Where are the Trout?



Three consecutive Opening Days at Locatong Creek felt deeply satisfying, but I find I move on in life before something or other begins to feel old. This way, I keep youth alive despite having outwardly clocked 54 years. Until Thursday, I figured we would forgo Opening Day this year. My family had plans to eat at the Ship Inn in Milford and hike to the Ice Cave, an abandoned iron mine just north of Phillipsburg. We got a family invitation for Easter, plans changed, and desire stirred to fish little Hakiokake Creek. I had an amazing experience fishing here Opening Day 1975.

In Milford, two creeks meet. The larger is designated Hakiokake. I'm not sure of the smaller creek's name, the creek photographed above where friends and I enjoyed trout fishing 1975 and times since. My son and I got out of the car. He walked upstream, I went downstream. Neither of us sighted any trout nor any Fish & Wildlife notices up. I may get around to checking online the stocking schedule to see if two creeks in Milford and Holland Township are listed.

We stopped at the public park beside the slightly larger creek. Here perhaps half a dozen people fished at about 11:00 a.m. I got word of 20 trout caught just upstream at a bridge, but I didn't care to fish. For me, it was a matter of revisiting my 1975 experience or else passing on fishing today. Matt's an aloof 16 and hadn't any outward insistence on trying.

We drove off, Wickecheochee Creek in mind to visit on a roundabout way home. I realized I had left my fishing license at home with stuff I need to sort. Matt's forgetful mind is like mine, so naturally he forgot his license too, now new to being licensed. No fishing for us today, but we would have a look at the Creek near Stockton I so admire.

We got as far as the green bridge, driving west from Route 29. Someone intending to fish pulled in behind. Here it is Opening Day, no one around, Fish & Wildlife notices up. I dropped three salmon eggs from atop the bridge while wearing polarized sunglasses, water below not perfectly clear, but clear enough to watch the eggs descend about five feet to no takers. I could only guess that if any trout had been stocked, they're very few. A few years back the situation here felt much the same. The few who fished reported nothing.

Meanwhile, my son had walked downstream. I watched with apprehensive eagerness as he attempted to cross the fairly wide Creek by hopping rocks. He got wet almost to his knees. And he persisted, looking in the water closely as he continued to walk. Suddenly he raised both hands to signal the size of a very big fish and waved me down.

Some must have been stocked. He guessed the trout to have been about 20 inches, darting upstream and out of sight through very shallow riffles. Surprising.

We rode on a mile or two to the Covered Bridge. We sighted one angler fishing. I noticed a few more Fish & Wildlife designations along the way. It's as if everyone has given up on trout fishing the Wickeocheochee, certainly not because it's an unsightly place.

Some years ago, I took Matt to Locatong Creek and very few trout seemed to have been stocked. Quite a number of people tried; very few reported any catches.

Where are the trout? If Fish & Wildlife designates a creek to be stocked, it should be. Where are the voices? I'm typing mine. Fish & Wildlife holds a public meeting concerning trout stocking in February at Pequest Hatchery.

Creeks offer fine trout fishing. I think some of the very finest, since close, intimate settings allow particularity of experience big name streams, lakes and ponds can't provide.

The word from Fish & Wildlife is that nearly 600,000 trout will be stocked this spring.

Wickecheoche

Topwater Bass Small North Jersey Lake

Don't remember what I laughed about, not the bass.

Here's a piece ahead of time about fishing a small lake in North Jersey. Information may be helpful for any number of destinations.

If you own no larger than a small boat and trailer, you may enjoy good largemouth fishing on any of fairly shallow eutrophic lakes. The primitive gravel ramp we employed provides convenient launching for a kayak, canoe, inflatable, portable, or cartop boat, and I’ve heard of the successful trailer launch of a 14-foot V-hull. My son, Matt, and I discovered that our 12-foot inflatable Intex Excursion really is a very comfortable and efficient craft. It inflates quickly with a 12-volt air pump used for tent mattresses. We’ve launched it on Merrill Creek Reservoir and Split Rock Reservoir, two undesirable outings we don’t care to repeat. I was reluctant to use the boat again! Rolling over Merrill Creek waves and hauling the heavy boat and marine battery a long distance at Split Rock wasn’t pleasant. But so long as water surface rests relatively calm, the boat feels like a comfort chair, casting from it easy and unimpaired. We power the boat with a 55-pound thrust Minn Kota electric motor. Perhaps needless to say, gas outboards are not allowed on most small lakes.

