrook Greenway near Rt. 206. Years ago I never saw anyone fishing the Raritan except maybe in the spring for stocked trout, today I saw no less than 4 anglers taking advantage of the great conditions. Today I walked a grid pattern and it worked good as well as floating over deeper and muddy areas. I was able to wrangle 6 tires from the river. I can honestly say you could walk from the Headgates dam to Rt 206 and would be hard pressed to see any tires, years ago we were tripping over them while we fished. I walked almost to Manville looking for tires but didn't find anymore so I doubled back to Rt. 206. There were no crowds, no parties, just a very peaceful river. River bank clean ups won't happen till the dead of winter because everything is way too overgrown, besides, who wants to get covered in ticks anyway. Hopefully we can find some love for the Manville stretch before the summer is over.