Monthly Archives: April 2012

Fishing In The Rain – Prepare To Get Wet

The plan was for my buddy Chris and I to fish ~8 hours in the rain from 6:30am to about 2:30pm, Nor’easter be damned. We started out the day at Lebanon Bait & Sport, picking up 4 dozen shiners…what the hell were we thinking? Also got a couple of Sutton Spoons. Our plan was to troll the spoons and shiners then drift to pick at lake trout.

As we motored away from the boat launch I realized in complete amazement that my Lowrance x135 was not turning on. I had problems with it two weeks ago at the RVTA tournament, but thought it was a battery issue. No such luck. Tried a soft reset, hard reset, wiring it directly to the battery, and finally punching the thing. It’s dead.

I’ve fished this reservoir many times, so we weren’t completely SOL but come on…really? I just had my motor fixed and now this?! We trolled a Sutton spoon and live shiners slow around the perimeter of the boat launch, over to the north tower, made a big circle and came back to the north tower. We didn’t get anything with this technique so we switched over to drifting.

Round Valley April 22 Laketrout Map

Our first drift, the wind was coming out of north so we set up a drift just to the west of the north tower, sent our lines to the bottom and waited. We were using 2 oz. barrel sinkers to keep our shiners on the bottom. Caught first fish out in the middle of nowhere in about 70feet of water. It’s the smaller of the two pictured and measured 18 inches. The rain didn’t really start until about 11am and for a few hours we thought we actually might stay dry!

Fishing in the rain

We didn’t stay dry. The rain came and just got harder and harder. We continued fishing though and for a few hours there the wind switched direction completely and came out of the southwest. It was at this time Chris caught the second Laketrout, a nice 20 incher that actually put up a decent fight.
NJ-Fishing-Lake-Trout

Even though we still had 2 dozen shiners in out livewell, at about 2:30pm our hands were raw and we were starving, so we headed in. It was a decent trip, besides a kayaker we spoke to at the north tower I only saw one other boat and they left fairly quickly. The yak had one laker when we spoke.

I guess I’ll be looking for a new sonar soon, maybe one with a GPS?! Up until now, I’ve been using a 99cent app on my iPhone called Compass+ I’ve actually been recording lat / long of catches and then placing them on Google Maps on my computer when I get home. It’s very cheap, but tedious as hell. OK, cheers, next time less rain please!

Trout Stocking News

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Round Valley Reservoir will be stocked with trout in the upcoming days:

April 30th – NJ DEP will stock 6610 brown and rainbow trout. http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/trt_allocation12_dates.htm

May 6th – Round Valley Trout Association will stock 400 rainbow and brown trout between 16 and 17″. https://www.fishrvta.com/

April 15 Fishing Report and RVTA Tournament Action

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I don’t know the winners of the April 2012 Round Valley Trout Association trout fishing tournament as of this writing but I’ll update as soon as I do. You can also visit the RVTA website at https://www.fishrvta.com/

I do know that a 17.2lb Lake Trout and a 15lb Laker were weighed in. The bigger fish was released. See the pics on Lebanon Bait & Sport‘s Facebook page.

I saw a few other big lakers get weighed in including the below from Rocco Catania which measured 25″ and weighed 6.6lbs. What a gut!

Rocco Catania displays his 6.6lb 25 inch Lake Trout, a personal best!

There were some monster Rainbow Trout weighed in as well. Below is John J. Wisniewski with a BIG rainbow.

J. Wisniewski with a BIG rainbow from the April 15th Round Valley Trout Association fishing tournament.

Many of these fish were caught trolling herring / shiner OR trolling spoons like the Sutton using down-riggers or leadcore lines.

One thing that really struck me was the number of BIG rainbows and lakers being weighed in, especially when compared to April 2011. Why the big difference?

Winning Brown or Rainbow from last year:
1 roger drew rainbow 5.76 23 1/4 92
2 roger drew brown 2.06 17 1/2 33
3 joe zjawiony rainbow 2.04 18 1/8 33
4 john wisniewski rainbow 1.94 17 1/8 31 (hey, this name looks familiar!)

Winning Lake Trout from last year:
1 donna fulgenz laker 2.6 19 3/8 42
2 ron degraff laker 2.34 19 7/8 37
3 dave plichta laker 2.32 19 1/2 37

Stay tuned to the RVTA website https://www.fishrvta.com/ for full results.