          My portable Humminbird graph recorder showed 10-foot depths not far beyond the ramp, and we found that most of the water on the near side of the island is about this deep. We didn’t fish the back of the lake, but I imagined shallower flats. The lake’s acres brim with water of good quality, but it’s not as clear as Lake Musconetcong used to be, for example.

          Aquatic vegetation abundant, it's not as thick as I had expected. The lake mostly open water, the challenge is to fish edges and pockets of weeds very carefully. Senko-type worms and slower sinking traditional plastic worms rigged weightless with an inset hook would be effective, particularly in the middle of the day when topwater plugs usually get ignored by bass. My son and I favor surface fishing whenever we can catch fish, and that’s when light intensity increases or decreases, sun fading from the time of our arrival, and the bass sight-advantaged over prey.

          For the first 20 minutes or so, we became anxious. Then I hooked my first bass, and we sank into the pleasant reverie of being on the water with the skunk off. There’s nothing like a good-looking lake letting us down to spoil our estimate of the Highlands region of which we're familiar. That sort of event turns the world upside down. Another bass struck minutes later, both fish only about a pound apiece, but making the lake feel promising.

          Quickly released, they have the potential to grow quite large in a lake like this. Matt pointed out a school of forage fish with small predator fish of some kind bursting into them. The forage seemed like herring, but surely shiners of some variety caught our attention. We watched dazzling reflections on silvery scales caught in vanishing sunlight as the fish leapt. The presence of these brilliant, tiny pulses of energy relative to the focus of our concentration on them, they seemed more significant than the physical size of the fish. Whenever I see baitfish in addition to bluegills and other sunfish, I think the lake has good potential for lunkers just as important to let go.

          We didn’t take any hits from big fish, but we caught several more one-pound bass before dusk deepened. All struck topwater plugs. Particularly aware of my casting as I repeatedly plunked my Hedden Torpedo on the proverbial dime, the practice will last until next time. This involved more than hitting the target. I fished with persistent, yet relaxed, energy. Allowing the mind to feel out what seems to be the best possibility of a lair will, over time, put you on more fish. How do animals in the wild find prey? More is involved than assessing facts. Animals other than humans have no concept of facts anyhow, but they possess acute senses that lead them where they need to go.

          Do we still have senses like other animals buried beneath our everyday minds? Not only do we in the form of intuition; to awaken such productive guesswork also heightens aesthetic appreciations, and can lead to unexpected solutions of any sort of problem in life. That’s why we call fishing re-creation. Above all, a good evening on the water clears the mind so you can face tougher challenges in life refreshed.     

Open Water in New Jersey

A week ago Thursday, my neighborhood bass pond opened up. The fountains left on all winter helped keep some water open, and besides, a small creek feeds the pond; heavy rains erode ice fast. That's especially to look for, if you want to catch bass while people continue to ice fish the likes of Lake Hopatcong. In fact, guys were out this past weekend on the ice. Ponds with creeks entering them serve an alternative. Rain may muddy water, but once that clears, bass can be caught.

The photograph is of my black lab Sadie and Bedminster Pond along the Hike and Bike Trail and just off U.S. 206. While my neighborhood pond was open, I visited here last Friday and though ice was on the way out, it still covered. See the other photo.

The report from Beher's Bait and Tackle indicates Round Valley Reservoir yet frozen, and Hopatcong isn't expected to be completely open for Opening Day trout season. Who knows, really, given a couple of 70-degree days. Tomorrow night, teens. We hoped to fish Round Valley for trout Sunday, but with the chill, I can only hope some time next week.

My buddy Noel told me on the phone earlier that his favorite private pond is still frozen. I had a look at the Wood Duck Pond here in Bedminster. The ice is shot, but still covering. Noel suggested Manasquan Reservoir remains iced over, though his information is dated and he was unsure. Go to the Pinelands and fish pickerel. I'm sure open water awaits.

The Delaware's a bet for walleye, if the water's clear, and the Passaic River yields a lot of pike during the past week or more down below the sections reserved for stocked trout. Spruce Run Reservoir, last I heard, is not entirely ice-free, but pike may be attempted near the creek entrances.

