Cosmic

Is fishing a niche, or a universal contemplation? Maybe the tackle companies and outdoor media want us to think it's the former, because they do quite well with the status quo in that respect. The CEO of Bass Pro Shops is a major player with Goldman Sachs, from what I've heard. The rest of society seems to readily agree it's a niche, but many look down their noses on people with a passion to fish, so "unimportant" compared to the professional workplace and the world of social concerns that workplace implies.

I won't leap onto the high road and write the sort of sentences you may be familiar reading of my outing accounts, words a lot of readers would get lost on. I'll just say it's obvious to me fishing is only a niche as a sort of advertisement. Food is universal. We put most fish back, but you get the point. And where we go to fish. The outdoors is no niche interest more than planet. In a universe 13 billion light years wide, all of what it is inseparable between the most distant points. 

Plans

We need the rain, but it's interfering with plans a little. Had hoped to fish a pond with Mike Maxwell on Tuesday, but we figured--muddy. That's no way to get introduced. Looks like we might get there on the 12th. Too much later than that, and the weeds forbid much hope. I made a mental note of this place last fall, and I haven't forgotten. It's time. We just have to coordinate time off from work with clear water we hope is at least 50 degrees, but I did catch a bass Tuesday in the rain here in the neighborhood with water in the 40's. Not on live bait, either.

On the 5th, we may fish Pompton Lakes, but I need to look into how rain affects clarity there, since we have rain forecast two days in between now and then, not including tonight's. (Thunder.) Especially a concern, since the chief area to fish is the creek mouth, with northern pike spawning. Bass and pickerel elsewhere in the lake might attract our curiosity, also.

Hope to get to the Meadowlands with Fred soon, striped bass. School size for the most part, but a keeper size bass--to put back--is possible. I am deeply fascinated with that environment, and would like to do a photo-study of it in some breadth and detail. This will take time, and I don't have any in the foreseeable future, but if I find the time in a decade or so, I don't think my advanced age will stop me from getting my boots muddy and my knees wet. I've read two good books on the Meadowlands, though the titles and authors escape me at present. I hope to read them both again and more yet.

New Jersey is not short of amazing, geographically. Such little square mileage, compared to other states, and yet the environmental diversity in little space might be more varied than any other. Don't know. Would be interesting to find out. 

Got One, Mike!

Hit a quarter-ounce white Rooster Tail. Right before I was about to lift for next cast. Reeled at pretty good clip, since it catches bottom a lot, this shallow pond.

Protected my camera inside my coat, rain.

That's my first fish since October 12th. Looks to me like it's all getting started. And that Rooster Tail feels about right for a deeper pond.

Round Valley Reservoir RVTA Trout Stocking

Round Valley Trout Association, with its client, Musky Trout Hatchery, of Asbury, New Jersey, by the Musconetcong River, stocked Round Valley Reservoir this morning with an as yet relatively small undisclosed number of big rainbow trout as large as four or five pounds, a hundred golden trout less than legal size, and 200 brown trout also less than legal size. The same number of browns got stocked last year. Last year's bear an RVTA6 jaw tag; this year's--RVTA7.

Especially the brown trout we want released, since the idea is to witness them grow to trophy sizes of eight pounds or more. The current state record brown trout of 21 pounds, six ounces got caught in the reservoir in 1995. Since then, brown trout's chief forage is missing. The alewife herring population is now virtually non-existent or altogether gone, due to the thinning out of the reservoir's fertility, as well as relative lack of weedbeds which herring depend upon for reproduction, apparently. However, at present the record low water level results in thick vegetation growth along shorelines. When the water comes back up, we hope in three to five years, accumulated vegetation in decay will spike the water fertility, such as happened in the early 1990's, conditions combined with the pumping of more fertile South Branch Raritan water into the reservoir. That water, reportedly, is no longer as fertile as was more than a decade ago, so our proposition is a iffy, although club members don't know of the exact difference in river fertility and what the difference will mean. If alewife herring get re-introduced, there may be another renaissance of trout fishing here, with trophy fish abundant for a few years. And these brown trout we've stocked now and last year, some of them will surely remain in the reservoir five years out.

