T.U scores big on the Flatbrook:

[AndyS]

COUNCIL VOTE
This is not good news for those who want to bait fish in the Big Flat Brook before new regs may be put in place.

Remember that in this space it has been written that if you want to conserve your way of fishing instead of bowing to the special interest groups you darned well better make your voices heard.

The state Fish and Game Council unanimously agreed, according to Lisa Barno, chief of the Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries, to support the Division’s recommendation to make the 4.2-mile section of the Big Flat Brook catch and release only.

It has been pointed out that how many kids are introduced to trout fishing, or any fishing with a fly rod or spinners? Most likely it’s a worm on a bobber or in a stream, a worm bouncing downstream.

Fly fishing comes, maybe, later.
As I’ve said here many times, you anglers who don’t want your opportunities defined by special interest groups better make your intentions known.

As Barno says, these are proposed changes and the public comment period is this late summer and early fall. The council is supposed to review the public comments before formally adopting, or not, what they recommend.

By RICK METHOT
For The Trentonian

[Dave B.]

In the interest of providing a bit of clarity here, the stream section under discussion is the current Fly Fishing Only section, not a portion of the General Regs waters. As such the impact to bait anglers would be minimal. We would only be losing that 9 day period from Opening Day to the 2nd Sun of the season. However under the proposed change spin fishing would be allowed all season.

As for the 'Catch-And-Release' aspect of the proposal, remember this is just a proposal at this point. Personally I would strongly support standard 'Year-Round TCA' regs as opposed to a strict C & R regimen and I fully intend to make my opinion known to the Div. via the Public Comment format.

For anyone who may not be familiar with those regs, essentially they stipulate Artificials Only whether that be spin or fly, a 1 fish daily bag limit with a 15 inch minimum size limit. Considering the average size of the stream section in question I might consider reducing the minimum size to 12 inches since it really doesn't have the capacity to holdover a very large number of
15" plus fish in my humble opinion.

This proposal has been many years in coming. There was a proposal submitted to the Div. nearly 10 years ago to establish a Year-Round TCA on the BFB that extended from the Rt. 206 bridge clear to the Walpack bridge, nearly 7 miles of stream. That proposal went essentially nowhere but was somewhat instrumental in the genesis of this present proposal. During the interim there have been extensive thermal, water quality, macro-invertebrate, overall habitat, flow consistency, natural reproduction and ongoing on-stream angler surveys just to list some of the behind-the-scenes research work that takes place before a solid proposal can even be considered for submitting to the council.

Despite all of that it's still not a 'done deal'. Our comments can still approve, alter or cancel the proposal depending upon the volume and sentiments of the public comments. If you have an opinion on the matter there's no need to rant here, it won't change a thing. Take a moment to let the F&W Council know where you stand. They can't know how we feel unless we tell them.

[AndyS]

I just forwarded the article. I would much rather see the private trout water go away like Lake Solitude, Black River and the one on the Musky, just to name a few.

[Dave B.]

Originally Posted by AndyS

I just forwarded the article. I would much rather see the private trout water go away like Lake Solitude, Black River and the one on the Musky, just to name a few.

Agree 100% on that issue Andy! The Pohat too!

[Michael82929]

I would love to see that turn into a trophy / conversation stretch.

Get all the metal chuckers out of the streams where the baitfisherman are and into the purist's line of sight... HHAHAHA.. that will be a joke seeing the TU guys at three bridges watch someone throwing a nice mepps in there hole, while their trying to roll a wooly bugger into the pool.. I would actually get a lawn chair and some popcorn on day 1 of that....

[Wilson]

Originally Posted by Michael82929

I would love to see that turn into a trophy / conversation stretch.

Get all the metal chuckers out of the streams where the baitfisherman are and into the purist's line of sight... HHAHAHA.. that will be a joke seeing the TU guys at three bridges watch someone throwing a nice mepps in there hole, while their trying to roll a wooly bugger into the pool.. I would actually get a lawn chair and some popcorn on day 1 of that....

You mean standing in the pool with cement waders

[buzzbaiter]

People still use bait???

Fly guys/TU won't like the spinner allowance for various reasons - mostly prejudice against trebles. If u pinch the barbs down, mortality rates are similar to those of flies so they need to calm down. They seem to forget that a barbed fly - which many use - can cause bleeding and damage to a trouts mouth and eyes.

[acabtp]

Originally Posted by buzzbaiter

Fly guys/TU won't like the spinner allowance for various reasons - mostly prejudice against trebles. If u pinch the barbs down, mortality rates are similar to those of flies so they need to calm down. They seem to forget that a barbed fly - which many use - can cause bleeding and damage to a trouts mouth and eyes.

i never understood that mentality either - it's fishing, the goal is to trick a fish into snagging itself on a hook. it's a simple fact that even with the best possible handling techniques and gear selection... there is always a chance (hopefully remote) that the fish you hook will die. if that's not ok with someone, maybe they should golf instead.

[buzzbaiter]

Their thinking is that a treble automatically increases the chance of a trout being hurt by 3x. Wrong. Since they don't spinfish, they don't realize that most of the trout caught on a spinner are done so on one of the hooks and rarely all three. Also since a spinner has to be retrieved quickly to get the blade to spin, deep hook sets are rare(at least for me). A fly is more likely to be inhaled and swallowed than a spinner but that fact seems to be overlooked in the fly vs spinner debates.

If you fish using ANY method - bait, lure or fly - a fish dying accidentally is always a possibility. I feel bad when it happens but there's little to be done to prevent it.