Ponds here and there offer some fishing. I think Mercer Lake is open too. Given a very mild day, bass, crappie and pickerel move into shallows and a Rebel Minnow is hard to beat for surface fishing as sunset nears. This plug sits at an angle on the surface, rear submerged. Twitch it just to lift the rear and bass may take it like a trout's sip rise.

  

26 Inches of Ice Lake Hopatcong

This ice season just kept getting colder. Until today. With temperatures in the 50's and more forecast, Laurie's sent out the message that it's all but over; soon ice will melt away from shore. One more weekend, she thinks. Ice will likely remain on the lake into early April, but getting to it and fishing on it safely will become impossible sometime fairly soon.

Oliver and I fished on seven inches January 17th. Even with a lot of snow and water on the ice for insulation, it managed to thicken to about 26 inches. I took my son and his friend Will yesterday, really hoping Will would get his first pickerel and good sized. Fishing Henderson Bay, the area we tried Joe Landolfi and I ice fished in 2001, catching a 25 and 22-inch pickerel. Not a flag popped yesterday, but five hours really wrung out all the day to day garbage, the sort of stuff you don't scatter around like trash, but let sun, breeze, calm dusk and time's persistent presence dissolve like vapor. We came back to things empowered by the big world out there; we took it all in and became stronger than the trifling demands that hide in corners behind walls.

Will Olsen sinks it. Photo originally featured in The Fisherman.



Little George for Round Valley Reservoir Lake Trout

Ice a foot thick, Round Valley Reservoir crowded with ice fishermen and tourists alike, I placed tip-ups over 60 feet of water, and then cut additional holes away from the set to jig. Instead of the popular Kastmaster (although other lures are used), I tried an old invention of Tom Mann, Bassmaster Classic winner from the 1970's. I used to read about him in Bassmaster magazine and heard him speak at Montclair State College in 1979.

"I'm not your college educated bassman," he began. He cracked a smile to signal the irony.

The Little George weighs an ounce, has a Colorado blade for a tailspinner that sends out good vibrations and is a rounded inch long. It reminds me of the dozen barred sunfish an inch long that fell out of the stomach of  Mike's laker, caught just before ice-over. Jigs great. But I got no hits I know of. Sometimes fish hit and you never feel a tap, cameras testify, but of course I doubt anything happened.

Heard of a number of lakers jigged on a hump that rises to 85 feet from deeper and heard of a couple others, one of them nice sized.

At the end, I felt dismayed at the area I fished, although very nearby guys had two flags. With so much line threaded off the tip-up spools, I counted 12 turns back onto the spools before I set, thinking this enough to keep the shiner off bottom. For two tip-ups, no. Shiners came up with a little mud slime on scales. Could have been from a thin layer on rocks, but the thought of soft bottom really turned me off. So did the shiners' ineffectiveness for the rigs' not having been raised enough.

Right when I had got on the ice hauling my gear, I was informed of two flags right there at the primitive launch. Were they rainbows or browns? Mike told me about a brace of five-pound pickerel caught in the same spot, 2010.

Round Valley Reservoir Ice Eight Inches Thick

First time I've ice fished the reservoir, cut eight inches of ice and got skunked, but had a good time as always. I decided to place a tip-up right on my favorite spot shore-bound, and trail a line of the four additional out into deeper water, the deepest I fished about 30 or 35 feet.

I got there the same time another guy walked out with not much more than a jigging rod and a split bar. He came back with a 20-inch laker a half hour before I retrieved my gear.

"45 to 70 feet deep," he said. "I've caught them as deep as a 150 feet." I forgot to clarify his point--under ice or during summer 150 feet deep?

He used a Kastmaster, same lure Matt and I tried on lakers in Maine, and what I'll use next week if I go.

I wanted to sit in my car today, not that it was cold, but for old time's sake open water fishing. I'll try to venture way out there yet.

A lot of lakers get caught. Heard of a six-pound brown. Haven't heard of any bass or pickerel, besides in the pond. That's a curiosity, since a lot of bass are in the reservoir, but everyone goes for trout and mostly further out.

River Dam Removal and Restoration for Improved Fisheries

River dam removal and in-channel restoration enhances fisheries

I wrote this piece for my Recorder Newspapers column last year.

