No Kill Trout Stretches

[Billfish715]

I remember quite emotionally fishing in the Big Flatbrook when I was a youngster. My uncle would take me there on several fishing trips each spring. We fished during the early season before the fly fishing only regulations went into effect and I loved every minute of my time in that wooded wonderland. It was and still is a trout fishing Paradise. I cut my trout fishing teeth while fishing on the exotic Rahway River in Cranford so you can only imagine how I felt when I stepped into the pristinely, magically clear water of the Big Flatbrook. That feeling is being denied to almost any youngster today because of the "study" being conducted. It will be a tragedy to lose a generation of youngsters who will never have the opportunity to experience what I was exposed to when I was little.

It's interesting to note just how cynical I have become since the new regulations have been instituted. I didn't mind foregoing the rest of the trout season on the Flatbrook or the Gorge to the fly fishing guys because I was able to partake in the beauty and charm of fishing there even if it was for a few days. Now, I'm shut out unless I conform.

[Drossi]

You guys whine a lot. Use fly gear and its problem solved. Or use spinners in the TCA. Again problem solved. And using the kid excuse is lame, I could fish a panther Martin at 5 years old, my son was the same. This argument is like me bitching about the state using my license $ for stocking walleye. Since I don't have a boat or access to one I have no way to fish for them.

[baetis]

Dave B:

Any data yet from the Flatbrook electro-shock studies?

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by Drossi

You guys whine a lot. Use fly gear and its problem solved. Or use spinners in the TCA. Again problem solved. And using the kid excuse is lame, I could fish a panther Martin at 5 years old, my son was the same. This argument is like me bitching about the state using my license $ for stocking walleye. Since I don't have a boat or access to one I have no way to fish for them.

this entire issue is because fly fisherman bitched and whined for years at the state meetings, so don't even go there...

the rest of us wondering why we are being over regulated based, not on scientific studies, but the opinions of a few elitists is def not whining in my book.

[Billfish715]

Originally Posted by Drossi

You guys whine a lot. Use fly gear and its problem solved. Or use spinners in the TCA. Again problem solved. And using the kid excuse is lame, I could fish a panther Martin at 5 years old, my son was the same. This argument is like me bitching about the state using my license $ for stocking walleye. Since I don't have a boat or access to one I have no way to fish for them.

It's hardly a whine. It's the same response that would come from a fly fisherman or spinning rod user when the regulations insist that THEY may NOT use that gear wherever they want. I have never objected to a shared use of the restricted areas. Just let me have access to those same stretches at some time during the year. There are times when I use my fly rod or cast spinners or plugs for trout but that is my choice. I surely don't want to be forced to fish in a way that someone else wants me to fish.

True, this might not be an issue if we all had a chance to fish in those restricted zones at some time.

As for the license issue and the walleyes .........if you want to fish for fish other than trout, you don't have to buy a trout stamp. Trout stamps help pay for the trout stocking program.

Finally, as for talking about kids as a lame excuse, there are many kids who don't have a parent who will teach them how to fish. My father was not a fisherman and had it not been for my uncle's love for the sport and his willingness to teach me about fishing, I never would have developed the love I have for it now, so,so many years later.

[Drossi]

Originally Posted by Billfish715

As for the license issue and the walleyes .........if you want to fish for fish other than trout, you don't have to buy a trout stamp. Trout stamps help pay for the trout stocking program.

Argument can work both ways....if I wanted to fish for only trout (I don't by the way) why doesn't the trout stamp then act as my license? Why do I have to purchase an additional license when I'm not targeting any other species besides trout?

(Not my stance on things but one could make this counter point).

[Bruce Litton]

Originally Posted by Billfish715

I remember quite emotionally fishing in the Big Flatbrook when I was a youngster. My uncle would take me there on several fishing trips each spring. We fished during the early season before the fly fishing only regulations went into effect and I loved every minute of my time in that wooded wonderland. It was and still is a trout fishing Paradise. I cut my trout fishing teeth while fishing on the exotic Rahway River in Cranford so you can only imagine how I felt when I stepped into the pristinely, magically clear water of the Big Flatbrook. That feeling is being denied to almost any youngster today because of the "study" being conducted. It will be a tragedy to lose a generation of youngsters who will never have the opportunity to experience what I was exposed to when I was little.

It's interesting to note just how cynical I have become since the new regulations have been instituted. I didn't mind foregoing the rest of the trout season on the Flatbrook or the Gorge to the fly fishing guys because I was able to partake in the beauty and charm of fishing there even if it was for a few days. Now, I'm shut out unless I conform.

I'm not taking a position pro or con, but I like this from Billfish. Back in 1972, for my special birthday trip in October, my family drove from near Trenton to the Flatbrook, by my request, for me to fish. I owned a fly rod and might have used it, don't remember. I was 12, and I have no idea how I learned about the Flatbrook. My father didn't fish and apparently had no knowledge of Sussex County. Going there was by my request. So naturally, I took my son there many years later, when he was about eight, and we came upon, on a cool July day, rainbows galore. I had bought him a fly rod; he used it, and what touched me most wasn't the rainbows, though that was a close second; they were beautiful in that clear water. Rather, Matt's authority at his casting simply came out of the natural setting. I could hardly believe how deft he became by no practice, though he had cast before, but by just breathing freely. I got a photograph of him too precious to post, catching attentiveness and poise with the fly rod ever so subtle.