Musconetcong River, 5/20, Bloomsbury

[Doug Vitale]

I hit a remote stretch of the Musconetcong from 3:00 - 8:00 yesterday. I struggled finding good fishing spots because there was a lot of shallow water. I lost a fairly large fish in a pool (I didn't see what it was). Finally after getting the skunk for a couple of hours, I found a nice section of the river that was deep.

I was fishing with Rooster Tails and Mepps spinners. I could see the trout chasing the lure, but they wouldn't take it. I switched over to my combination worm/hot pink salmon egg bait, and it was fish on. I got six trout in half an hour. I would have stayed but it was getting dark and I had to get out of the woods quick.

On my way back to the car, I heard a big splash and I cast a Panther Martin to where I saw the ripples. After two casts I got a nice sized brown, about 1.5 pounds. The other six fish were all rainbows (two of them were 2 lb. fatties) and they didn't want to be bothered by lures.

I'd like to point out that where I was fishing was miles away from the nearest stocking points. It just goes to show you that the fish migrate away from where you see the "trout stocked" signs. Many fishermen won't bother fishing any streams or rivers that don't have these signs posted. Most of them won't fish more than 500 feet from where they park their cars, either.