2012 NJ DEP Native Fish Art and Writing Contest Winners Honored

Native Fish Art and Writing Contest Winners Honored

Erin M. :: 1st place :: 4th Grade :: South Harrison Elementary School

Isabella G. :: 2nd place :: 4th Grad :: Washington Park School

Ava F. :: 1st place :: 5th Grade :: Malcolm S. Mackay School

Liam S. :: 2nd place :: 5th Grade :: Millstone River School

Nick P. :: 1st place :: 6th Grade :: Brass Castle Elementary School

Tyler D. :: 2nd place :: 6th Grade :: South Harrison Elementary School

Timmy Y. :: 1st place :: 7th Grade :: Scicore Academy

Galina B. :: 2nd place :: 7th Grade :: Jefferson Elementary School

April 10, 2012

The winning entrants in the NJ DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Native Fish Art and Writing Contest were honored at the Pequest Trout Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center in Oxford, Warren County, on the opening day of trout season, April 7.

Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno and DEP Commissioner Bob Martin were on hand to meet contest winners and their families, as they enjoyed a morning of fishing at the Pequest Fishing Education Pond. The weather was beautiful and sunny and everyone had a great time catching trout. Fish and Wildlife staff and volunteers assisted anglers to ensure they had a safe and enjoyable fishing experience.

After fishing, the winners of the contest received certificates and fishing equipment at an awards luncheon sponsored by the New Jersey Council of Trout Unlimited. Lt. Governor Guadagno and Commissioner Martin spoke at the luncheon and assisted with the awards ceremony, praising the winners for their excellent artwork and essays.

After the luncheon, winners had the opportunity to take a personal tour of the Pequest Hatchery and learn how brook, brown and rainbow trout are raised for stocking in New Jersey’s publicly accessible waterways.

The purpose of this annual contest is to encourage children in grades 4 through 7 to learn about New Jersey’s native fish species, and the importance of natural resource conservation. Students from around the state researched a native fish of New Jersey. They used the information learned to write a short story about one year in the life of that fish. Students then drew a picture that depicted a scene from their native fish story.

Visit www.njfishandwildlife.com/pdf/fishart_cert.pdf (pdf, 155kb) for a downloadable certificate for every student who participated in the contest.

Visit http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/news/2012/fshartwinnrs12.htm for the official NJ DEP page.

Hunterdon Anglers Sponsors Family Friendly Fishing Tournament

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Hunterdon Anglers, Hunterdon County’s two-reservoir fishing club, will be holding it’s first fishing tournament on Saturday May 5, 2012 at Round Valley Reservoir between the hours of 7:00am and 3:00pm. Ed Harabin, President of the two-year old club, said, “This will be a family friendly event open to adults and children of all ages.” “It will be open to both members and non-members alike with only a modest entry fee.”, Ed went on to say. The tournament date was chosen for a number of reasons, including the fact that the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife will be stocking 6,000 trout in the reservoir just a few days prior to the tournament. The state stocking will include at least 130 big breeder trout any one of which could possibly be a tournament winner.

Another consideration for the tournament date is fish location. These trout hug the reservoir shorelines in the spring. No boat – no problem! “I want to encourage participation by shoreline fisherman including families with children” said Tournament Chairman Dennis Haggerty. At this time of the year the shoreline fishermen have just as good a chance as the boat fishermen do to land that trophy. Both the stocked fish and the holdover fish are within easy casting distance of the shore. Simple fishing techniques often work well in May.

This will be a trout tournament with three divisions: Brown Trout Division, Rainbow Trout Division, and Lake Trout Division. Cash prizes will be awarded to the lucky anglers who weigh in the heaviest trout in each division. Ed said, “Club members will be glad to share fishing techniques on the day of the tournament, just as we do in our monthly newsletter.” The club’s motto, “Share The Knowledge”, speaks for itself. Ed said, “If you are new to trout fishing come on out or give us a call. We are always willing to offer helpful advice.”

For tournament rules and club membership information, contact either Ed Harabin at 908-236-0697 or by email at double.anchor@yahoo.com, or contact Tournament Chairman Dennis Haggerty at 848-391-6873 or by email at njmenace@aol.com.