Hole is Bigger than I Recall

The hole at Higginsville is bigger than I remembered. It made me realize all of my fall and winter trout have come from shallows. Years ago, a friend and I canoed here from Three Bridges. Underneath the bridge I photographed, the water is about 10 feet deep. 

This is a great hole for late fall/winter/early spring smallmouth bass. If you don't mind exchanging a day's pay for all the jigs you would lose to jagged rocks on the bottom. Actually, the way to go would be drop-shotting live shiners. Maybe small shiners, because you won't be hauling out one four-pounder after another. Good luck getting a single nine-incher, really, but smallmouths do head for the holes as it gets cold. Also, if you would try for them, make sure the line attaching the sinker to a small swivel is much lighter than the mainline and line to the hook. (Buy sinkers at discount price.)

I would have done better with at least 1/8 ounce, 3/16 even better. Not that I would have caught anything, but it would have been a better possibility, swimming the jig right over those rocks at bottom.

I wondered if the spot even got stocked. There is a Fish & Wildlife trout stocking poster, but it didn't seem quite as fresh and up-to-date as the one I saw at the North Branch a little later this afternoon when I was about to begin fishing in the rain. Higginsville is a lot of water volume per the amount of trout that get stocked in the fall, compared to shallow areas. 

Trout Story Nearly 13 Years Old

 

Persistence Pays Off with a Trout

I began fishing at Three Bridges, where I wondered if I'd have time to try Stanton. I fished a black maribou jig and didn't get a hit. Packing my trunk, I realized I had to make a decision. It was 2:15. Round Valley Recreation Area through the main gate would close at 4:00. Either I would drive straight there for a little over an hour of photography, or I could fish Stanton. I decided on Stanton. I had enjoyed myself trying to catch some of the fall stockers, and the last photography session at Round Valley hadn't been very productive...I knew it was a foregone conclusion it wouldn't be today, either. 

That's when I realized I could go to the main launch area and do photography there after 4:00. I hadn't done that in a long while.

So on to Stanton. When I got down by the water, I realized I had conflated Stanton with the deep water at Higginsville. Here at Stanton the water was very shallow under the bridge, upstream a hundred yards, and downstream of it. So after doing the casting to figure all that out, I got on the trail and headed downstream a couple hundred yards or more. 

I realized in the middle of things how fortunate I am to make successful efforts. On the way here, I had passed a gas station advertising $3.09/gallon. The next business down was a station offering $3.19/gallon, which I refused to do. This was Highway 31 in Flemington where traffic was heavy making it impossible to make a U'ey. So I took a right turn off the highway just past the second gas station, winging it, wondering where the road led. I was able to turn right, behind that second station, and emerge back at 31, where I just turned left despite yellow marks in the middle...quickly replaced by left-turn arrows. I made a left into the gas station where I wanted to go. 

Figure it out as you go. Don't tell yourself you won't. Don't find a convenient way out.

I was already feeling the day well done before I hooked the trout. The water there was no more than waist deep. Maybe thigh deep. I netted the fish, photographed it, turned my attention to more. After two or three casts, I hooked up, the trout coming off as it surfaced. A solid hit on the next cast prompted more, and though nothing else happened besides my spotting a trout headed past me at a high rate of speed, I felt fired up and willing to fish hard.

It's a matter of acquiring the stuff of the earth. By exercising the trout quest. Experience processes being, and done well, benevolence enters the world where it was lacking before you released it.

An amazing thing: I got to the Round Valley ramp area when light was on the point I had in mind. On that point just so. Just enough to cover it like the area of a RAW image in Lightroom masked perfectly from the edges and illumined. Minutes later, after I got a photo with light on that point, it was shadowing over.   

Round Valley with the point in the upper right third shadowing over. 

Three Bridges Bass Attempt

 

Black Jig Over White

Never underestimate a black jig. Trout followed it my first two casts, and since the sun was out, I decided to switch out to a white/flashabou jig before I threw another. I took maybe a dozen casts and aroused no interest in that jig whatsoever that I saw. I tied the black jig back on. I did work my way upstream along the stretch, testing new waders for leaks, before I returned to where I began and soon caught the 16-inch rainbow I photographed. Soon thereafter, I cast short to a trout that had followed and taken station in view, lifting the jig off bottom and letting it drop back, catching the first trout I've hooked that way. All of the others have hit as I retrieve the jig at a moderate to quick rate.

I tried another spot in the area, where I caught one last November, and got no interest from any fish I could detect. Then I returned to my car and drove to another area that gets stocked where I've never fished. After finding stretches that seemed too shallow, though I tried them, I walked maybe three football field lengths downstream, where I found at least three feet of fairly swift water. 

