Outdoors: Promising signs for freshwater fishing in N.J.
Freshwater fishing's in full swing in the Garden State, a good sign of what's ahead if we don't have a drought.
Trout up to five pounds were caught in last Sunday's contest at Lake Hopatcong, well-stocked streams were reported last week, walleyes, hybrid bass, channel cats and all the usual suspects are hitting in North Jersey waters and stripers are still active in Raritan Bay. Shad fishing's over, but striper and smallmouth fishing's improving in the Delaware. Fishing without a license in Pennsylvania will be OK next Sunday, and fishing licenses and trout stamps won't be needed to fish in our state on June 10-11. That 22-pound lake trout caught by a nine-year-old May 12 in Round Valley Reservoir was the biggest trout ever caught by angler that young in New Jersey.
The end of spring trout stocking of streams last week doesn't end stream fishing, it means there will be less people fishing for them, like Wednesday morning on the South Branch in the Ken Lockwood Gorge, where I thought fish would be spooked before my 7:15 a.m. arrival. Nobody was fishing the upper end; in fact, I didn't see another fisherman until 8:15, left at 9 after catching and releasing 18, nothing bigger than 14 inches.
Two big-trout specialists did well last week, when Gary Kreckie took home a 24-inch brown, and threw back two 20-inchers on the South Branch and Dave Barrett caught a fat 22-inch brown in the Pequest. It weighed an even five pounds at a sports shop in Bound Brook. Gary used a Blue Fox and a silver Mepps, Dave caught his on a rainbow-colored Rapala and my little ones bit on a Monti, a gold-bladed spinner with black and red spots. Neither wind nor intermittent rain kept fishermen from catching nice trout in the Knee Deep Club's Lake Hopatcong Trout Contest last Sunday. Bill Schmidt of Flemington won $592 for a 5-pound 2-ounce brown; Sandy McKoo, also from Flemington, $356 as runner-up for a 3-pound-8 rainbow, and Kenny Jastrzebski of Hackettstown got $$237 for a brown an ounce lighter. The first two trout hit gold Phoebes. Tim Clancy of Knee Deep said Bill and Sandy had their Phoebes gold-plated with 24-karat by a friend in the plating business.
Laurie Murphy of Dow's on Nolan's Point reported a nine-pound hybrid b [no swearing please] caught by Kenny Stelmack of Hackettstown, an 8-pound-8 hybrid by Steven Brandon, and a 10-pound-4 channel cat Charlie McBride caught on chicken livers by Brady's Bridge. She said walleyes are being caught on herring and lures. John Rogalo of Stanhope boated a 7-pound-12 walleye. Shadman John Punola of Madison caught no shad in the Delaware, and I couldn't find any others caught last week. He did catch smallmouths and saw stripers.
Bear sighting
Daily Record Managing Editor Jack Bowie saw a bear in Morristown Wednesday morning, eating birdseed it got by knocking down a feeder off Chestnut Street. Jack was coming down the hill through the woods from Fort Nonsense, about two blocks behind the Morris County Courthouse. It wasn't in Zone 7, where cops are allowed to shoot bears. East of Route 287 from the New York border to Madison Avenue is in 7. Back in 1996, when state biologists were allowed to talk about bears, the estimated population was about 500.
Ted Nugent speaks
Joe Crouch of Andover, a friend of Ted Nugent's, said at last weekend's NRA Conference, Nuge told him about an interview he had with a French reporter, who asked how he thinks a hunted deer feels.
"Ted replied that a deer thinks about three things: eating, mating and finding a place to run away and hide, just like the French."
Misleading video
Some reporters were fooled in Trenton last week when an anti-hunting advocate showed a video and said pheasants were drugged and kicked before being flushed and shot by some bowhunters shown high-fiving after downing flying pheasants. Happy hunters may be more than some nonhunters can handle, but there was no drugging, nothing illegal.
It wasn't my kind of hunting, but if I could hit a flying bird with an arrow, I'd also high-five.
Pheasants, like chickens, are raised to be killed.
Cougars on the prowl
Last month four New Jersey sightings of cougars were reported, including one in Chester Township, but Division of Fish and Wildlife officials said no evidence was provided. Meanwhile, in Michigan, the first peer-reviewed solid evidence of cougars outside Florida and east of the Mississippi has been documented in the American Midland Naturalist, a scientific journal.
