<b>NEW YORK</b>

<b>Salmon River and Western N.Y. Rivers</b>

Trips with <b>Jay Peck Guide Service</b> fished for the big brown trout that migrate to rivers and creeks in western, upstate New York this season, Jay Peck said. The angling was okay, a little spotty, and rain that could raise the low water levels could help. But rain was forecast to begin yesterday, lasting three days, until tomorrow. No large numbers of browns were seen, but whoppers were. The trout landed with Jay included a 17-1/2-pound male and a couple of 18-pound females, and most landed weighed 7 or 8 pounds. The largest browns are usually seen early in the run like now. Later this season, mostly 5- to 7- or 8-pounders will swim the waters, still huge trout. Jay fishes for them toward Rochester at rivers including the Genesee and Oak Orchard and different creeks in the area. The Genesee currently was “a steelhead gig,” Jay said. The Oak Orchard held salmon, steelheads and browns. Different creeks held browns. The browns grow large because they spend summer in Lake Ontario, migrating to rivers and creeks in fall to spawn. They spend winter and early spring in the rivers and creeks, because forage is more abundant there than in the lake that time of year. Jay’s trips fished egg flies for the trout, because eggs filled the water, mostly from salmon that spawned mostly earlier this season in the rivers and creeks. A few salmon still spawned currently. The trips fished smaller egg flies, because of low, clear water, and because many trout saw flies by now. Jay takes advantage of the trout until the rivers and creeks freeze. But steelhead fishing is still available with him, including on the Salmon River, farther east in upstate New York. Jay steelhead fished on the Salmon just before the trout fishing, and will return to steelheading throughout winter on the river. The Salmon is a larger river that never completely freezes, and the steelheading can be world-class in winter there. The Salmon this week ran at 335 cubic feet per second, Jay’s other guides told him. The Salmon could use rain to raise the water level, because though steelheads already swam the Salmon, higher water would cause more to migrate to the river from the lake. The reservoir’s water level was in good shape, so the rain that was currently forecast should enable more water to be released from the dam, raising the Salmon. A fair number of steelheads swam the upper river, and fewer swam the lower. Many anglers fished the upper, and fewer fished the lower. Egg flies caught steelheads well on the upper river. Streamer flies caught on the lower, and began to also catch on the upper. Streamer fishing, casting the fly quartered downstream, swinging the fly across the current, is fun, and attracts strong hits. Steelheads key in on eggs when salmon eggs are abundant during the salmon spawn in fall. Spawning is most common on the upper river, so more eggs fill the water in the upper than downstream. A few salmon still swam the river, but most were spawned out and died. Salmon die in the river after spawning there. Trout and steelheads don’t die after spawning. Steelheads spawn in rivers in spring, but migrate to the rivers from the lake in fall and spend winter in the rivers. Steelheads, like the trout, return to the lake for summer. Jay specializes in fly-fishing and catch-and-release, and books trips that fish with conventional tackle with his other guides. Air temperatures locally fluctuated a lot recently, from the mid-70 degrees on some days to 29 degrees Sunday morning, for instance. But days were probably mostly in the high 40s to low 50s. On days when mornings were frosty, trips waited until later in the day to fish for steelheads that could be sluggish in the chill in mornings. 

<b>NEW JERSEY</b>

<b>North Jersey</b>

Hybrid striped bass fishing was tough on Lake Hopatcong on Thursday with Bryan DeJonge and son from Metuchen aboard, said Capt. Dave Vollenweider from <b>Live to Fish Guide Service</b>. One small hybrid and a bunch of sunnies were landed on chicken livers. A few hybrids were seen caught on other boats, but not the number like before. The previous two trips for hybrids aboard cranked up 18 and 38, respectively. Dave after the current trip returned to the lake, after his anglers left, and reeled up four hybrids, three good-sized to 3 ½ pounds, and one small, around dusk. The day had been warm, almost 80 degrees, maybe a reason the fishing was slow. Weather was cold on the previous two trips. On the current trip, the sky was gray, and misty rain fell, and the lake was 54 to 55 degrees, compared with 57 on the first trip, when 38 were tackled, a couple of weeks ago. Another charter was supposed to fish for hybrids on Hopatcong today aboard, and maybe the fishing will be different, and the day is cooler. Dave planned to bring chicken livers, the best bait lately, but also herring to liveline. Livelined herring often catch them best, though not recently. Dave on Saturday tried for muskies solo on Monksville Reservoir, and a small musky bumped a 10-inch Musky Mania Jake Lure, and wasn’t hooked. He also fished a Musky Innovations Pounder Bulldawg Lure. Monksville was 53 degrees, and Dave would like to do more musky fishing this season. Catching them isn’t easy, but some really big can bite this time of year.