I fished the jig carefully and repeatedly, finally hooking another trout of about 14 inches, and when I unhooked it, I understood I had hooked the fish well. I had the two previous, also. A barb doesn't seem to help as often as it might. 

On the Black Jig

New Jersey Trout Fishing

 

Could Have Put the Fish Off

According to the U.S. Geological Survey gauge, the Passaic River level rose only a foot or so where we were going, and when we got there, Oliver Round and I found the current was heavy and the water stained but not muddy. Oliver tried topwater and I fished a jerkbait, before Oliver switched out to a Senko and then buzzbait, and I took the jerkbait off and snapped on a white spinnerbait. 

We hiked way back there, seeing some frogs along the way, listening to insects, probably footing a total of three miles or so round trip. I put casts where I wanted them to go. Very persistently, I fished along the bank where usually there was several feet of water or so, right into and next to any wood I could see in the water, behind other current breaks, shallows created by the river's high level, and even mid-river I found there's a lot of stuff on the bottom that can serve as cover. Oliver hit his targets, too, but neither of us got hit once. 

"You don't think it's because it's fished out?" Oliver asked.

"No. The fish are there."

I had no answer at the time as to why they weren't hitting. Earlier on, I'd pointed out that the water can't be colder than the 50's. We just got through a heat wave with temps in the 80's, and since then, it's still been in the upper 50's afternoons and low 50's at night. But from the perspective of having lain back to take a mental snapshot of that whole situation, it was easy to see the water temp--especially with the heavy rain overnight being on the chilly side--must have taken a sudden dip. It could have put the fish off.

Round Valley Reservoir Eels  

Back at the Jigging

Back at the jigging, I found the river lower and clearer than last week. Seemed to be just as many trout, but not as interested in the jig. A lot of skittish behavior and trout still swimming in aimless directions. I imagine that sort of confusion will end by wintertime. I once saw an 18-inch rainbow holding over from the fall stocking around April 1st, a day or two before the stocking prior to Opening Day, and it held position in the current like any wild or native trout would.

Also, I used a black jig. That's the only trout that struck, pictured above. Like yesterday, sunny today. I had ordered a white VMC maribou jig with flashibou last night, but it hadn't been delivered. If anyone knows of jigs with flashibou tied in for less than $7.50 apiece--which seems very expensive to me (including shipping)--please comment to let me know.  

Productive Trout Jigging

Hit the river for half hour or 45 minutes, casting a black maribou jig, 1/16th ounce, on four-and-a-half foot St. Croix ultralight. That rod I used for the first time. I believe it casts the jig a lot shorter than the five-and-a-half-foot ultralight I made from a St. Croix blank.

Saw a lot of trout by use of polarizers. I noticed that some were more aggressive than others. At first, trout would chase the jig but not hit. Steady retrieve with rod jerks. Then I went upstream and two trout swooped on it. They wouldn't commit. Their noses got within millimeters of the hook. It's amazing to see how discerning they can be. 

I cast upstream and got a definite bump. I saw the trout turn, too. Pretty soon, I got absolutely slammed. The trout measured only 12 1/2 inches long, but chunky. 

Went upstream further to find nothing but water that was too shallow. And after all the rain we recently had.

Went back down. There were two guys just a little downstream staying in place. Learned they'd caught none. I found trout much less interested than when I first cast to them upon arrival. I went downstream and found an open space where I could cast from high up on the bank...and descend to the river edge if necessary. Became necessary. I had got bump when I saw that fish turn, too, and more close follows. Finally, wham! 

That one measured 14 inches.

New Jersey Trout Fishing

What is It with Fish Limits?

After a couple of cancellations due to weather, I got to fish Barnegat Inlet with Fred today, seeking that elusive first take-home tog. I caught a 17-incher in June 2022, out of season. Today, my first hookup felt like a really nice fish, which I managed to keep out of the rocks and bring up on the jetty. Measured 16 inches, so it went into the bag. I raised issue with Fred about replacing it with larger later on, and he reminded me that we're allowed one apiece, so it's no problem. I hoped to hook a four- or five-pounder but I was just dreaming.

I hooked some nice fish I lost, but four or five pounds? 

We caught 30 or 40 tog, I'm guessing that's about what it was. A lot of tog. For a species as tightly protected as this one is--but what species isn't anymore, even bluefish are limited to three, while on the freshwater side of rules and regulations you can wipe out a bass pond in a week--I couldn't help but laugh at the government. What do I know? Well, hits from tog on every cast. I know that much. 

Fred had a hell of a day. How can you blame a guy who wants to bring dinner home? And so much better than cashing out at the supermarket. Tog after tog he caught measured 14 inches or better. One of them measured 14 7/8 inches. Seven or eight of  them were 14 1/2 inches. 

Fred's friend Jimmy

Fred's astonishment at measuring a 14 7/8-inch tog.

Inlet