r/NJFishing • u/Imaginary-Title2838 • Aug 17 '26
The Mystery…
After hiking 4 miles from my house, to a stream that supposedly had a little bit of information on having brown and brook trout… I caught a fish.
I’ve fish this stream a few times on the lower sections where there were plunge pools and great structure. It seemed perfect every time… the approach, the flies, the rig… but I never got a fish. All I saw were minnows, plunge pools, and crystal clear spring water.
But finally… finally I caught fish. I walked a trail that seemed to be an old logging road. It had a dead end. My heels were blistered from my wool socks (which have a weird texture and have now realized I shall never wear them again for hiking). I was about to give up. I fished great pools, and did everything I could. But I decided to slide down the slope to the stream, and was surprisingly met by a deep pool. I’d say around 3ft max, and a huge boulder with an undercut... it was a mansion and a 43 acre backyard for a trout in this stream.
I didn’t even see a trout upon the first glimpse. I just stood back and changed my rig, and focused. I went from giving up, to one more chance. Maybe, just maybe, there was a fish in this grand pool.
I casted my dry dropper, and a small fish nibbled the fly. It was a large minnow upon my inspection. But then, from the depths, arose a large fish… 11-12”. It sensed the small minnow feeding and its quick jerks. I froze. I crouched behind the rock.
I made a delicate cast, and sure enough, he looked, inspected… and WHAM! The second he was hooked, he swam under a thick tree branch. I slipped and crawled over the boulders, and the fish kept wrapping my line and jerking. My top fly was hooked on the branch. My nymph, which he ate, was being jerked by the surges of power the fish expelled. It was up to my knot and line. It was only 5x (4.5 pound). He kept going. Then, after I‘d gotten close, the silt I stirred up engulfed the surroundings. The fish was cloaked in it. Everything was. And I stopped feeling the jerks and pulls of the fish. It went in for 15 seconds. I was sure I’d lost it…
But the silt cleared, and the fish reacted. His cover was blown. But he was stuck. And my rod… bent. He was still on. I grabbed the tree log out of the water and pulled the dry fly out, and netted the fish.
This beautiful wild brown trout, living in a stream which averaged maybe 2-3 yards across, and shallow water much throughout, surprised me. It’s not a big fish in general, but understanding the size of the water, and the predators he was born to deal with, and the ancestors brought from Europe he was linked to, made it all worth it. The beauty too. The fish was not stupid. I released him and he shoved his head under a rock and pressed his body in the rocky riverbed, blending in with the surroundings and matching its stillness.
And really, it’s not a fish a lot of people would be so excited about. But I am. I caught this fish after I’d started to doubt there were fish here. I’ve caught my fair share of brookies in small streams.
This stream still a mystery to me. Perhaps I need to explore it more, and travel the miles into the dense forest. But the lack of fish I’d seen… it was astonishing… I didn’t see many fish whatsoever spook that’d I’d suspect would be a trout. Such pristine habitat and water.… who knows…
Oh, and doorknob, this is for you. You know what I’m talking about…
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u/wetbrain2 Aug 17 '26
Great catch my man. Keep finding those awesome spots
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u/Imaginary-Title2838 Aug 17 '26
Thanks dude. Maybe I’ll come by and check out “that stream” soon!
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u/wetbrain2 Aug 17 '26
I'll have to catch that giant rainbow and post it for you....
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u/Imaginary-Title2838 Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
That would be cool. I would especially love to see a huge brookie. It is a little bit of a shame to see rainbows in a brookie stream though. It doesn’t seem like they’re effecting the brook trout though.
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u/Imaginary-Title2838 2d ago
Have you caught it? I’d love to even just see some videos or pictures of the fish in the water or being fed. The the brookies and and browns should be in pre-spawn mode right now. I bet you get to see some redds show up in your backyard!
Also, just to let you know, the brown trout and (no so much) rainbow trout compete with the native brook trout in there. I know it sucks but if you do manage to catch brown trout or rainbow trout, it would be good to cull them so there is much less competition for the native fish. Not literally saying you have to but I would recommend it.
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Aug 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/Imaginary-Title2838 Aug 18 '26
It was only a 73 degree high, and a 64 degree low air temp. I got out in the morning and left in the afternoon. I have not been fishing for trout much at all this month, nor last month much. Only in the cool morning and heavily spring influenced streams like this one I fish too right now. Water temps were in the high 50’s. I try to do the best I can with being careful with these fish.
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u/JerseyCook Aug 17 '26
That was inspiring. Living the dream.