Raritan river 3/27/25:

[AndyS]

3/27 Fished MANVILLE: Didn't catch a thing ! BUT what I do not understand about the Raritan river is the lack of attention it gets from NJF&W. Just about every spit of water in NJ gets stocked with SOMETHING, weather it be catfish, trout, bass, pike, walleye or even muskellunge. There is a HUGE section of the Raritan river that gets nothing. I'm not saying this because I didn't catch anything but you would think that the powers that be would want to stock a nice clean river in a metropolitan setting with some nice fish. This isn't the river of yesteryear, even water company employees are talking about the improvement in water quality. The upper section does get some trout stocked in the spring but the vast majority of the Raritan river gets nothing stocked at all, I wonder why ?

[bulletbob]

Probably because of its tidal section... Don't feel bad, its the same here in NY state, a LOT of water is left to fester- untended,,, Unless of course its in a tourist area, then they load it up with trout, so people will come and spend money,,,

[AndyS]

The tide line is down in Piscataway.

[Jigman13]

I'm good with the river as-is. I have no problem catching what's available in the river currently. With high rains and tropical storms, fish get displaced and end up in the river. Nature's way of stocking in my mind... smallies, largemouth, stripers, walleyes, pike, pickerel, tiger and pure strain muskies, hybrid stripers, channel and flathead catfish, various panfish... and of course, "coveted" trout. I don't even fish for trout anymore and still buy the stamp just to support it. Less than 10% of the people who fish that river catch 90% of the fish. I like to believe I'm in that 10%

[AndyS]

I wouldn't mind seeing a few walleye stocked. The Raritan river follows current regulations of open and closed seasons as well as size and bag limits. Why shouldn't the Raritan river have it's own walleye regulations if it's not stocked by the State and relies on naturally reproducing fish. It's nice they offer up 330,000 walleye annually for the Delaware river for the people of not only New Jersey to enjoy but the folks in Pennsylvania also. Here you have a river solely in N.J. where our own could enjoy a first class river walleye fishery.