Category Archives: Brown Trout

May 7, 2013 – Shore Fishing Report

Started off the day yesterday, May 7, 2013 shore fishing with Chris M. at the Millstone River for Pickerel and Bass, nothing except for one follow I got on an F-7 Rapala, Perch pattern, from a decent sized Pickerel. After about a half an hour or so of fishing there, we headed off to our usual Carp spot to meet Matt for another day of Carp fishing. After getting our poles into the water, Chris was the first to hook into a fish. It was definitely a Carp, but got snagged up and lost it before he could get it in. We were using the same oat and creamed corn mixture as last time we were out, as well as cake flavorings and puffed corn. Though the second fish we hooked into was on a Bluegill, also on one of Chris’ poles, but unfortunately that got off as well. After that, Matt started to get into some fish and ended up landing somewhere around five or six Carp and one Channel Catfish. By the time we left that was all we caught, in addition to a small 13-lb Carp I got not too soon before we packed up for the day. Though I beat the skunk, had a great time, and that’s all that matters to me!

Zach M., Common Carp, location undisclosed.

Zach M., Brown Trout, Round Valley Reservoir

The Author, Zach Mechant with a 19.25-inch 3.2-lb Brown Trout caught at Round Valley under a slip bobber.

After a quick lunch break at 25 Burgers, Chris and I stopped by Behre Bait and Tackle, picked up some Herring, and headed over to Round Valley for the remainder of the day. We started off with three rods fished with Herring on the bottom with a basic bottom rig, as well as a fourth rod with a Herring about 6-feet under a slip bobber. Probably about 45 minutes in, we see my slip bobber going crazy; like something was chasing the Herring. Right as we think that to ourselves, we lose sight of it and shortly after my rod doubles over. After putting up a pretty good fight and even jumping once, I land a nice 19.25-inch 3.2-lb Brown Trout! Needless to say, after that we began switching all of our other rods from bottom rigs over to slip bobbers. Though before I can finish setting up my second rod, my first one gets hit again but I whiff the hook set and nothing. Shortly after we get all our rods switched over, I get into another fish on one of my rods! Funny story about this one; I see one of my bobbers disappear and one of my rods start to bend so I pick up my rod, set the hook, feel the pressure of a fish and begin reeling. Not even 5 seconds into fighting it, the line goes dead and I reel in a little more and see it became tangled with one of Chris’ lines. I guess it was bound to happen eventually seeing as we were letting our slip bobbers drift pretty close together at times. But anyways, so I start reeling in the tangle so we can get it fixed, but both Chris and I realize that my second rod is still out in the water, tangle free, and my slip bobber is nowhere to be found again. Shortly after we realize this, my rod doubles over, and I’m fighting another fish in! I get it in about two-thirds of the way, just close enough to see it break the surface, when it shakes the hook. It was another Brown, about the same size as my first one, if not a little bigger(aren’t they always?!). Going from fish on, to no fish, fish on again, and back to no fish in less than a minute was very disappointing, though makes for a funny story for the day, and as one of my co-workers would say; that’s why we call it fishing and not catching! By the end of our time at Round Valley we only landed my one Brown Trout and a Rock Bass, but missed 3 or 4 more fish as well.

Zach M., holding another Trout caught from the shore.

My favorite part about our time at the Valley though was seeing tons of Trout, my guess is 5-10 of them, feed on what looked like baitfish on the surface around our lines. I even casted out once and saw at least four or five Trout scatter on the surface as soon as my bait hit the water. We couldn’t get any of them to bite, but was definitely an awesome sight to see. In addition to that, we saw probably hundreds of fish cruising close to shore at sunset as well; Bluegill, Rock Bass, Largemouth Bass, and Trout. Definitely a good sign and hopefully the fishing there will continue to heat up as the weather gets warmer!

Round Valley Shore Fishing Report April 15th

Shoreline Trout Fishing is Heating Up

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Shoreline Trout Fishing is starting to heat up as the weather cools down. Thanks to Round Valley Fishing reader Zach M. for sharing the details of his recent shore fishing catches.

I fished with medium shiners 10 feet under slip bobbers, and powerbait about 3 feet off the bottom today. Though only caught with the shiners. - Zach M.

Even the elusive Brown Trout are being caught from the shoreline now!

16-inch Brown Trout to finish off my day at Round Valley today! Totaled one 16-inch Brown Trout, one 16.5-inch Rainbow Trout (With 4 more that got off), one 13.5-inch Chain Pickerel, and about one and a half dozen Largemouth Bass the largest being 13-inches (With about another half dozen that got off) …. Definitely one of the best days of fishing I’ve had in a while. - Zach M.

