Took some time over my Fall break from school to get in some fishing home in NJ. I headed out Sunday morning with a friend (spin fisherman) to hit the South Branch. He was under the impression they'd stocked up there, but his failure to pick up any fish on spinners or power bait convinces me otherwise. I did manage 5 wild browns to 8" on soft hackles, further adding to his frustration. We wrapped up the afternoon on a public stretch of the Black River just upstream of Hacklebarney and struck out. I did see some decent fish rising, but couldn't by a hit.
Monday morning, I met with a friend who wants to learn flyfishing, on the South Branch in Califon. He overslept his alarm and showed up late. I couldn't help but think of the line from A River Runs Through It "Neal, in Montana there's three things we're never late for: church, work, and fishing." This resulted in a lot of wasted time in the morning. I fished the ballfields and later moved on to Hoffmans where I ultimately located a pod of large stockies at around noon. Only managed to land one 16" stocky Rainbow on a streamer and had a couple grabs I missed. The cool thing was watching the v-wakes behind my fly as they followed it. I've gotten snobby lately about stockies, but I was glad to catch something.
So much for a 9 am meet up. We grabbed lunch at Rambos and then on to the Gorge. We stuck mostly to the pocket water, I figured the pools had all been fished to excess over the weekend. The strategy didn't pay off like I hoped, my friend went fish-less, I caught one 14" holdover Rainbow just before dark. The fist really seemed to be hanging deep and I think I failed to adjust in keeping with that.
It's the first time I've fished there since summer and Irene and boy, what a different river. I was disturbed to see the amount of gravel and stone washed into the river from the hurricane. The cycle of road construction and flood event erosion has played out again in the gorge to no one's surprise (I should hope). I'm of the impression that the deposition of such quantities of road material are detrimental to the health of the stream and from what I observed, it's natural beauty The front and tail ends of the island just above the trestle were covered in stone and gravel. In the short term, people here have suggested that funding and logistics may prevent the reconstruction of the Gorge Road. Can we turn this event into a justification for leaving the road closed in the longer term? Can this be used in our case that road access to the Gorge and the health of the resource are indeed at odds?
For those that haven't seen it yet, this video clip was interesting. Back from when the road construction was still in progress.
Gorge Access - NJN News Environment Report - YouTube
Thanks,
John
Monday morning, I met with a friend who wants to learn flyfishing, on the South Branch in Califon. He overslept his alarm and showed up late. I couldn't help but think of the line from A River Runs Through It "Neal, in Montana there's three things we're never late for: church, work, and fishing." This resulted in a lot of wasted time in the morning. I fished the ballfields and later moved on to Hoffmans where I ultimately located a pod of large stockies at around noon. Only managed to land one 16" stocky Rainbow on a streamer and had a couple grabs I missed. The cool thing was watching the v-wakes behind my fly as they followed it. I've gotten snobby lately about stockies, but I was glad to catch something.
So much for a 9 am meet up. We grabbed lunch at Rambos and then on to the Gorge. We stuck mostly to the pocket water, I figured the pools had all been fished to excess over the weekend. The strategy didn't pay off like I hoped, my friend went fish-less, I caught one 14" holdover Rainbow just before dark. The fist really seemed to be hanging deep and I think I failed to adjust in keeping with that.
It's the first time I've fished there since summer and Irene and boy, what a different river. I was disturbed to see the amount of gravel and stone washed into the river from the hurricane. The cycle of road construction and flood event erosion has played out again in the gorge to no one's surprise (I should hope). I'm of the impression that the deposition of such quantities of road material are detrimental to the health of the stream and from what I observed, it's natural beauty The front and tail ends of the island just above the trestle were covered in stone and gravel. In the short term, people here have suggested that funding and logistics may prevent the reconstruction of the Gorge Road. Can we turn this event into a justification for leaving the road closed in the longer term? Can this be used in our case that road access to the Gorge and the health of the resource are indeed at odds?
For those that haven't seen it yet, this video clip was interesting. Back from when the road construction was still in progress.
Gorge Access - NJN News Environment Report - YouTube
Thanks,
John
