The wild, mountainous highlands of northwestern New Jersey are crisscrossed by dozens of excellent trout streams. Visiting any of them will remind you why they call it the Garden State.
It’s a far cry from the suburban sprawl that some might associate with New Jersey. Numerous rivers are stocked annually with brown trout and rainbow trout, and many also support wild populations of both species.
New Jersey also retains a significant part of its native brook trout habitat, mostly in small streams that flow westward toward the Delaware River, which forms its western border. Many of the waters here rival the more famous fisheries of neighboring New York and Pennsylvania.
Musconetcong River
A tributary of the Delaware River, the Musconetcong River flows 46 miles through New Jersey’s northwestern Highlands region. A designated National Wild and Scenic River, its headwaters are formed by Lake Hopatcong, the largest lake in the state.
The Musconetcong River is a heavily stocked trout stream, with the state planting over 50,000 brook and brown trout most years. A decent number of these fish hold over, so there’s a fair chance you’ll encounter some big fish here.
There are also a few wild trout in the Musconetcong River, both browns and brookies. Stocked fish vastly outnumber them, and you’re most likely to find wild trout in the river’s upper reaches and some of its tributaries.
Limestone springs help keep the river cool enough to support trout year-round while maintaining a healthy pH necessary for aquatic insects. Anglers can take advantage of abundant hatches here.
Those include various stoneflies early in the season and mayflies, including little Blue Winged Olives, Blue Quills, and Hendricksons. Mayflies hatch in spring (usually April-May) and again in fall (usually September-October).
Some of the best fishing is on the upper Musconetcong River. From Saxton Falls down through Stephens State Park, the river offers beautiful pocket water along with some deep pools, long runs and rocky riffles. Ample tree cover provides shade on the upper Musconetcong.
Farther down, the river opens up and flows through farmland. The bottom is softer and aquatic vegetation more abundant, but the trout fishing remains excellent. The section between Penwell Bridge and Point Mountain Bridge is a designated Seasonal Trout Conservation Area.
There are at least 60 access points all along the Musconetcong River, many of them maintained by the state. You’ll find no shortage of places to wet a line. Much of the river is also ideal for paddling.
Big Flat Brook
Big Flat Brook has been called New Jersey’s most beautiful trout stream. Starting at Sawmill Pond within High Point State Park, it flows 16.5 miles through the northernmost corner of the state before merging with Little Flat Brook and ultimately draining into the Delaware River.
Along the way, Big Flat Brook provides ideal trout habitat. Stocked rainbow trout coexist with respectable populations of wild brook and brown trout, and there are a lot of different kinds of water here for anglers to explore.
The upper part of Big Flat Brook has a bottom largely composed of larger rocks and shelves of shale, with some good fast pocket water. As it continues on, the stream takes on classic riffle-pool-run configurations with some longer, soft-bottomed pools and runs below Route 206.
Thanks to varied habitat and excellent water chemistry, Big Flat Brook supports some outstanding insect hatches. Blue Winged Olives are probably the most important, often hatching from February through April, and again in late May and early June.
It’s often common to see Blue Winged Olives and Caddis hatching in the morning, with Sulphurs hatching in the evening. Additional BWO hatches take place in August and September.
The most well-known section of Big Flat Brook is the no-kill, fly-fishing-only section from Route 206 to Roy Bridge. Sometimes referred to as the Blewett Tract, this stretch spans the lower 4 miles of the stream and is among the best places to fly fish in New Jersey.
The rest of the stream is under statewide regulations, so spin fishing and harvesting fish for the table is allowed. By summer, the lower end of Big Flat Brook often warms to the point that mortality of hooked fish is high, so focus your efforts farther up until the water cools in fall.
South Branch Raritan River
A 50-mile tributary of the Raritan River proper, the South Branch Raritan River is a unique trout stream that offers a very different experience depending on which part of the river you fish.
Starting at the outflow from Budd Lake, a small glacial lake, the first section of the South Branch is designated wild trout water. This section stretches nearly 7 miles, and the state stopped stocking trout here in 1995 so that wild fish could flourish.
The wild trout section, which includes the stretch formerly known as the Claremont Tract, is home to healthy wild brown trout and native brook trout. These fish are wary and selective, but fishing this stretch of river can be very rewarding to stealthy anglers.
This area is 10 to 20 feet wide, mostly shallow and easy to wade. It has some excellent pools and pocket water, with a lot of overhanging foliage. Small flies and short rods are ideal.
Around Claremont, things start to change. The remainder of the South Branch Raritan River is one of the most heavily stocked trout streams in New Jersey.
