Opening Day of Trout Fishing

Saturday April, 10th was the opening of the trout fishing season. My friend Eddie and I went to Holmdel Park in Holmdel, NJ like we have for the past few years. Historically, opening day tends to get very crowded, so in order to secure a good spot, you have to gt there early. In our case, 6 AM. The park doesn't usually open until 7 AM. This year, however, They opened the gates at 6:40 AM. Every year it has been a mad rush of vehicles heading to the parking lot and fishermen grabbing their gear and getting to 'their spots', this angler included.

As I am heading to the lake I notice there are not nearly as many people as previous years. I simply figured it had to do with the economy and all. Well, 8 AM (the official start fishing time) came and went and not one fish was caught. It wasn't until well after 9:30 when we saw the first trout caught. I don't know if it was a rainbow, brook or brown but it was small. It turned out to be the only fish caught, out of 210 stocked, in the 3+ hours we were there.

On the way out we were talking with a few people and they mentioned about the birds eating all the trout. The bird they were referring to is the cormorant. The cormorant is a diving bird that gorges itself on fish that it can fit in it's mouth and swallow whole. I must admit that I only half believed this to be true.

We headed home and Eddie had to go to work, so I took a quick nap and in the afternoon headed to Hooks Creek Lake, in Cheesequake State Park in Matawan, NJ. I fished there for about another 2 hours or so. Again I heard about the cormorants eating all the trout. One guy I talked to there said he was at the lake as the trout were stocked and a couple of hours later the cormorants flew in and spent a few hours diving in the lake eating all the trout.

At 8 AM the shore line of Hooks Creek Lake was crowded with anglers shoulder to shoulder fishing. About 20 trout out of over 400 stocked were caught. Any trout fishermen will tell you that with that many trout stocked, the ratio of fish stocked to fish caught is way off. So now I am more inclined to believe the cormorants did indeed eat all the trout.

Although opening day 2012 is a year away, we are already making plans to fish a different lake.

I just can't help but wonder if the cormorants used butter and lemon pepper with a few lemon slices like we planned.

~Tight lines~