A PB @ Seeley's Pond in Watchung

[Jigman13]

Quick post as I'm swamped at work. Hit Seeley's yesterday after hitting a bunch of other places in Watchung. Dink bass for the most part on Senkos. Nothing picture worthy.... Until I look down into the spillway.

I'm d*ckin' around pitching a senko from the top of the falls and pull another dink out from 30+ ft up. Fish prob had no idea what the hell was going on. Released. And cast again. Then I see it... A very large shadow coming up and swimming back down in the hole at the bottom of the spillway. I have no idea how deep that is in there but it was deep enough for this whale to disappear into. So I creep down as my friends are looking at me like "what the hell is he up to?". I tie on a Mepps #3 Aglia with a silver blade and make a few casts then BAM!!! I couldn't tell what it was at first b/c the water clarity and depth of the hole I was fishing--but it was fuggin' big! I fought the fish for what seemed like an eternity but he had no where to go really as the water levels were pretty low. He could only go down and circle. I got the fish up on a rocky flat and scooped him with my hand. I was in awe... Easily the biggest brown trout I've ever had the pleasure of catching. It weighed 6.0 lbs on the digi scale... And I kept it b/c it was beat up and prob wouldnt have survived much longer in that hole as the water temps are rising. Before anyone reacts to my keeping of this fish, please note that this was by far a personal best for me. I also rarely keep freshwater fish unless they're of the stocked trout variety (which this clearly is).

Anyhow... who wouldve thought that I'd pull something like this out of a place like Seeley's Pond...???? Catch em' up!

[Wilson]

It's ok to keep the fish...don't sweat it.
You are right, that fish was not going to be living to much longer at the base of the falls.

Too bad you couldn't of hooked it in the pond, it would of been more fun.

The state should of put that fish in a better body of water!

[shucker]

Wow,that suprising it must have went over the falls.They only stock dinky trout in the green brook but seeleys was slated to recieve broodstock.

[acabtp]

wow, nice brown!

[Jigman13]

Thanks guys... And yea, wouldve been a bit more fun in the pond but it was fun nonetheless!

[NorthJerzyG]

Nice!!

I enjoyed the bonus broodstock myself this year. Great fish.

Nice monster tout!!!

[bigfishy]

Not too suprised of where you caught it...
They stock large fish in the oddest places

In the eighties, my dad and i pulled out a shopping cart from the
botoom of the falls...Inside was THE biggest box turtle i have seen to this date....In the 25-35 lb. range

Congrats on the catch and way to go on the keep...
Theres no-way he woulda lived much longer, and a least
a worthy angler got the meal

[danyeo]

NICE. I live right up the street from Seeley's but I don't fish there much, go figure. About 100 yards downstream there's a nice sized pool about 7 feet deep that the fish might of survived in had he made it down there. And with the amount of people who fish there I'm surprised there's any Trout left over.

I did see a really big goldfish in the pool below the falls and a few in the pond. I've also seen Pickeral prowling around in there as well as some REALLY BIG carp in there, the pond that is. Maybe I should give the pond some more chances.

There's also another small waterfalls down where the stream gets close to route 22.


Checkout the flow when Irene went through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bxi64DpnZY&feature=plcp

[Jigman13]

Yea, the flow was much lighter on Sunday lol... Scary stuff though. The bridge I fish by @ my honey hole in Union County was washed out for weeks after Irene. The entire concrete base and concrete walls were completely gone and the roadway began collapsing into the river.