<b>NEW YORK</b>

Jay Peck from <b>Jay Peck Guide Service</b> concentrated on brown trout fishing on western New York’s rivers and creeks, he said. This is the time of year for that, and he fishes for them on waters including the Genesee and Oak Orchard rivers in the Rochester area, and the angling was good. The water ran low to medium low in the rivers, and just low, or skinny, and clear in the creeks. Rain fell, but not enough to raise the rivers and creeks. But good runs of browns swam them, especially the rivers. Trips with Jay fly-rodded the browns that probably averaged 6 pounds. One weighed 15 pounds and was 30 inches on Monday. The tremendous size of the trout is the reason anglers fish for them. The browns grow that large because they come from Lake Ontario, where they gorge on food. The fish migrate to the rivers and creeks to spawn in autumn, and remain there until late winter or early spring, because foraging is good in the rivers and streams then. The trout feed on things including eggs and gizzard shad in the rivers and streams. Jay’s trips caught on eggs, and the flies were size 10, or small, because of the low, clear water. But a few of the trout were spawned out, and started to be landed on streamer flies. When fishing eggs, sometimes burnt orange color caught best. At other times, bright orange or Oregon cheese color worked best. Temperatures that change during this time of year will affect the fishing. During cold snaps, the angling can slow. When days turn warm again, the catches can pick back up. A cold front at the end of this week will drop water temperatures. Water recently was in the mid to low 40 degrees in creeks, and Jay saw temps as low as 36 in creeks in early mornings. Steelheads also migrated the Genesee, but the rest of the waters held mostly browns. Jay specializes in fly-fishing and catch and release, but offers fishing with conventional tackle with his other guides. The 15-pound brown is an example of why Jay prefers to release. That fish was probably 5 years old and probably spawned twice. If the trout is released, it can be landed multiple times. Jay’s other guides are fishing Salmon River, farther east in New York, for steelheads. The Salmon ran low at 350 CFS, like before, and the steelheading was good, but technically demanding. The Salmon and all the rivers, really, are pressured this time of year. Slugs of salmon still spawned in the Salmon River, so eggs caught steelheads on the upper river. Steelheads tend to hold in the upper river, and travel the lower river to reach the upper. On the lower river, swinging streamer flies or wooly buggers caught well, because the steelheads were on the move in that stretch. Salmon River’s steelheading will be affected by weather, like the brown trout fishing is, this season. If weather suddenly turns cold, that can slow steelheading, and vice versa. Steelhead migrate up the rivers in fall, winter there, and spawn in the rivers in spring. They return to the lake for summer, and don’t die after spawning, like salmon do.

Salmon River’s steelhead started to keep biting a little later in the morning than before, or the catches lasted longer in the day, said Capt. Rick Miick from <b>Dreamcatcher Guide Service</b>. Weather was cooling, and had been 50 or 52 degrees, though days reached 63 in a warm spell this week. Today is supposed to reach 55 but plummet to 32. Highs are supposed to be 36 or 38 degrees in the next days. The fish bit in the fast water, in the bubbles at the heads of pools, and not in the holes, pretty much throughout the length of the river. Rick’s trips fished about 5 miles per day on the drift boat. The steelheads grabbed 6- or 8-millimeter glow-roe trout beads at first during the day. As the sun became higher, they swiped blue egg sacks or green or chartreuse beads. Rick also fly fishes, and a buddy scored good fly-rodding for steelheads on the lower river. But steelheads could be fly-caught throughout the river. Center-pin fishing is also a specialty with Rick. The steelheads were 8 to 10 pounds, and one weighed 15 with Rick on Tuesday. Another about 15 pounds was lost on Monday. That’s because light, 4- or 5-pound tippets needed to be fished in the low, clear water. The river ran low, at 335 to 350 CFS, like before. Rick also ran a trip for brown trout in western New York on four or five creeks, from Maxwell Creek to Old Orchard River. The fishing was good, and he runs lots of those trips, maybe not as many recently, because of low water. The trout were hooked on eggs.

<b>NEW JERSEY</b>

<b>North Jersey</b>

Two anglers aboard Friday drop-shotted a few crappies from Greenwood Lake with <b>Live to Fish Guide Service</b> from Montvale, Capt. Dave Vollenweider said. A couple of the fish were large or 1 ¾ to 2 pounds, and the trip’s crappies bit down 25 to 32 feet on 2-inch, white Powerbait minnows. A couple of split shots, and octopus hooks, were used, and the rod tips were twitched to give a little action. The day was windy, and the water was 51 to 52 degrees. The water really cooled, and the lake might’ve turned over. The trip also trolled for muskies, and none bit. That’s not unusual for the fish of 10,000 casts. But musky fishing can be good this season. The large fish just bite in short windows of time. Dave’s reeled in muskies as late as December 6, and he saw an online report about an angler who landed two muskies from Lake Hopatcong recently. An expert whom Dave learned some of his trolling methods from has had four- to six-musky days in November. Another angler is supposed to fish for muskies with Dave this week on Monksville Reservoir. The trip might also fish for crappies.