Michigan's Department of Natural Resources has consistently said there weren't any cougars there, but DNA samples of scats(feces) found 10 positives came from eight of the big cats.
The DNR last week said there still wasn't evidence of a breeding population, despite the paper by a couple of PhD.s, signs on trees warning of cougars at a national park and numerous sighting reports.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060528/SPORTS/605280332/1002
The Courier News version:
Rivers have enough trout and water for good fishing this weekend, thanks to rain that was missing for most of the spring.
North Jersey streams are in better shape than they were at the start of the trout-stocking season that ended last week, Round Valley Reservoir is 5 percent fuller than it was a month ago, Spruce Run is running over and Lake Hopatcong's level is about normal.
The South Branch of the Raritan was in great shape last Wednesday when trout outnumbered fishermen on the day after stocking and the river was fine below the Hamden pumping station where water was sent up to Round Valley from April 21-May 17. Summer's heat and dry spells can be tough on our streams, reservoirs and lakes, so anglers should enjoy them while they can.
The daily trout limit goes down to four in most places Thursday.
When we got to the Ken Lockwood Gorge at 7:15 a.m. on the day after Tuesday's stocking, no cars were parked. Nobody was fishing the upper end, where another angler didn't wade into sight until 8:15. He was the only one before we left at 9 after catching at least 18 trout -- all browns except for two brookies -- and missing or losing about half that many, all fine looking, but none bigger than 14 inches.
No keepers.
Two big-trout specialists said they did well in and above the gorge. They sure did. Gary Kreckie said he kept a 4-pound brown, threw back two nearly that big and "stopped counting at 30" that hit wet flies and spinning lures in the gorge.
Dave Barrett of Somerville, who weighed in a 5-pound Pequest River brown at Efinger's on Tuesday, caught others above Hoffman's Bridge. Both guys throw back most fish.
Trout up to 5 pounds were caught in last Sunday's contest at Lake Hopatcong. Walleyes, hybrid bass, channel cats and all the usual suspects are hitting in North Jersey waters, and stripers are still active in Raritan Bay and along the shore.
Shad fishing's over, but striper and smallmouth fishing are improving in the Delaware.
Largemouth and smallmouth season opens statewide June 16. Fishing without a license in Pennsylvania will be OK next Sunday.
Neither wind nor intermittent rain kept fishermen from catching nice trout in the Knee Deep Club's Lake Hopatcong Trout Contest last Sunday. Bill Schmidt of Flemington won $592 for a 5-pound, 2-ounce brown; Sandy McKoo, also from Flemington, earned $356 as runner-up for a 3-pound-8 rainbow, and Kenny Jastrzebski of Hackettstown got $237 for a brown an ounce lighter. The first two trout hit gold Phoebes. Tim Clancy of Knee Deep said Bill and Sandy had their Phoebes gold-plated with 24-karat by a friend in the plating business.
Joe Crouch of Andover, a friend of Ted Nugent's, said at last weekend's National Rifle Association conference Nugent told him about an interview he had with a French reporter, who asked how he thinks a hunted deer feels. "Ted replied that a deer thinks about three things: eating, mating and finding a place to run away and hide, just like the French."
Some reporters were fooled in Trenton last week when an antihunter got headlines after he showed a video and said pheasants were drugged and kicked before being flushed and shot by some bowhunters shown high-fiving after downing flying pheasants.
Happy hunters might be more than some nonhunters can handle, but there was no drugging, nothing illegal. It wasn't my kind of hunting, but if I could hit a flying bird with an arrow, I'd be high-fiving, too. Pheasants, like chickens, are raised to be killed and eaten. Buffalo wings don't grow on trees.
I saw my first black bear this spring, but it wasn't nice. The young bear, about 100 pounds, probably born the January before last, had been smacked by a vehicle and was dead on the shoulder of Route 287 southbound, milepost 25, Friday morning.
Two live ones were seen in Morristown: one two blocks behind the county courthouse, eating seeds from a bird feeder it knocked down, the other photographed in a tree, trying to get at a hanging bird feeder.
And in Montville, schoolchildren were warned about bears in the area.
Young male bears aren't wandering all over because they're hungry, they're in something biologists know as dispersal, overflowing from an area where there are too many of them, chased by adult male bears that don't want mating competition. We've had only a preview; many more bears will get into people trouble next month.
http://c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060528/SPORTS01/605280396/1011
Freshwater fishing's in full swing in the Garden State, a good sign of what's ahead if we don't have a drought.