Browns and rainbows are abundant, and holdover fish offer trophy potential. It’s common to see 16-inch rainbow trout and 20-inch browns in the Ken Lockwood Gorge catch-and-release section below Claremont.
Anglers have caught a few monster brown trout weighing 7 pounds or more in the Ken Lockwood Gorge. The only trouble is the river’s excellent reputation and proximity to New York City mean that it can get very crowded.
Fly anglers can take advantage of many bug hatches here, including Quill Gordons and Blue Quills in early spring, followed by March Browns, Sulphurs, Cinnamon Sedges and Little Yellow Stoneflies. There are multiple waves of Blue Winged Olives and Slate Drakes.
Pequest River
Perhaps best known as the location of the Pequest Trout Hatchery, the Pequest River flows 35.7 miles through northwestern New Jersey’s Skylands region before emptying into the Delaware River.
The Pequest River is one of the state’s best bets for trophy trout. The sections near the hatchery support holdovers, and it’s common for surplus hatchery trout to be released here. Winter is an especially good time to fish the Pequest River for chunky browns, brook trout and rainbows.
You’ll definitely want to set your sights on the lower river, around the hatchery. The upper Pequest River starts as a mere trickle at Stickles Pond in Sussex County, and the middle part of the river channel looks more ditch-like through the mucky Great Meadows area.
Below Independence Township, the river changes character. Moving more swiftly over an increasingly rocky bottom, the Pequest River starts to resemble the great trout stream that it is.
Numerous excellent access points are above and below the hatchery along US-46 and Janes Chapel Road. The hatchery itself provides excellent stream access, and the Pequest Wildlife Management Area Trail also parallels the river, crossing it twice.
A lot of classic New Jersey hatches happen here, including Blue Winged Olives, Quills, March Browns and Hendricksons. Nymphing is a reliably productive tactic, especially in the colder months, with smaller flies generally faring best.
Patterns like Hare’s Ear Nymphs and Black Zebra Midge are great. Midges are a year-round part of the local diet, and they’ll work when nothing else is hatching. Another staple are Green Sedge larvae, known as Green Rock Worms.
Manasquan River
Eastern New Jersey’s Manasquan River is quite different from the westward-flowing tributaries of the Delaware River. This eastward-flowing river empties directly into the Atlantic Ocean, and it offers a unique opportunity to target sea-run brown trout.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection operated an experimental stocking program here from 1997 well into the 2000s, planting hundreds of thousands of brown trout over the years.
The aim was to reestablish a self-sustaining population of sea-run brown trout. Though the program has been discontinued, anglers continue to report catching brown trout in the fall, when they return to the Manasquan River to spawn in October and November.
At this writing, there haven’t been any surveys to document whether the trout are spawning successfully. But sea-run browns are commonly caught at spots like the Hospital Road Bridge access site and at Brice Park below the Garden State Parkway.
In recent years, the state has stocked rainbow trout at various points on the river instead of browns. Several thousand ‘bows are stocked in the spring, as well as a few hundred in the fall.
The rainbows mostly provide a put-and-take fishery, but anglers sometimes catch larger holdovers. Anglers commonly use natural baits like salmon eggs and worms and lures like spinners and Trout Magnets.
Dunnfield Creek
A small stream that flows into the Delaware River not far from Delaware Water Gap, Dunnfield Creek is arguably the best place in New Jersey to catch native brook trout. This designated Wild Trout Stream offers an abundance of native brookies in a wild setting.
There are some wild brown trout here as well. Browns are more dominant in the lower portion of Dunnfield Creek, with brook trout being more common above the creek’s main waterfall.
Dunnfield Creek flows through Worthington State Forest, and it is paralleled by the Dunnfield Creek Trail, which provides outstanding foot access. The trail starts at the Appalachian Trail parking area just off I-80.
The Dunnfield Trail initially runs concurrent with the Appalachian Trail before branching off to the right. It crisscrosses the stream multiple times and allows anglers to easily reach some beautiful deep pockets and pools.
The creek is strewn with large boulders, and there are some excellent undercut rocks and banks that harbor trout. Once you get a sense of where they’re hiding on any given day, the brook trout are often eager to bite.
Only artificial lures are allowed here, and spin anglers often find success with shad darts, Trout Magnets and tiny Rooster Tails. For fly anglers, bead-head nymphs like Pheasant Tails are a good option, and a small Wooly Bugger will often do the trick.
All-around patterns like Adams, Elk Hair Caddis and Hendricksons tend to work when there’s an active hatch going, as the brook trout in Dunnfield Creek don’t often require precise matching of the hatch. Still, it never hurts to consult a statewide hatch chart.