Member turnout more than I had expected, as Musky Trout Hatchery's truck drove onto gravel at about 9:00 a.m., boats seemed to suddenly arrive from nowhere, since I hadn't noticed them coming from parts unknown on the reservoir. Naturally, the guys got on early and had fished for hours. Now four or five boats began serving a mission that benefits everyone who uses Round Valley Recreation Area, since a thriving fishery is at the heart of this crystal-clear water everyone admires. Some of the guys, including a boy about 11-years-old, carried nets of trout from the truck to the boats, which roared off powered by 9.9 horsepower. The motor power seemed a lot more than that this morning, as the force behind the effort is moved by a lot more moral motivation than the typical feeling about a little engine. A boat would disappear into distance very quickly as water-filled coolers in another got loaded with trout, and just as the two coolers had filled, another boat could be seen coming in at closing distance. A small crowd of onlookers developed, shooting pictures with mobile devices, but more than this; they really got a load through eyeballs.

Cold weather deterred no one. I wished at first I had brought my wool cap, but once action got underway, I never noticed the chill, driven hard into us all by a stiff breeze coming off the water from the east. I stepped into water over my hiking boots to get closer shots with my Nikon. Didn't care, and didn't feel it. Overcast sky, cold, wind. Instead of any disfavor, the conditions served the will behind the effort, overcoming any resistance of things all too settled in that clear water.

http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2015/04/knee-deep-club-stocks-lake-hopatcong.html

Largemouth Bass Population Survey Round Valley Reservoir

                       A tiny sliver under 20 inches and fat.

The recent Round Valley Reservoir gamefish survey by the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife found largemouth bass abundant, though mostly growing at a sub-average rate, compared to statewide statistics. One hundred fifty four bass surveyed measured equal to or more than 200 millimeters long or 7.87 inches, and only 63 were greater than or equal to 300 millimeters or almost 12 inches. I think of so many 18-inchers we catch on other lakes, but here at Round Valley, the state surveyed only seven bass greater than or equal to 380 centimeters long, not quite 15 inches, but they did measure three greater than or equal to 510 millimeters or 20.07 inches. The population is unbalanced with respect to size, a relative few of the bass apparently growing better than most, and the study points out the possibility of a state-record largemouth lurking under the reservoir's surface, as evidenced by a monstrous largemouth surveyed,  23.11 inches long, weighing 8.85 pounds. Those other two big largemouths documented were over five pounds. The current New Jersey state record stands at 10 pounds, 14 ounces from Menantico Sand Wash Pond, Cumberland County.

Smallmouths did not show nearly so well, and the study indicates the population is not so abundant as in the past. Nor are the bass as large. I further speculate that with the low reservoir level, smallmouth bass spawning habitat is decreased. They need gravely bottom. Not only that. Their habitat in general is lacking now.

Keep in mind that an electroshock and netting survey is just a small sample on 2350 surface acres, even though that acreage is reduced somewhat for the time being with low water level. This recent effort by the DFW resulted in only three lake trout 9.9 pounds to 21.2 pounds surveyed, and a behemoth over 20 pounds got caught by an angler on Super Bowl Sunday. Big largemouths get caught secretly ever year. I have heard the story of a nighttime surface plugger who experienced a huge strike, terrific battle--and break off. Naturally, he believes he hooked the state record.

In my opinion, it's good culture to agree on releasing big largemouths here. The unusual growth statistics suggest something sort of like the difference between Florida and northern strain largemouths, though this surely can't be whatever it is, in fact. And yet, whatever it is--the survey results show very convincing evidence that largemouths over two pounds are pretty rare here. Those larger may be the better growing fish; I've caught and released a number of them, and will continue to release all of my bass. It's in all of our interests to practice catch and release, because the better bass stand a chance of reaching that record size.