Trout up to five pounds were caught in last Sunday's contest at Lake Hopatcong, well-stocked streams were reported last week, walleyes, hybrid bass, channel cats and all the usual suspects are hitting in North Jersey waters and stripers are still active in Raritan Bay. Shad fishing's over, but striper and smallmouth fishing's improving in the Delaware. Fishing without a license in Pennsylvania will be OK next Sunday, and fishing licenses and trout stamps won't be needed to fish in our state on June 10-11. That 22-pound lake trout caught by a nine-year-old May 12 in Round Valley Reservoir was the biggest trout ever caught by angler that young in New Jersey.
The end of spring trout stocking of streams last week doesn't end stream fishing, it means there will be less people fishing for them, like Wednesday morning on the South Branch in the Ken Lockwood Gorge, where I thought fish would be spooked before my 7:15 a.m. arrival. Nobody was fishing the upper end; in fact, I didn't see another fisherman until 8:15, left at 9 after catching and releasing 18, nothing bigger than 14 inches.
Two big-trout specialists did well last week, when Gary Kreckie took home a 24-inch brown, and threw back two 20-inchers on the South Branch and Dave Barrett caught a fat 22-inch brown in the Pequest. It weighed an even five pounds at a sports shop in Bound Brook. Gary used a Blue Fox and a silver Mepps, Dave caught his on a rainbow-colored Rapala and my little ones bit on a Monti, a gold-bladed spinner with black and red spots. Neither wind nor intermittent rain kept fishermen from catching nice trout in the Knee Deep Club's Lake Hopatcong Trout Contest last Sunday. Bill Schmidt of Flemington won $592 for a 5-pound 2-ounce brown; Sandy McKoo, also from Flemington, $356 as runner-up for a 3-pound-8 rainbow, and Kenny Jastrzebski of Hackettstown got $$237 for a brown an ounce lighter. The first two trout hit gold Phoebes. Tim Clancy of Knee Deep said Bill and Sandy had their Phoebes gold-plated with 24-karat by a friend in the plating business.
Laurie Murphy of Dow's on Nolan's Point reported a nine-pound hybrid b [no swearing please] caught by Kenny Stelmack of Hackettstown, an 8-pound-8 hybrid by Steven Brandon, and a 10-pound-4 channel cat Charlie McBride caught on chicken livers by Brady's Bridge. She said walleyes are being caught on herring and lures. John Rogalo of Stanhope boated a 7-pound-12 walleye. Shadman John Punola of Madison caught no shad in the Delaware, and I couldn't find any others caught last week. He did catch smallmouths and saw stripers.
Bear sighting
Daily Record Managing Editor Jack Bowie saw a bear in Morristown Wednesday morning, eating birdseed it got by knocking down a feeder off Chestnut Street. Jack was coming down the hill through the woods from Fort Nonsense, about two blocks behind the Morris County Courthouse. It wasn't in Zone 7, where cops are allowed to shoot bears. East of Route 287 from the New York border to Madison Avenue is in 7. Back in 1996, when state biologists were allowed to talk about bears, the estimated population was about 500.
Ted Nugent speaks
Joe Crouch of Andover, a friend of Ted Nugent's, said at last weekend's NRA Conference, Nuge told him about an interview he had with a French reporter, who asked how he thinks a hunted deer feels.
"Ted replied that a deer thinks about three things: eating, mating and finding a place to run away and hide, just like the French."
Misleading video
Some reporters were fooled in Trenton last week when an anti-hunting advocate showed a video and said pheasants were drugged and kicked before being flushed and shot by some bowhunters shown high-fiving after downing flying pheasants. Happy hunters may be more than some nonhunters can handle, but there was no drugging, nothing illegal.
It wasn't my kind of hunting, but if I could hit a flying bird with an arrow, I'd also high-five.
Pheasants, like chickens, are raised to be killed.
Cougars on the prowl
Last month four New Jersey sightings of cougars were reported, including one in Chester Township, but Division of Fish and Wildlife officials said no evidence was provided. Meanwhile, in Michigan, the first peer-reviewed solid evidence of cougars outside Florida and east of the Mississippi has been documented in the American Midland Naturalist, a scientific journal.
