worst openning day ever!

[Dave B.]

Well, the stocked sections of the Paulinskill recieved more fish in the pre-season than the entire Flatbrook. Trust me they're there. If they get a case of 'lockjaw' due to a drop in temp, a cloudy day, whatever, it doesn't matter how great an angler you may be you won't catch any.

Regarding the Flatbrook I can assure you 100% that all the usual places got stocked and in pretty good numbers despite the issues at the hatchery. The pre-season allocations were only approx. 15% below last year's numbers on the major waters. The upcoming in-season stockings however are another story. Those numbers on waters such as the Flatbrook, Paulinskill, etc will be dramatically reduced, approx 50% below the average. As such anyone following the trucks on the major waters now should not be surprised to see only 2-3 nets of fish where they traditionally see 5-6.

For me the low opening day results simply mean more trout in the streams for a longer period, in essence extending the season considerably beyond the stocking period. Your milage may vary. Oh, and as Michael82929 said don't expect to see any excess broodstock. Remember those were the first fish hit with this outbreak back in Sept. The result was a mere 500 or so large rainbows left to use and 300 of them went into the 'Bonus Broodstock Lake' program. The remaining 200 or so may be mostly retained as hatchery broodstock, that decision is not yet made so there is still a chance of seeing some of them in the water but again as Michael stated they're only in the 16-18 or so inch range.

[EJS]

Originally Posted by Dave B.

Well, the stocked sections of the Paulinskill recieved more fish in the pre-season than the entire Flatbrook. Trust me they're there. If they get a case of 'lockjaw' due to a drop in temp, a cloudy day, whatever, it doesn't matter how great an angler you may be you won't catch any.

Regarding the Flatbrook I can assure you 100% that all the usual places got stocked and in pretty good numbers despite the issues at the hatchery. The pre-season allocations were only approx. 15% below last year's numbers on the major waters. The upcoming in-season stockings however are another story. Those numbers on waters such as the Flatbrook, Paulinskill, etc will be dramatically reduced, approx 50% below the average. As such anyone following the trucks on the major waters now should not be surprised to see only 2-3 nets of fish where they traditionally see 5-6.

For me the low opening day results simply mean more trout in the streams for a longer period, in essence extending the season considerably beyond the stocking period. Your milage may vary. Oh, and as Michael82929 said don't expect to see any excess broodstock. Remember those were the first fish hit with this outbreak back in Sept. The result was a mere 500 or so large rainbows left to use and 300 of them went into the 'Bonus Broodstock Lake' program. The remaining 200 or so may be mostly retained as hatchery broodstock, that decision is not yet made so there is still a chance of seeing some of them in the water but again as Michael stated they're only in the 16-18 or so inch range.

Your 15% number doesn't add up. Using the saved 2013 PDF of trout stocking numbers state-wide and the latest F&G 2014 pdf.


Let's use the South Branch of the Raritan River for the sample. The 2014 initial stock is 49.4% less trout. In 2013, the inital stock prior to opening day was 13,410 trout. In 2014 the inital stock of the South Branch was 6790 trout.


The week 1 stocking is 28.6% of last years stocking number for the same time period, a reduction of 71.4%. Week-1 of 2013 was 5230 trout vs. 1500 trout in 2014.


One can claim there is less miles to cover, however that same claim can't substantiate a reduction of 49.4%. I will add up total stocking numbers between years and get a rough estimate to compare statewide.

[Almaink]

We are still not catching anything in the D&R Feeder Canal. WTF did F&G do this year to our fishery? It's also odd that nobodies caught any other fish, not even sunnies. By now in past years I would have already caught a few small mouths and crappies in there while trout fishing, but this year nada. A few token browns have been caught by a couple of us regulars, but none from the holes that historically produced for the last 30 years. IMO putting browns in there was a bad idea. We always got brookies and people are set up to catch them and rainbows, not browns. I understand they didn't have brookies to stock this year but why did they dump only browns in there? You'd think they would have used the browns for up north like in passed years and stock us with rainbows, but apparently they did it the other way around this year. Anyone from up north have tips for catching these browns? Powerbait doesn't seem to work in any color we have tried. I've tried CD1's in every color, rostertails, also in every color, and the only lure thats caught anything so far, foe me anyway, is an 1/8 oz. light brown rostertail with a copper willow blade.

[acabtp]

Originally Posted by Almaink

WTF did F&G do this year to our fishery? It's also odd that nobodies caught any other fish, not even sunnies. By now in past years I would have already caught a few small mouths and crappies in there while trout fishing, but this year nada.

hahahaha, yeah it's DFW's fault, had absolutely NOTHING to do with the extended winter we had or the cold runoff from the SNOW that is still melting off the north sides of the mountains up here (where your rivers come from)

[Jigman13]

Originally Posted by acabtp

extended winter we had or the cold runoff from the SNOW that is still melting off the north sides of the mountains up here (where your rivers come from)

He's right. Give it a lil' time. They'll start chewing. Water needs to warm up a tad as it is really cold still. Try jigs and fatheads. Work your lures slower than you normally would. On opening day I had to slow roll everything to get strikes and lots of the strikes were meager and misses. Patience and persistence are key--you'll get them.

[Dave B.]

Originally Posted by EJS

Your 15% number doesn't add up. Using the saved 2013 PDF of trout stocking numbers state-wide and the latest F&G 2014 pdf.


Let's use the South Branch of the Raritan River for the sample. The 2014 initial stock is 49.4% less trout. In 2013, the inital stock prior to opening day was 13,410 trout. In 2014 the inital stock of the South Branch was 6790 trout.


The week 1 stocking is 28.6% of last years stocking number for the same time period, a reduction of 71.4%. Week-1 of 2013 was 5230 trout vs. 1500 trout in 2014.


One can claim there is less miles to cover, however that same claim can't substantiate a reduction of 49.4%. I will add up total stocking numbers between years and get a rough estimate to compare statewide.

Well if you've read the stocking lists then you know the entire upper 1/2 of the river is not getting stocked, including the KLG TCA. Of course the numbers aren;t going to add up since you don't have the percentages allocated to the various stream sections. Every major stream is divided into 2-3 major segments and the percentages of the total stream allocation vary by stream section. These variations do not necessarily depend upon the average size of the water body although that is one of the factors. Also taken into account are the amount of public access, the water quality in a given section, the average amount of angler usage, the proximity of other trout stocked waters, and other factors.

Bottom line, trying to use the SBR as a guage for this particular discussion is neither practical or feasable. Also the percentage of reduction numbers I gave were as I stated averages so attempting to nail it down to fractions of a percent is again neither practical or realistic.

All that aside I was simply trying to help my fellow anglers understand the nature of the situation using the information I've obtained. If this has disturbed you well then I apologize.

[UglyStick]

Dave B - we appreciate the info - keep it up as needed - thx

[Almaink]

I caught two more small browns yesterday at the D&R Feeder Canal on a Chartreuse 1/8 roostertail with a gold blade. Caught one on the side where none had been caught yet too. I hope you guys are right about it just being cold water. I can't remember it ever being this slow.