Not quite sure where Zach was fishing but based on the look of the gravel/sand i’d say it was the sandy point directly across from the concrete boat ramp. I’ve got a report from October 2010 (Keep a fishing log!) talking about catching rainbows from this exact spot in the same manner as Zach. Read that October 25, 2010 Shore Fishing Report.

Stay glued to our Round Valley Fishing Facebook page for more frequent reports and pics from all our readers. Cheers!

Night Fishing Rainbow Trout Report

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I think it was about 10pm when we launched from the concrete boat launch area last night to go out fishing for Rainbows. While I waited in my boat at the dock for my buddy I introduced myself to two fellas, one of which claimed to have won the last RVTA tournament. Forgot the fella’s name. My work schedule is pretty crazy so it’s nice to meet people I usually only see on paper for tournament results.

Also, thanks to the fella who gave us his leftover live bait. We only caught rock-bass on those medium sized shiners but it was still a nice gesture. Thank you kind sir!

On to the fishing report. The game plan was to fish an are along the southwest shore known as The Pines. First we tried something silly, cause you never know. We headed into ranger cove and fished about 35 minutes catching bass and monster sunfish on live shiners and cooked shrimp then left for The Pines. Here are our exact coordinates where we fished The Pines based on my iPhone Compass+ app 40.605526 -74.823723.

View Round Valley Reservoir Fishing Tour in a larger map

If any of you are regular readers of this blog, you may remember that my Lowrance Sonar is dead. You can see it in the background of these photos sitting there with the cover on it. I may as well have had a picture of a sonar sitting there. By eyeballing distance from shore and known underwater topography I guestimated where I wanted to fish and dropped anchor. My anchor line is marked every ten feet and I was quite happy to hit bottom right at 36′. The night was gorgeous, perhaps 70 degrees at it lowest point but the wind was gusty at times so we pointed the bow into the wind and threw out the second anchor.

Now securely positioned, we turned on my homemade night lights and started chumming with whole kernel corn. We caught our first rainbow about midnight and then when the moon dipped below the “mountain” along the south shore the bite really turned on. A school of rainbows came through around 1am and we picked up some nice fish. a couple two and half pounders and 16incher.

Night Fishing Rainbow Trout 01 July 2012

We wanted to keep fishing without limiting out so we switched over to barbless hooks and managed to lose about a dozen or so more rainbows on the way up or at the surface. Hey, easy catch and release!

We wanted one more Rainbow in the boat for a limit so at about 3:30am we successfully netted a 3pound 19 7/8incher. BBQ will be good today!

All in all it was a great night. Beautiful weather, lots of action and nothing broke that wasn’t already broken! If you plan on going out for night rainbows remember a few things.

Be prepared to get filthy. It’s like night blue-fishing on a Belmar Head boat. You will not find this technique glorified in an Orvis catalog.
Your terminal tackle consists of number 6 or 8 hook about a foot under a 1/4 ounce egg sinker. Nothing Fancy, it’s dark out, don’t complicate things.
Your bait is a bag of frozen COOKED shrimp from the grocery store. Get whatever is on sale. Why shrimp? It stays on the hook. Cut pieces to the size of the tip of your pinky finger and bury the hook.
Your chum is whole kernel corn. I buy three cans of whatever is on sale. Throw it out there liberally and spread it out. Mind which way the current (yes round valley has currents) is moving the corn too and toss “up stream”. EDIT – I have been told that corn is not necessary for chumming and there have been issues with fishermen using cow corn which will kill the fish. If you want to be safe and still chum, use little bits of Velveta Cheese or shrimp. Thanks Andy S. for the education!
You will need a light or lights to attract baitfish and shrimp to your boat. You can buy lights for a ton of money or make your own easily. Just buy a 55 watt marine or car lamp (like a driving light), mount it to a 3 foot wooden dowel and run enough wire to make it to your battery.
Do not net any trout you plan on releasing. Trout have a high mortality rate which is a fancy way of saying they stress out and die easy.
If you are keeping trout, make sure you have lots of ice in your cooler. Bleed the fish out as soon as it’s in the cooler with slice under the gill fins and the meat will stay fresh and delicious.
To cook these I cut off the head, gut the fish then wrap in aluminum foil with butter and fresh sliced lemon. Put on the grill for about 20 minutes or until the meat flakes off with a fork. You can do this in an oven set to 400 as well.
ummmm it’s really nice out so I’m going to go play with my kids! If you have any questions ask here or on our Facebook page. Thank again to everyone for reading!

PS. we have a new giveaway starting today. When thinking about trout have you ever wondered; Where are they? Why are they there? What are they eating? How do I recognize what is going on? Be sure to get in on the July giveaway for your chance to win this crazy educational DVD on the underwater world of trout.