In NJ the landowner owns the streambed, not the stream. So if you can float through without touching bottom, or grabbing a tree you are allowed to pass. if you anchor, push off of rocks or get out to wade you can be prosecuted for trespass.
I'm a member of a private fishing club (Lake Solitude Club) and have been for over 12 years. I was also on the waiting list for a little over 8 years, prior to that. I have also been a guest and have come to know a great many folks in some of the other private clubs in NJ. While there are some that charge exuberant fees, most have membership costs that are surprisingly reasonable. (Less than the cost of a new rod.) Also most of the folks I have met are regular folks, with regular jobs. While there are always a few lawyers and doctors, there are usually a few cops, teachers, engineers, auto mechanics and retired guys who no one knows what they actually did if anything. Like me most of them fish quite a bit, and almost all of them fish public water as much as the do private.
Our club is located just downstream from Lockwood Gorge, and as I tell everyone the Gorge has better pools, is stocked with more fish and is easier to access than our water. The difference is that on a prime day in mid season there can be hundreds of people fishing the Gorge, on the same day if there are 10 people on our water it's considered crowded.
If you have ever had a nice trip ruined by some clod crashing into the pool, putting down the trout you have been working for 20 minutes. If you have had dogs jump into the water and get tangled in your fly line while their owner is jogging by. If you have been bothered by seeing a 20 inch fish you have been stalking for a few days, being dragged along on a stringer by the guy who decided to keep one. If you have been frustrated by having to work late every night during the sulpher hatch except today, and then have to drive from one access point to the next looking for an open spot to fish, thereby pissing away an hour of the only 3 you get this year. If you have gotten dirty looks from passing joggers for sitting on the back of your pickup, smoking a cigar and enjoying a cold beer after a tough day. That does not happen on private water and some of us are willing to pay for that.
By the way almost every club allows members to bring a guest, and having a place to bring a client or co-worker or friend or relative visiting from out of town to fish and be assured of a parking place and opportunity for fish has value to.
To protect that value most clubs prosecute trespassers, I know my club does. Feel free to feel indignant, but you better not be in our water while doing so.
