Trout stocking by the numbers:

[Capt. Lou]

Andy maybe your getting all breeders !🐟🎣😉

[Jigman13]

This rain/precip keeps at this pace theyll all end up in the mainstem anyway...

[FASTEDDIE29]

Oh boy!!! I’d rather catch a the Stripers, Hybrids, Lm, Sm, Pike, Musky and other fun fish out of the Raritan! Stock the Trout already so I can put them on a Stringer and then put them in my garden whole as fertilizer!!!!!!

[Jigman13]

Originally Posted by FASTEDDIE29

Oh boy!!! I’d rather catch a the Stripers, Hybrids, Lm, Sm, Pike, Musky and other fun fish out of the Raritan! Stock the Trout already so I can put them on a Stringer and then put them in my garden whole as fertilizer!!!!!!

Lol hahaha!

[AndyS]

I just like catching the ones that hold over so I have something to do in the fall.

[nsell]

Hey Andy,

I see you are concerned about trout numbers. Take a look at the 2018 stocking numbers of the South Branch of the Raritan compared to the 2019 stocking numbers of the South Branch of the Raritan and you will see a decrease of 2,780 trout. Also you will see an increase of almost 4000 trout for the Pequest.

This should be a concern to all. We need to increase stocking places was the reply I got. Less places to stock means less fish, simple as that.

[Mikey topaz]

What a waste of trout getting dumped into the main stem of the Raritan 😑

[Billfish715]

Originally Posted by AndyS

I just like catching the ones that hold over so I have something to do in the fall.

Andy, Have you caught any "holdover" brown trout in the Raritan from the load that was stocked a few years ago when the hatchery was disposing of the infected fish? Quite a few were dumped into the Raritan and Rahway Rivers to name a few. What ever became of them? Stocking quotas have more to do with angler access and pressure than about holdover potential of the waterbody. Trout are stocked so that trout can be caught, as you know.

I do agree that sections of the Raritan have holdover possibilites but, yet, of all of the trout stocked, not too many seem to holdover. The Raritan is just not as hospitable to holdover possibilities as is the upper Delaware where monster browns and rainbows flourish and grow to enormous sizes. Limestone versus shale river bottoms might make a difference as does the constant river temperatures produced by regular water discharges from the reservoirs.