The New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife’s bureau of freshwater fisheries will return to the pre-season and in season stocking schedules for 2022 that had been shelved for 2 years because of COVID concerns for both employees and anglers.
Gone is the massive pre-season stocking that included 500,000 of the 570,000 baseline number of rainbows in the Garden State’s 171 trout stocked waters, the pre-season catch-and-release fishery and the infusion of the remaining 70,000 fish the week prior to the Memorial Day weekend in select venues in the central and northern regions.
In 2022, it’s back to the three week pre-season schedule starting March 21 (stocked waters closed to fishing; see exception on pages 17-19 in the Freshwater Fishing Digest), then after the Saturday, April 9 opening day, the seven week in-season schedule gets underway, concluding on Friday, May 27.
However, there’s more to the return to stocking normalcy.
Although the baseline number is the same, and extra 70,000 rainbows averaging 10.5 inches will be released pre-season for a total of 250,000. Plus, 2% of every load will include a mix of 2-1/2- and 3-1/2-year-old spent breeders in the 16- to 22-plus inch range weighing to 6 pounds. These jumbos number between 6,000 and 7,000 fish, and there are enough left over that they are spread around during the first week and possibly into the second week of the in-season schedule.
While the pre-opening day 70,000 boost would correlate to less rainbows stocked as the in-season schedule progresses, it’s not necessarily so. If history repeats, as it has for years at the Pequest Trout Hatchery, there will be a surplus of trout available. In 2021, there were an extra 27,150 trout that were stocked for a spring total of 597,150. No promises, but indicators are that Pequest will once again exceed its spring baseline production. As in the past, these “bonus ‘bows” will average 11-plus inches and are usually released weeks five through seven in venues still on the schedule, further boosting respective allocation counts.
The restoration of the popular Bonus Broodstock Program proves that all is back on the traditional trout track. Ten still waters are chosen on a rotating basis to be dosed, predicated on surface acreage, with either 30 or 50 3-1/2 year old breeders totally 400. These are included in the pre-season allocation and are a big opening day draw, especially with families with youngsters, and novice anglers.
This year the waters include (bonus breeder numbers in parenthesis) Birch Grove Park Pond (first two/Atlantic County/50), Burnham Park Pond (Morris County/30), Crystal Lake (Burlington County/50), Dahnert’s Lake (Bergen County/30), Franklin Lake (Monmouth County/50), Lower Echo Park Lake (Union/30), Mountain Farm Pond (Hunterdon/30), Shaws Mill Pond (Cumberland/50), Spooky Brook Park Pond (Somerset/30), Verona Park Lake (Essex/50).
With the exception of special regulation waters, the daily limit is six trout no less than 9 inches. After Memorial Day, the limit drops to four. Track weekly stockings via the Trout Hotline (609) 633-6765.
– Tom Pagliaroli
