Trout fishing in Morris County - Need Help

[Humanzee]

My front yard is 100 feet from the Musconetcong River. I do a fair share of trout fishing. Its easy for me to stop trout fishing during the warm weather since I have easy access to the river and I know those fish get stressed easy. But I wouldn't tell anyone to not go fishing.

Bit of a catch 22 at this time of year. If you can use a slightly heavier line - say 6# instead of 4# - you'll be able to get the fish in quicker and tire him out less. But with how low and gin clear the water has been, sometimes really light line is needed. I've done just fine with 5# flurocarbon as my tippet on my fly rod, though.

Just a thought, but consider crimping your barbs down on a couple of spinners. This way, when you do get the fish next to you, you can pop the hook out with ease and don't even have to take the trout out of the water.

Trout are not very hardy compared to the smallmouth. Once they come out of the water in these temps (both air and water), they are going to have a tough time recuperating.

Good luck!

[Capspath83]

Update: just got back from my trip to the Pequest, didn't use trout magnets, only spinners. No luck at all. I may have seen 1 or 2, that's it. I stopped at the Pequest River access over by the belvidere diner, then by uncle bucks diner where the dam is (saw a small bass, no trout..way too weedy over there) then I stopped over by the hatchery a little ways away, found a dead trout in the river but nothing else. Looks promising when they stock it though. There was absolutely no one fishing. Not sure if because of the holiday or because they all knew there is no fish. Most of the water was either up to my shins or knees. Guess I will wait till they restock the rockaway River in the fall, unless there are any other spots I missed. I found a pull off for the TCA, but it was roped off so I walked a ways and could not even find the river so I gave up and walked back. It was about a mile before the hatchery.

All in all, just a little bummed I didn't even see fish!