And whoever catches that record in season. That one keep.



http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2012/05/lake-hopatcongs-enhanced-fishery-is.html  

Round Valley Reservoir's Eels

Doing my Round Valley Trout Association homework today as a member of the executive board, I thought I would do a short post on eels, since they were a favorite to catch in Little Shabakunk Creek as a boy; I attempted to harvest them commercially from the bays behind Long Beach Island (they're delicious, had eel Sushi on Sunday), and the eel situation at Round Valley Reservoir is compelling, as the information quoted below from the March 2017 Round Valley Reservoir Fisheries Management Plan suggests. The current New Jersey state record eel came from the reservoir.

Fred Matero has spoken to me on a couple of occasions about using a flashlight at night near the main launch ramp to sight huge eels. Some years ago, I happened to relax on one of the main launch docks while fishing trout on bottom, reading Tom Horton's Chesapeake Bay. I posted about that experience in this blog, relating how coming upon an unexpected chapter on eels and reading it most interested me. Horton writes in that chapter about Aristotle's attempt to determine how eels spawn, which Aristotle discloses as a failure. He couldn't. The Sargasso Sea was a long way from Greece. To the best of my knowledge, both American and European eels spawn there.

By Chris Smith, Principal Fisheries Biologist & Shawn Crouse, Principal Fisheries Biologist:

Approximately 12 American Eels were observed during night-time electrofishing.  They were found along the dams, from approximately 5-15 ft. of water, using rip-rap as cover.  The largest individual weighed 3.1 kg (6.8 lbs.) and was approximately 1,000 mm (39.3 in) in length, just one ounce less than the current state record.  It is estimated that most of the eels observed were 5-6 lbs.  It is assumed that American Eels are pumped into the reservoir from the South Branch of the Raritan River as juveniles.  The pump intakes are fitted with 3/8-inch screen, large enough to allow migrating glass eels (elvers) through.  As a result, they are basically trapped, unable to make their outmigration to the Sargasso Sea to spawn, and thus attaining such a large size.

You're not Living Somewhere Else

My brother Rick's a true Republican and yet idealist. Occurs to me tonight why. Some years ago now, I can't remember if 2011, but fairly certain then at Thanksgiving or Christmas, he remarked that New Jersey freshwater fishing offers really slim hopes. Obviously, he has an ideal in mind, and he has fished out-of-state. The Green River in Utah, for one example.

Bloomin' onion that I am, I countered his opinion, saying something about New Jersey's freshwater offering flourishing fishing now and in the future. Both of our opinions judgments, the attitudes are relative to the facts. It's more about how the quantity gets colored, than just counting, measuring, and weighing the flesh.

Ever since I posted about pike the other day, I've had hopes that post would rank online on the national level. Some of my posts have--very well--such as "Catching Smallmouth Bass in Streams and Small Rivers" and another on salmon eggs and trout. Yes, trout get stocked nationwide. So....I began to compare that little 31-inch pike photographed in the recent post to video and photo accounts of numerous pike five and six times heavier caught on single outings elsewhere in this country and Canada. Besides, any one of us might fish numerous outings for five or six years...to catch one 31-inch pike in our state. I know. Go on NJ Fishing.com and you can see a lot of 36-inchers, some bigger. And my son and I have done a little better than I've exemplified of "anyone." But NJ. Fishing.com suggests that there are guys who really have it knocked. But not like Manitoba.

This is New Jersey. And if you live here, well, that's that. You're not living somewhere else. Maybe you can go on vacation and meet with higher ideals, but here's an example of what once happened in accord with what I said in response to my brother.

We went to Maine. We fished smallmouth bass all week. We did OK. But I've had the dream of a five-pounder for years. Naturally, hopes peaked. Matt did hook one we think was at least four, judging the steady freight of its run, hook pulling free. The biggest--about two-and-a-half. But at least we caught maybe half a dozen nearly that.

We came home. Had another day off work. We ride up north and fish a crick. In one afternoon, we caught and released about a dozen-and-a-half smallmouths, some of these over a pound, but two of them--way over that weight. One of mine, nearly 20 inches long, weighed over four pounds. Next spot down the road, Matt caught one that weighed at least three-and-a-half.

We laughed like dogs. Hours before, we're up in Maine for the ideal fishing. We come back to Jersey, fish a crick, and beat Maine by a long shot.




http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2013/01/early-season-northern-pike-new-jersey.html