Trout streams began to hold a little more water, because of rain, but still ran low, said Kevin from <b>Ramsey Outdoor</b> in Succasunna. Plenty of stocked trout filled the water, and anglers banked them on worms and small spinners, like sizes 00 or 0, not larger lures like deeper-running Rapalas, because of the low water. Tuesday’s rainstorm probably helped the water levels, but the streams would drop back down. Not much was heard about Delaware River, and Kevin was surprised, because weather was pleasant for fishing recently, and smallmouth bass are usually tugged from the river now. Smallmouths were landed at Merrill Creek Reservoir on Binsky blade baits. Walleyes were jigged at Lake Hopatcong on Rapala ice-fishing jigs. Kevin surf fished at Sandy Hook on Sunday, and the angling was slow. But the angling’s been good, and was great Monday. He wasn’t asked whether striped bass or bluefish bit that day. But the report below says fishing for big blues lit up that day there.

Passaic River, though it ran low, produced northern pike, said Joe from <b>Fairfield Fishing Tackle</b> in Pine Brook. Customers said carp fishing was phenomenal, and kept quiet about locations to keep the spots to themselves. Customers said saltwater fishing smoked lots of big bluefish to 20 pounds at Sandy Hook’s surf Monday.

<b>Central Jersey</b>

Not a lot was reported about trout, and trout streams ran low and clear, but the fish were hooked, said Braden from <b>Efinger Sporting Goods</b> in Bound Brook. Because leaves began to clear from the streams, spinners caught the fish more than before, especially silver spinners, because of the low water. Leaves fouled artificials like that previously. Two customers headed for trout to the South Branch of the Raritan River, but mostly picked up small smallmouth bass, on hair jigs and worms. Another customer’s been scoring well on hybrid striped bass at Lake Hopatcong, mostly on chicken livers, fished deep, down 30 to 40 feet.  Nobody mentioned Round Valley Reservoir this week, but trout were reported to cruise along the reservoir’s shoreline last week. That usually happens this season, and a 24-inch brown trout was checked in from the impoundment last week. A few browns caught, not many rainbow trout, were heard about from there that week. The trout were mostly taken on M&M combos, meal worms and marshmallows, not shiners, “kind of surprising with the browns,” he said.

A couple of customers plucked trout from the Toms River at the tree farm in Jackson, said Dennis from <b>Murphy’s Hook House</b> in the town of Toms River. They mostly connected on spinners and PowerBait. Anglers sometimes bought killies to fish for crappies at Lake Carasaljo under the bridge. Killies, nightcrawlers and garden worms are stocked.  Murphy’s, located on Route 37, also owns <b>Go Fish Bait & Tackle</b> on Fischer Boulevard in Toms River. 

<b>South Jersey</b>

Trout were beaten from Oak Pond on meal worms and PowerBait, and now began to be sacked from Grenloch Lake, on PowerBait, said Ed from <b>Creek Keepers Bait & Tackle</b> in Blackwood. No color of PowerBait seemed better than another, or all seemed to catch. Trouting was slow at Grenloch previously, after the fall trout stocking, and the fish seemed to need to acclimate. That seems typically of each year, after the fall stocking.  Largemouth bass were slugged from Alcyon Lake in Pitman on shiners. Most anglers talked with who largemouth bass fished scored well on shiners, no matter where was fished. Good catches of the bass were made at the lakes at Lakeland.

Fishing for largemouth bass became a little better, and was looking up, said Steve from <b>Blackwater Sports Center</b> in Vineland. Rat-L-Traps and crank baits began to catch, and spinner baits clocked the fish well. A couple of big largemouths caught were known about from Union Lake. Crappie fishing was also improving and pretty good. Trout fishing went great last week at waters included in the fall trout stocking. Nothing was mentioned about trout since, but a few anglers still chased trout, Steve knew. The reason fewer seemed to trout fish was unknown, like maybe trout fishers returned to hunting. From saltwater, good reports about striped bass catches began to roll in, mostly from farther north. The angling seemed good as far south as Long Beach Island on the ocean. But some were boated on trips from Cape May and Wildwood on the ocean. From there, the fish seemed to be trolled. Trolling is common when the fish are less abundant and spread out, like when the migration is yet to fully push south.

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