Hunterdon Anglers Trout Tournament Results

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Robert Ivan

On Saturday May 5th,2012 the Hunterdon Anglers held their first Trout fishing tournament at Round Valley Reservoir. Although the weather was not ideal with fog, cool breeze and sprinkles. They had 65 entries. 21 members and 27 non members and 17 children. All of the Juniors will receive a Gift card. Bait was provided by Jody from Lebanon Bait & Sport and RoundValleyFishing.com

At first the fishing was slow, probably because of the fog. Once the fog rose the fish were biting. The shore fishing Vs boaters were about equal in their catch numbers. Interestingly, no rainbows were caught, but a good number of Browns. Here are the results:

Hunterdon Anglers Trout Tournament
May 5th,2012

Trout Division Report

Lake Trout:
Winner – Frank Capobianco Dunellen NJ 23 1/4″ 3.85 lbs
Barry Simpson 22″ 3.75 lbs
Richard Willey High Bridge NJ 22 1/2″ 3.40 lbs
Joe Holub 21″ 3.20 lbs
Ryan Lipot Manville NJ 21″ 2.65 lbs
Ryan Lipot 20 ¾” 2.55 lbs
Dave Plichta Jr Flemington NJ 20″ 2.30 lbs
Charlie Rahner Jersey City NJ 19 1/2″ 2.20 lbs
Dave Plichta Sr Flemington NJ 17 3/8″ 1.85 Lbs

Brown Trout:
Winner Jim Bowman Phillipsburg NJ 17 1/8″ 2.45 lbs
Dave Plichta Jr Flemington NJ 18 1/2″ 2.10 lbs
Ryan Lipot Manville NJ 16 5/8″ 1.85 lbs
Dave Plichta Sr. Flemington NJ 17 1/4″ 1.75 lbs
Ryan Lipot Manville NJ 17 5/8″ 1.65 lbs

Rainbow Trout:
NO ENTRIES

Junior Division:
Winner Jacklyn Bridgeman Keyport NJ Brown 19” 2.45 lbs

If you’d like to start receiving the full color Hunterdon Anglers printed newsletter contact President Ed Harabin double.anchor@yahoo.com or Dennis Haggerty hunterdonangler@aol.com

Fisherman Catches Human Remains at Round Valley Reservoir

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Robert Ivan

UPDATE 2:
Hunterdon County Historian, Stephanie Stevens, author of Beneath These Waters, a history of Round Valley Reservoir shares the following with us via email:

There are 26 bodies (known) in Round Valley. Because the water is so cold these bodies (except for one that was found on the shore line) do not produce the gas necessary for them to rise to the surface.
In 1977 an associate of Jacques Cousteau , Andre Galerne, loaned a mini sub to search these waters – it took a week but nothing was discovered .

Again in 1999 N.J. State Troopers who specialized in underwater recovery took to the waters. Again , due to the darkness, underwater growth, tree stumps, nothing was discovered.

If you’d like to learn more about the history of Round Valley Reservoir I highly recommend reading Beneath These Waters, a history of Round Valley Reservoir by Hunterdon County Historian Stephanie Stevens. The book , in its 7th printing is available at the Readington Library, the Hunterdon Co. Planning Board on Rt. 12, the Califon book store, or by mail. Checks made out to Hunterdon County for $10 will have the book mailed to the addressee.

UPDATE:
“About 10:45 a.m., Edward P. Woodell Jr. reeled in a boot containing the skeletal remains [of a human foot], according to a police report from New Jersey State Police at Perryville.” – LehighValleyLive.com

Not even two months after a hiker found a dead body floating in Round Valley Reservoir on March 15, 2012 it appears that an unidentified fisherman has caught some human remains on his fishing hook!

Rocco Catania displays his 6.6lb 25 inch Lake Trout, a personal best! Hmmm... what was in that trout's stomach?

It’s fairly well documented that there are several un-recovered drowning victims in Round Valley. Incidentally, most drowning victims that are recovered are found with their pants down, falling off their boats and not being able to get back in, they tire and expire!

Here are Developing News Reports:
PHOTO OF BOOT/FOOT (unconfirmed) and Comment Thread on NJHunter.com

Fisherman finds human remains at Round Valley Reservoir in Clinton Twp. – NewJerseyHills.com

Fisherman’s hook snags human remains at Round Valley Reservoir in Clinton Township – Hunterdon County Democrat

Human remains recovered from Round Valley Reservoir – MyCentralJersey.com

Fishing In The Rain – Prepare To Get Wet

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Robert Ivan

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

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Pete Adamski

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

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Robert Ivan

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.