Passaic River, Basking Ridge, 5/18/13 - fishing and a swim

[Doug Vitale]

I returned to one of the spots where I learned how to fish for trout – the Passaic River in the Millington Gorge (located in Basking Ridge, not Millington...Google Maps). I fished the stretch from the Basking Ridge Rd./CR 657 bridge downstream to the Haas Rd. bridge.

My father, Cuz, took me there several times when I was a youngster, and when I learned to drive I went back many times myself. I had not been there in 15 years, so it was a happy return.

There is good current here, the water is clean and not smelly, and there are many rapids, eddies, and pools. It's not the Black River in Hacklebarney, but it's pretty scenic. Upstream from CR 657, the Passaic is muddly and pond-like.


First photo - view of the Millington Gorge from the train track trestle

The hot lure was the Thomas spinner. When I lost it on a submerged branch, I switched over to a very small crankbait, something like a baby-sized Rapala Mini-Fat Rap, and that worked good, too. I landed no less than 12 stockies in 3.5 hours of fishing. Several missed strikes, too. There are lots of trout in this stretch, but I didn't catch any bragging-sized fish.



At one point, I was standing on a log so I could make casts into a very trouty-looking pool. When I turned around to walk back to the bank, next thing I know I'm falling down and I landed in three feet of water. Only my head was spared; the rest of me got soaking wet. Unfortunately, my $200 digital camera died a watery death. Amazingly, the memory card survived which is why I have included photos with this post. However, I couldn't take any more photos of the other fish I got and the other nice stretches of the river. First time in 20 years of trout fishing that something like this happened! It taught me a humbling lesson. I had to spend the next two hours fishing in wet clothes and flooded hip boots.