Newark Watershed Reservoirs

[Pike Popper]

I'm just wondering how many of you get the permits and fish these reservoirs. If so, whats your favorite reservoir to fish and do you shoreline fish them or fish them by boat? I like Clinton Reservoir the most and there is a lot of access to shoreline fish it. I also like the river that comes out of the reservoir that you aren't allowed to fish  I'll be buying my permit in a few weeks or so. I wish these places were open year round so I could get some ice fishing in at them.

[MikeThePike]

Well Pike, Clinton is good for perch & smallies but I prefer Echo because my friends that are 50+" call its waters home. Getting a boat will defiantly help us out on all of them though. Do the permits still go on sale opening day of trout season (April 9th)?

[bayonne]

clinton is also great for trout i fished from shore with power bait and did good with rainbows and hear thiers some big browns in thier aswell

[Tom_K_from_NJ]

I like Clinton and Oak Ridge for smallmouths.  I fish there by boat in Spring and early summer.  My luck really falls off after then. One of these days, I want to get to know Echo for Musky.  I wish I could "ice" fish Echo.   I think the season runs from the first day of trout season, until aprox mid Oct.  Also, I think they close down when the terrorism alerts get high.

[MikeThePike]

Echo, I think has the best musky fishing in NJ. The fish prefer smaller baits though and will tend to just follow the bigger baits out of curiousity and not hit them. The season on Echo runs through mid November where the other 3 reserviors close off in mid to late Oct.

I think the reason Echo as well as the other 3 bodies of water produce such good fish is that fact they are permit only and they don't allow ice fishing. Since you have to pay to fish them, many people won't because they'd rather go to places that are free. Also, whether we want to admit it or not, more people seem to keep fish caught ice fishing than open water fishing, which seems especially true for muskies.

[TONYR]

I get the permit each year. Nice place to fish, never crowded, and each lake has it's HI's and LO's. Canistere has walleye although they are hard to come by as well as smallies and perch. The drawdowns in past years have closed the lakes in the mid-season when it gets real dry. Parking can be a bust if you don't get there early because of the limited access. Because of liability they don't allow ice fishing which makes no sense, they have to have it for the open water crowd. It's also sunup to sundown, no night fishing.

[metaliczombi]

I have a question about calling the office for reservations, do you guys do it everytime you want to fish them from a boat?  Last year I fished one of them on average once a week and calling got to be a real pain, even though it only takes a minute.  I just am interested if they do anything to verify your permit number on the car sticker to see if you called.

[DR.TROUT]

Are you allowed to fish thew pequanke, the river that runs out of clinton of you buy a permit???

[Pike Popper]

Are you sure thats the Pequannock that runs out of Clinton Reservoir? Anyways, your not allowed to fish it. If you are thinking about it, you have to be sneaky. Ive fished it before and parked all the way up on that hill between the road and the reservoir. You actually are not allowed to park on the side of the road at that part, even if you have the hiking permit. Where Ill fish sometimes is right below the bridge on Clinton Road. Its good fishing but its a b***h to get to, and its only accesible from the left side. I wouldnt recommend trying it, cause I don't know what will happen if you get caught. I fish a lot of places I'm not suppose to.......and will continue till I get caught.  All I know is that Mike got chased out of there one day.......by a bear....haha Mike went running for his life  Its weird, cause its all posted no tresspassing in that particular area, but you can fish the other brooks and streams along Clinton Road. 

[MikeThePike]

I don't owe a boat but I highly doubt there would go through the trouble of making sure you called ahead before launching each and every time. I've only been checked by one guy at the 3 of them I've fished and he noticed the permit decal on my car window and didn't even bother to see actual permit.

Pike, being chased out by that bear was worth it because I caught the most beautiful native rainbow I'd ever seen. I didn't even want to touch it in fear I may mess up a few scales on such a perfect looking fish. Defiantly no comparision to them stockies. The bear didn't scare me a lot since it was just a cub but what scared me is that if the cub is around the mother couldn't have been too far away and the last thing I want is a 500lb bear to think I'm pi$$ing off its offspring.

[DR.TROUT]

Do you know where oakridge road is and a rr bridge in that area to the creek i my dad has been trying to get this detailed written step by step guide to this wild trout stream , and final;y got it after 4  years of trying.And from the place it says fish the rr bridge to the resivor and i think the river is pequanikee becouse the directions give you places off the road in hidding ot park,bait to use and ho0w at the moputh of the resiovoir has awsome musky and pike, and walleye.But im manely wnaa go to getthe wilds.I just whent on map quest and found out it is oak ridge resovoir.Gotta go there these secret spots make my mouth drull

[Pike Popper]

Yes the wild trout stream you are speaking of is the pequannock, but I don't think thats what comes out of Clinton. If I am correct, I believe its Clinton Brook. I also have tried finding the wild trout stream you are speaking of. The best I could do was parking across from the rail road tracks on a road around Oak Ridge...Don't even know how I got there...I don't think I was in the designated trout area though. I saw no signs and i couldn't even tell what river it was I was fishing.
I am going out on a limb here, but maybe the wild trout stream area is what comes out of Charlottesburg reservoir. If so, the mouth (spillway) has got to have some great fishing. I could never find out where to access it at though.   

[DR.TROUT]

Nope i just pulled out my stream and lake map of nj and finaly found out it gose into oakridge res.IM heading up therr probly in the fall for the brown trout spawn.I saw picks online at espn.com they let them do a show there and the guy was pulling out troutthat looked like he was in a northwestern stream big 6lb brown decked out in spawning colors.I gotta go there.

[mark mercer]

the mouth of the charlotesburg is dynamite, but recently they have been crackin down on trespassing. although it is legal to fish up to the iron bridge there by a special one day permit, if u want i can show u where to park as long as u have a 4 wheel drive vehicle with a pass.

[Pike Popper]

I am just letting everyone know that I called the other day and they said the 2005 permits are already on sale.

[MikeF150]

Does anyone know whether they limit the number of permits they sell per season or do they just sell as many as they can?

Thanks....Mike

[Pike Popper]

I don't think its limited. They sell as many as they can I guess.

[MikeThePike]

These reservoirs may still have some ice by opening day. Clinton had 13" out from the boat launch yesterday. Only drilled 1 hole just to see how much ice there was.