Big Brown Trout

[Mark B.]

An earlier post of mine on the thread Re: Union County Spots

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In early June, NJDF&W boat electrofished Verona Lake. Searching for any stocked trout that showed signs of furunculosis.

We collected 3 trout. One 12” rainbow w/ suspect lesions, kept & analyzed revealed another more common bacterium. A clean 9” brown & clean 22” breeder rainbow were released.

All of the trout were collected in the southern end (anglers have reported that there is cold water input from the Peckman River & some trout holdover)of the lake. Water temp. @ the middle of the lake was 72F, that day.

Lots of nice size bass & a good population of Golden Shiners. Tons of BIG carp. And, 2 koi,….one of which was 30 lbs. The koi were not returned to the lake.

The biggest surprise,…………..an 18” walleye near the dam.

[Mikey topaz]

Very nice!

[RichieFer]

Thanks guys, Mark I read that post you had put up, it was the main reason I stopped there to give it a shot. There were bass busting all over and a ton of bluegill and small bass everywhere. Dakota, I took the pic and let her to go fight another day, swam off strong.

Richie,

Good for you and great job on the release. I'm still shocked fish hold over especially trout there but if there is an underwater spring of some sort it makes sense. Would never associate Verona Pond with holdover anything but it"s good to see fish survive there. And an 18 inch walleye...who would have thought!

Dakota