Trout streams were slowly rising, and rain this season was helping, said Kevin from <b>Ramsey Outdoor</b> in Succasunna. Fly anglers banked the trout on patterns like midges, small blue-winged olives, scuds and Copper Johns. Landlocked salmon were reeled from Lake Aeroflex and Tilcon Lake. Fish that he previously mentioned bit in Lake Hopatcong still did, he said. In the previous report, he said hybrid striped bass and walleyes probably came from the lake. At Ramsey Outdoor in Ramsey, Dave said he’s been fishing for trout, largemouth bass and chain pickerel. The trouting, mostly at Ramapo River, sometimes at Saddle River, was good.  For the trout, Dave fished bloodworms and garden worms on size-1 hooks, drifting them in the current, sometimes with split shots to sink the bait, if the water was deep, sometimes with cork he carries to float them, if the water was shallower. On the Ramapo, all the trout were legal-sized that he hooked, and he released some breeders. All those trout were stocked, but wild brook trout also swim the Ramapo. On the Saddle River, not as many breeders were around, and most of the trout were wild brooks and browns and sometimes wild speckled brooks. For the bass, he fished Scarlet Oak Pond, or hiked up to Bear Swamp, or fished Shepherd Lake, casting top-water lures at twilight. For the pickerel, he threw large, size-4 spinners.

 A few anglers still fished the lake, Laurie from <b>Dow’s Boat Rentals</b> in Lake Hopatcong wrote in an email. They picked perch and pickerel in shallower water and walleyes and hybrid striped bass that were jigged off the points. Not much else happened.

Lots of trout, small ones that were stocked, were angled from Ramapo River, said Nick from <b>Meltzer’s Sporting Goods</b> in Garfield. One customer mostly hooked them on orange Powerbait nuggets. He also pulled smallmouth bass from the river on Mepps spinners. Not a lot was heard from Passaic River, except about a few northern pike taken at Twin Bridges on shiners. Anglers beat hybrid striped bass and walleyes at Lake Hopatcong who Nick has often mentioned previously. They boated the fish on size-9 Rapala Jigging Raps in water 30 to 35 feet deep. Nick expected to walleye fish today with the Jigging Raps and Kastmasters. A buddy’s been a little dialed in on muskies at Monksville Reservoir on cowbell lures. He landed another two recently.

Catfish were yanked from Passaic River, said Cheryl from <b>Fairfield Fishing Tackle</b> in Pine Brook. Nothing was heard about northern pike from the river in past days. Most customers headed to the coast to fish for striped bass from the surf or boats. They had some luck at Long Branch, both from the shore and boats, she believed. One of the anglers joined a party boat trip that cranked in good fishing for the bass toward Long Branch on jigs.

<b>South Jersey</b>

Trout that cruised along the shoreline were banked at Round Valley Reservoir, said Burt from <b>Efinger Sporting Goods</b> in Bound Brook. On trout streams, a couple of customers connected with trout, good catches, at Ken Lockwood Gorge and Musconetcong River at Point Mountain. When Burt last saw trout streams, around Delaware Water Gap, they ran extremely low and clear. How they ran now wasn’t heard, but he suspected the streams weren’t much different currently, because no substantial rain fell in some days. Saltwater anglers sometimes tied into good fishing for striped bass. That seemed to be toward Seaside, a little farther north, and farther north at Sandy Hook. A customer stopped in to look for white rubber shads, because that was all that caught the stripers. Boaters were seen jigging for stripers with metal, and not catching. But the customer and other surf anglers beached the bass on the shads. Efinger ran out of the shads at the moment, and the anglers said all the tackle shops around Sandy Hook did, too. Last year’s striper fishing was all about sand eels. Burt imagined sand eels were still around this year.

Crappie fishing was mentioned a little from Farrington Lake, said Karl from <b>Sportsmen’s Center</b> in Bordentown. Small shiners under floats were fished for the slabs at some of the submerged trees. Chain pickerel were wrestled from the Pine Barrens ponds on large, yellow Roostertails. That was about all that was reported about fishing. Delaware River ran fine or wasn’t’ high or dirty or anything. But nobody talked about fishing the river.

A couple of trout were checked-in from Grenloch Lake, said Ed from <b>Creek Keepers Bait & Tackle</b> in Blackwood. One weighed 3 pounds 9 ounces and was bagged on Powerbait, and the other weighed 2 ½ pounds, and apparently trout started to bite from October’s fall stocking. Waters usually included in the winter trout stocking are Haddon Lake in Audubon and Rowans Pond in Clementon. Those two lakes are usually stocked during Thanksgiving week.

Back to Top