Pohatcong Creek
Another Delaware River tributary with excellent trout fishing, Pohatcong Creek flows southwest through a little over 30 miles of Warren County. It’s a beautiful stream that is mostly rural except for the stretch that flows through Washington Township.
Brook, brown and rainbow trout are stocked at various times from March through May, with a smaller additional stocking of adult rainbows usually taking place in October. There are typically some good-sized holdovers available.
The upper portion of the creek is the most secluded, with excellent access from the State Route 31 bridge and from Valley and Belvidere roads. The creek is perfect for wading.
There’s no shortage of access as the creek passes through Washington Township, where the surroundings are a bit more urbanized. This stretch is especially popular, and although it is mostly flat-bottomed and shallow, there are some excellent deep holes.
Below Washington, the landscape becomes more rugged and remote, with the creek flowing through a rocky gorge between Routes 173 and 519. Ravine Road provides access, and this section offers some truly spectacular scenery as well as great fishing.
Pohatcong Creek supports many of the insect hatches typical of New Jersey streams. It’s especially well-known for its prolific Sulphur hatch, which typically takes place from mid to late May.
NJ Trout Lakes
New Jersey’s trout stocking program also includes dozens of lakes and ponds. Plantings occur during the pre-season period in March and early April and may continue during the open trout season, which runs from the second Saturday in April through May.
Here are some of the best New Jersey trout lakes.
Round Valley Reservoir
Formed in 1960 with the flooding of the valley surrounded by Cushetunk Mountain, 2,350-acre Round Valley Reservoir is the largest artificial lake in New Jersey. Deep and cold, it is regularly stocked with rainbow and brown trout and produced the 21-pound state record brown.
But Round Valley reservoir is best known as one of just two lakes in New Jersey that support lake trout. The 32-pound state record laker was caught here in 2002, and surveys have turned up multiple fish over 20 pounds.
Anglers catch lake trout by trolling spoons and flies anywhere from the surface to about 100 feet down, while most browns and rainbows are within the first 40 feet beneath the surface.
Winter is arguably the best time to fish, with cold temperatures allowing shore anglers to catch all three species. The lake is surrounded by Round Valley Recreation Area, which includes a boat ramp at the west end. Boats are limited to 10hp motors.
Lake Hopatcong
A sprawling lake with numerous islands and coves, Lake Hopatcong spans 2,500 acres, making it the largest natural lake in New Jersey. In addition to being the source of the Musconetcong River, officials also stock the lake annually to maintain its own trout fishery.
Close to 10,000 trout are stocked here every year by the state, as well as additional fish by the Knee Deep Club. Brown and rainbow trout are available, and occasional holdover fish reach truly impressive sizes.
The longstanding state record rainbow trout weighing 13 pounds was caught from Lake Hopatcong in 1988. Spring is the most popular season, with many trout falling for trolled spoons and plugs. Ice fishing is also possible most winters.
Lake Hopatcong also is among New Jersey’s top bass lakes.
Swartswood Lake
Encompassing 494 acres in northern New Jersey, Swartswood Lake is stocked with around 3,000 trout from the March pre-season through the end of April. It’s a popular spot for spring trout fishing that tends also to have some good holdovers.
Swartswood State Park provides boat ramps and rentals (electric and non-powered craft only) as well as camping and ample bank access. Casting small spinners and spoons with an ultralight spinning combo is a popular tactic, and fly fishers tend to do well with small streamers.
Verona Park Lake
One of the many smaller bodies of water the New Jersey DEP stocks every spring, 13-acre Verona Park Lake is little more than a pond. But it’s one of the best fishing options in the densely populated Essex County, especially if you’re looking for a spot to take kids fishing.
The lake in Verona Park receives around 2,000 trout during the spring season, as well as a small stocking of two-year-old rainbow trout averaging 14 to 16 inches in fall. It’s a put-and-take fishery, and you’ll do just fine with classic offerings like worms, salmon eggs and spinners.
Merrill Creek Reservoir
Like Round Valley Reservoir, 290-acre Merrill Creek Reservoir supports a healthy population of lake trout. Lake trout were stocked here until 1995, when it was determined that they were fully sustaining themselves through natural reproduction.
DEP surveys have turned up a lot of lake trout measuring up to 29 inches and 10 pounds.
Merrill Creek Reservoir is the deepest lake in New Jersey at 225 feet.
The state still stocks around 3,500 rainbow and/or brown trout every April, and Merrill Creek Reservoir offers excellent trout fishing year-round.
Bank fishing is best during the colder months, and anglers can choose among several excellent access sites around the lake’s mostly undeveloped shoreline.
Catch More Trout
Read our easy guide to catching all types of trout, with tips about techniques and tackle that will help you catch one of the most popular gamefish in America.