Trout Just Got Stocked
Based on all of my past experience, trout should have been available in this stretch, but changes in the expected make it interesting … which is why I’m glad I’m blogging on that day, this past Thursday, at the AT&T stretch of the North Branch Raritan—just stocked on Tuesday, October 13.
Any There?
I first took Maureen to a spot along a productive stretch (AT&T, possibly, I don’t know, by naming it, the state will see we’re still taking interest and stock it well) where I expected to see trout she could cast to. Nothing. Someone on my phone said something about the rivers being stocking the next week. I went a relative few paces downstream to check out the shadows under the bridge, and there I encountered someone else fishing. I hadn’t seen him.
“Hey,” I said.
“How’re you doing?”
“Did they stock?” (Any there?)
“Yeah,” he said, “I caught one.”
“Good to hear,” I said, “thanks.”
The fallen tree is off to the right of where Maureen is standing.
Good Level
The river’s flowing at a good level, maybe a little low, but not bad, tannins having leached in from the fallen leaves getting soaked. I took Maureen upstream and started spotting fish, realizing that with waders on, I could probably catch a few.
As I feared, the tree in the water along the bank completely sealed out the trout from fishing with shoes on.
Almost.
Maureen cast at the stump-end of the tree, and I pointed out to her that a trout poked upstream of it a little.
We hung out there about an hour trying to get one of the trout doing that to hit. A sucker came upstream of it, too, but I could see clearly what was what.
“You can fish,” she said at one point. I took her up on it, and thereon I kept working my jig at the edge of that stump. I did manage to rouse two trout. Better than nothing.
I expected this stretch and upstream to be full of trout willing to hit. I really don’t believe it was full of trout at all.
Miller Lane
I’ve done well at the Miller Lane stretch ever since 2022, so naturally, I thought we’d catch some here. At first I felt surprised no one else fished here, all the more reason to feel confident. But Maureen began casting, putting her jig—she got great distance—where a trout should have grabbed it. Soon, I was casting downstream.
The water was clear. As I say, not terribly low, but pretty much so. I always used to see trout.
I cast upstream, too. We must have fished an hour. We saw no trout, got no hits.
“The signs are posted to the trees on the way in,” Maureen said.
I heard something good size violently break water downstream, turned and saw the frothy surface. I used the rod I had lent to Maureen, which is 5.6 feet. The one I normally use is 4.6. I was just able to put the jig beyond where the fish broke with the longer reach, but nothing hit.
Loki the black Lab was with us, eating the offal from someone’s catch. So, they must have stocked. I wonder how many, compared to previous years. The same?
I reminded Maureen of the pickerel she caught though the ice 11 years ago. It’s a disappointment we caught nothing on this day, but I never said we certainly would, and she understood the same.
Nice to be out there. Good conversation, too, but I’ll spare you all that.
I’m looking forward to catching trout this late fall and winter.