Michigan's Department of Natural Resources has consistently said there weren't any cougars there, but DNA samples of scats(feces) found 10 positives came from eight of the big cats.
The DNR last week said there still wasn't evidence of a breeding population, despite the paper by a couple of PhD.s, signs on trees warning of cougars at a national park and numerous sighting reports.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060528/SPORTS/605280332/1002
The Courier News version:
Rivers have enough trout and water for good fishing this weekend, thanks to rain that was missing for most of the spring.
North Jersey streams are in better shape than they were at the start of the trout-stocking season that ended last week, Round Valley Reservoir is 5 percent fuller than it was a month ago, Spruce Run is running over and Lake Hopatcong's level is about normal.
The South Branch of the Raritan was in great shape last Wednesday when trout outnumbered fishermen on the day after stocking and the river was fine below the Hamden pumping station where water was sent up to Round Valley from April 21-May 17. Summer's heat and dry spells can be tough on our streams, reservoirs and lakes, so anglers should enjoy them while they can.
The daily trout limit goes down to four in most places Thursday.
When we got to the Ken Lockwood Gorge at 7:15 a.m. on the day after Tuesday's stocking, no cars were parked. Nobody was fishing the upper end, where another angler didn't wade into sight until 8:15. He was the only one before we left at 9 after catching at least 18 trout -- all browns except for two brookies -- and missing or losing about half that many, all fine looking, but none bigger than 14 inches.
No keepers.
Two big-trout specialists said they did well in and above the gorge. They sure did. Gary Kreckie said he kept a 4-pound brown, threw back two nearly that big and "stopped counting at 30" that hit wet flies and spinning lures in the gorge.
Dave Barrett of Somerville, who weighed in a 5-pound Pequest River brown at Efinger's on Tuesday, caught others above Hoffman's Bridge. Both guys throw back most fish.
Trout up to 5 pounds were caught in last Sunday's contest at Lake Hopatcong. Walleyes, hybrid bass, channel cats and all the usual suspects are hitting in North Jersey waters, and stripers are still active in Raritan Bay and along the shore.
Shad fishing's over, but striper and smallmouth fishing are improving in the Delaware.
Largemouth and smallmouth season opens statewide June 16. Fishing without a license in Pennsylvania will be OK next Sunday.
Neither wind nor intermittent rain kept fishermen from catching nice trout in the Knee Deep Club's Lake Hopatcong Trout Contest last Sunday. Bill Schmidt of Flemington won $592 for a 5-pound, 2-ounce brown; Sandy McKoo, also from Flemington, earned $356 as runner-up for a 3-pound-8 rainbow, and Kenny Jastrzebski of Hackettstown got $237 for a brown an ounce lighter. The first two trout hit gold Phoebes. Tim Clancy of Knee Deep said Bill and Sandy had their Phoebes gold-plated with 24-karat by a friend in the plating business.
Joe Crouch of Andover, a friend of Ted Nugent's, said at last weekend's National Rifle Association conference Nugent told him about an interview he had with a French reporter, who asked how he thinks a hunted deer feels. "Ted replied that a deer thinks about three things: eating, mating and finding a place to run away and hide, just like the French."
Some reporters were fooled in Trenton last week when an antihunter got headlines after he showed a video and said pheasants were drugged and kicked before being flushed and shot by some bowhunters shown high-fiving after downing flying pheasants.
Happy hunters might be more than some nonhunters can handle, but there was no drugging, nothing illegal. It wasn't my kind of hunting, but if I could hit a flying bird with an arrow, I'd be high-fiving, too. Pheasants, like chickens, are raised to be killed and eaten. Buffalo wings don't grow on trees.
I saw my first black bear this spring, but it wasn't nice. The young bear, about 100 pounds, probably born the January before last, had been smacked by a vehicle and was dead on the shoulder of Route 287 southbound, milepost 25, Friday morning.
Two live ones were seen in Morristown: one two blocks behind the county courthouse, eating seeds from a bird feeder it knocked down, the other photographed in a tree, trying to get at a hanging bird feeder.
And in Montville, schoolchildren were warned about bears in the area.
Young male bears aren't wandering all over because they're hungry, they're in something biologists know as dispersal, overflowing from an area where there are too many of them, chased by adult male bears that don't want mating competition. We've had only a preview; many more bears will get into people trouble next month.
http://c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060528/SPORTS01/605280396/1011