          51 dams were deconstructed in 2013 through a nationwide movement to return rivers to free, flourishing flows. Here in the Highlands, The Musconetcong River Partnership won the 2012 Presidential Coastal America Award for removal of Musconetcong River dams. The Partnership is a team of agencies, organizations, and individuals, including New Jersey Trout Unlimited, the Musconetcong Watershed Association, American Rivers, NJDEP-Division of Fish & Wildlife, US Fish & Wildlife Service, and many others, all honored by the Office of the President of the United States.

          While the Musconetcong is getting the most attention through a process ancillary to dam removal—in-channel restoration—continuing this year, efforts in New Jersey to improve rivers aren’t limited to the Highlands. Somerset County’s Raritan River has had three dams removed, and soon the Millstone River will flow freely from the dam at Carnegie Lake in Princeton to the Raritan. Trout are a concern in the Highlands, but these three rivers share shad and herring in common as a migratory possibility. In fact, shad and herring have been videoed at the Raritan in recent years. Remaining are two Raritan dams: the 1995 Island Farm Weir constructed with fish ladder and video devices just below the Millstone confluence, and the Headgates Dam, located a short way below the South and North Branch Raritan Confluence by Old York Road in the northernmost reach of Duke Island Park. The Millstone River awaits the removal of Blackwell’s Mills Dam well upstream of the town of Millstone possibly this summer. The Weston Causeway Dam at Manville will go sometime soon. Both Millstone River dams are low head varieties, but do obstruct the migration of fish.

          Two of the remaining dams on the Musconetcong River are anything but low head. The Hughesville Dam—expected to be deconstructed in 2015—is 10 feet high, the Warren Glen Dam an enormous 35 ½ feet tall. The latter will be an extremely difficult project, but Trout Unlimited Musconetcong Coordinator, Brian Cowden, is confident that The Musconetcong River Restoration Partnership will pull it off.

          “We’re talking about multiple millions of dollars, and where will that money come from?” Cowden said. More daunting than money, perhaps, is dealing with the sedimentary results of (?) years of the river gorge being dammed—too many tons of mud to guess the number. “Removing the concrete is easy. How do we get that sediment out of there, and where do we put it?”

          I’m sure ways will be found, since the political will behind the project is powerful.    

          “Everyone in the partnership wants that dam gone, including the owners,” Cowden said. “That’s gonna clean up the Musky Gorge for trout fishing. It’s also going to be good for kayakers and canoers. That habitat is phenomenal, and significantly more water will be flowing through than the Ken Lockwood Gorge. Over time, sediment has settled over those beautiful boulders at the river’s bottom behind that dam, and this will renew the gorge as it naturally was.”

          At present, more than four miles of the Musconetcong between Finesville and the Delaware River have been opened and flow without obstruction. Six dams have been taken out, considering that the Partnership’s Riegelsville project involved two solid wood coffer dams and a hand built stone dam. Gruendyke Mill Dam, Seber Dam, and the Finesville Dam are also gone. Removal of the Bloomsbury Dam is under consideration, but Saxton Falls—way upstream above Hackettstown in Stephen’s State Park—is not a concern.

          “That dam is part of the State Park System. We’re not even targeting that. Our focus is downstream,” Cowden said.

          When Bloomsbury Dam goes, shad will have a long, free flowing revitalized river to travel and spawn well upstream. Wild trout will respond with a healthier population to increased oxygen, lower water temperatures, and better insect hatches. And river ecology is also improved by in-channel restoration.

          Trout Unlimited has been overseeing restoration efforts on the Musconetcong. This year, 1/3^rd  mile of the Point Mountain Trout Conservation Area, a full mile of the Wattle’s Tract, 1/3^rd mile at Asbury, and a section at Beatty Farm, as well as a half mile of tributary West Portal Brook, will be shaped into environmentally sound configurations. Channels are narrowed where they become too shallow and wide, because increased run-off from impervious surfaces like parking lots homogenize the river bed. Pools are dug, boulders added, and point bars shaped, all to keep the river flowing strong, transporting sediment, and producing more trout in these enhanced habitats.

          While the river is spring fed, trout generally reproduce in protected feeder streams, which tend to carry more spring water by volume. Nevertheless, the long term effect of restored habitat is likely to increase trout numbers, because offspring will find fit places to mature.