Raritan river mega float 11/17/13:

[AndyS]

Put in at Robert St. in Raritan. There were 2 guys behind me getting ready to launch what looked like a 14 ft. deep V, walleye guys, maybe ?
Floated so fast I hardly had time to fish, plenty of deep water despite the lack of rain. Saw schools of Quillback not long after I launched, so to the guy who thought he saw a 28" Brook Trout guess what, these fish light up just like Brookies. Did float over a big Channel Cat also.
First fish came where the old Conco pipe was, where the entire river goes down to about 10ft. wide. I dropped in the fast water, thought I was snagged on the bottom and up comes a huge smallmouth, arches on the top, I spin around in my seat and drop the tip of my rod, fish gone. Dropped in again and had another nice fish but lost that one also. Spent a good half hour there, nothing. Every time I tried a lure with 2 hooks on it all I got was leaves. Floated past the 2nd 287 crossing, new territory for me. Found no less than 5 nice riffles that I'm sure would hold smallmouth. The entire area down to Landing Lane bridge looks like good smallmouth water.
Found some interesting things as I floated down the river. Found a homeless encampment in Bound Brook, a stack of plywood in a tree, and a boat.
I'm beat, paddled my buns off. Looked like some interesting water down by Landing Lane bridge, I think if I had floated any further I would have been into schools of bunker