Hook A Winner

[NJSquatch]

Hit the Rockaway last night and caught one with a tag?

Talked with a bunch of buddies, between all of us, over a 100 years of NJ trout fishing experience and no one has ever caught or heard of anyone catching one with a tag.

Looked into this a bit more and FGW tags 1,000 fish each year for the Hook a Winner Program. Pretty crazy odds considering they stock over 570,000 trout.

Pretty cool.
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/hookwinr.htm

[baetis]

I've caught a couple with tags, all on opening day from a popular hole. Send it in, they send you a patch and certificate.

[Skunk City]

Pretty cool!

[Chrisper4694]

that's cool i thought they tagged bigger ones. I've caught 5 tagged ones over the past 4 years but they were all private stocking tags haha

[acabtp]

i got a brookie with a tag out of hibernia brook (rockaway trib) a couple years back... let him go w/o the tag. i think the state uses the data to help figure out how much the trout move from where they are stocked. good stuff! always nice to have a little bonus surprise

[justin1982]

Yea I caught one as a kid, my mom framed the letter and I wear that patch with pride lol

[Cuz]

Originally Posted by NJSquatch

Hit the Rockaway last night and caught one with a tag?

Talked with a bunch of buddies, between all of us, over a 100 years of NJ trout fishing experience and no one has ever caught or heard of anyone catching one with a tag.

Looked into this a bit more and FGW tags 1,000 fish each year for the Hook a Winner Program. Pretty crazy odds considering they stock over 570,000 trout.

Pretty cool.
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/hookwinr.htm

They stock tagged fish before the regular stocking season starts. I caught two so far. Now that's lucky odds. You will get a certificate and a kool patch to sew on your fishing vest. Good luck!