Pluggin' Raritan River weekend!

[Mark B.]

There is a moratorium on Raritan River A. shad fishing because the population is a recovering one.

As someone else on this forum stated, A. shad are fragile fish.

Already stressed out from avoiding stripers & trying to find the entrance of the fish ladder,……hooking adds more stress.

Keep in mind, the ones you release have less of chance of making it upstream to spawn. Such stressed out A. shad, often, abandon the spawning run altogether & become “downrunners”, heading back to the bay / ocean.

It is ok to angle for them on the Delaware River, as that population is stable.
Not so on the Raritan River. NJDF&W did not even pull a seine to document the presence of young-of-the-year Raritan River A. shad, because they did not want to kill any.