Duke Island Park Opening Day

[JoeLongo]

A whole lot of nothing for us. Arrived with my daughter and better half around 730. First time fishing there and i was unprepared. Was hoping to soak bait and have a cigar, not the case. Fast moving water prevented all of that. Met up with some fellow NJfers too. From what I gathered, nobody was catching anything at all. I didnt see one fish caught.

Two great moments. My daughter trying to cast and tossing her barbie fishing pole in the water. Naturally, I went in after it and got it back. The second was after not getting anything at all, we decided to dig for bugs and caught a bunch of salamanders. Great time with my kid though. Will be at it again tomorrow morning. Going to try some other places i normally go, maybe Echo Lake or Spring Lake.

[AndyS]

Wrap up so far:

Lard and Dad ran outta there so fast you would have thought the woods were on fire. They went down by Rt. 206, got the egg there.

FastEddie and company, you could see it, these guys are not used to getting skunked, they left.

JJFishy was wandering around collecting worms, last seen walking down RT. 22 on the West bound lanes.

Me, Wilson, Outofline, Shucker, die hards, we went back up to falls after fishing the lower stretch where I got a small brown, Outofline dropped a few.

I split, Wilson, Shucker, and Outofline hitting Roberts St. dam then to Nevieus, report and photos to follow.

Good group of guys, all dressed like telephone line repairmen !!

Text from Duffman, his boy got 4. My other buddy got a 20" laker on RV.

One guy scored a huge rainbow on the flats at Duke Island.

Rumors, everything from the truck flipping over and dumping hundreds of trout, to massive pike swimming around eating all the trout !
Had a great time meeting everyone, thanx.

[SplitShot]

Well.... my daughter and I were at Spring Lake at 5am to get the spot I wanted with our van just 10' in back of us so we can get our poles in place and then whip up fresh Bacon,Egg and Cheese Sandwiches on the griddle...

Crowd wasn't as congested as in prior years at all, but fishing was DEFINITELY slow for opening day, for sure. There was a good pause between catchings and I could see halfway around the lake. There were only 2 fish caught by us between 8-10am. One was a nice size rainbow and the other was just legal.... We didn't even get a nibble the 2 hours we tried using: 2-#12 hooks on each rod with different colors of power bait and also Gulp Trout Bait.... called it quits at 10:15am. Too many lines in the water to use spinners, phoebes, etc. We checked out the leaderboard for the kids tournament and noticed the biggest fish was only 3lb 7oz. It's a nice fish, but last year they were catching a bunch between 5 and 10lbs.....

It was great having my daughter as my partner today, so the day was a winner and then I came home to watch my Rangers whip the Devils to put the icing on the cake!!!!

Now tomorrow the real trout fishing begins........

[Wilson]

Well the catching was so slooooooow.
So Shucker and Outofline and I hit Prices Falls... too crowded left without fishing. Blew over to Nevieus St. one guy there.
I show the boys around as it was their first time there.
After about 20 min. Outofline scores a scrawny Brookie...released. About 10 minutes later Shucker nails a NICE 2- 2 1/2 lb Brookie.
More guys showed up, I was out of ciggs. and starving, so left those guys still fishing at about 3 PM.

Today I learned that Shucker has more power cheese the Cabelas and knows way too much about getting into locked cars with no keys
When you call Outofline's cell, the ring on your end is a Led Zeppelin song.
Fast Eddie has fished every body of water in NJ, and is a funny guy as well

Saved JJFish from using 40 lb. test leader

Had fun meeting new guys, and hope to do it again, albeit with some fish!!!

Thanks for the doughnuts Andy.

These are the only pix's worth posting.

[Lard Almighty]

The ospreys and cormorants must have eaten all the trout!

Went home with my tail between my legs today. Between last weekend and this weekend, it is not shaping up to be a productive trout season so far.

Good thing I'm a bass fisherman.

[shucker]

Cheese worked great on the mighty rahway river fished until dark with constant action aslo nabbed another big brook-garlic cheese was on the menu.

[Wilson]

Originally Posted by shucker

Cheese worked great on the mighty rahway river fished until dark with constant action also nabbed another big brook-garlic cheese was on the menu.

So that's what I smelled

[jjfishy]

I had a great time meeting all of you in-person, after only reading your posts. Thanks Andy for organizing and yes, I picked enough worms for the whole saeason Thanks Wilson for saving me from using those ugly leader Thanks FastEddie and his friend for showing me where the worms were. Thanks all for a good time

[FASTEDDIE29]

There is a ton of trout on that stretch of river somewhere! Maybe the truck accidently put all the tout in above the falls, I dont know! It was nice meeting you crazy anglers, give me a call, lets go fishing!

[bronzeback]

i started at duke island falls with my nephew and bro and we got outta there in 20 min after the skunk... went to nevias and got skunked there.. hehe