NJ OWL Meeting - Freshwater Angling Around New Jersey

NJ Outdoor Women's League Meeting
Freshwater Angling Around New Jersey
July 2004

Lisa Barno’s talk at the July meeting answered many questions an Owler might have had concerning the identification and habitats of New Jersey’s freshwater fish as well as the role the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife plays in providing opportunities to N.J. anglers for recreational fishing.

Lisa Barno Lisa, Chief of Freshwater Fisheries, complemented her information-filled presentation with many slides and handouts on where to fish, habitats of the most popular game fish and good fishing holes in NJ. Although New Jersey is one of the smaller states geographically, it contains over 400 public and private lakes and 17,000 miles of streams that are home to at least 110 species, 18 of which are game fish. These species can be grouped according to their habitats.

The largest group according to Lisa is found in warm water, or bodies of water whose temperatures, during the summer, range from the upper 70s to lower 80s (usually small ponds, large reservoirs and slow moving rivers). Bass, sunfish, crappies (calico bass), catfish and bullheads, carp and pike compose this group. What was really neat was that Lisa displayed diagrams of each of the fish pointing out the differences within each species. For instance, besides the obvious difference in the size of its mouth represented by its name, the stripes of the largemouth bass are horizontal in contrast to the small mouth’s vertical stripes.

At least 15 different species comprise the sunfish group that are eaten by bass and are comparatively small in size. Having always used blue gill interchangeably with sunfish or sunny, it was enlightening to discover that the blue gill is a sub-group along with pumpkinseeds and red breasts, with differences in markings as pointed out in Lisa’s diagrams. We discovered that carp, a "trash fish" to us in the western hemisphere, is considered a specialty in Europe. The pike group is comprised of chain pickerel (named because of its chain-link fence patterned markings), muskellunge, tiger muskie and northern pike.

Lisa's work pays off with a happy girl and her bluegill. A future NJOWLer!

The migratory group of fish in N.J. consists of species which move from freshwater to salt water bodies of water and vice versa. Of these, American shad, sturgeon (from which we get caviar), alewives, blueback herring and striped bass spawn in freshwater (usually slow moving rivers) and return to saltwater. Lisa pointed out that sturgeon do not reproduce until mature at approximately 30 years of age and the population has been so depleted that it will take centuries to bring it back.

Coldwater species can be found in water temperatures of 68 degrees or less. Rainbow, brook, brown and lake trout comprise this group and there are 175 trout production streams in NJ. The Division plays a major role in raising trout used for stocking lakes and streams providing more fishing opportunities for the general public. Building on a program that was begun in 1875, the Pequest Trout Hatchery now stocks 250,000 rainbow trout, 240,000 brook trout, and 127,000 brown trout annually. Using slides, Lisa gave us a bird’s eye view of the trout reproduction at Pequest, from the first stage of stripping the eggs from the female to the end stage of stocking, pointing out that division is always mindful of keeping the fish disease-free.

The Hackettstown Hatchery, built in 1912, raises and stocks over 2 million warm water fish each year. The hatchery also supplies fish to the Mosquito Commission and provides opportunities to children in the form of fishing derbies and educational programs.

In addition to the stocking program, the Division will stabilize the banks of streams or lakes, provide additional habitats for fish by felling trees in to the water along the shore and in some cases show municipalities how to implement these methods. All of their programs have the effect of improving the quality of the freshwater fish population and in turn provide us with more opportunities for fishing. These culture and habitat activities, however, are only one small part of the Bureau’s responsibilities. The Bureau reviews land use projects to minimize impacts, classifies streams for added regulation protection, establishes the state’s fishing regulations, works with the Department of Environmental Protection to protect water quality, and samples the state’s aquatic resources to assess, protect and enhance them.

Our thanks goes to Lisa for giving us an in-depth view of the freshwater fish in New Jersey.

by Sandy Norman