Well, Trout season is fun, but it also brings with it a bunch of newbs who don't know what they're doing, or what to do with any fish they catch. Today I caught a guy with a stringer of about 6-7 bass, one of which was in the 4lb range. Now that is a big female fish for NJ, that is most likely getting ready to spawn.. The guy was with about 3 buddies, and I suppose they all didn't have a clue what they were doing, how they managed to catch 6-7 bass is beyond me... Anyhow, they had a few beers with them (all of which they left on the ground after leaving >) so I didn't want to end up getting into a fight over fish, especially when I was outnumbered.

Well I gave the warden a call, and he told me he was a good distance away, and couldn't make it. So I was forced to try and talk to these guys and tell them they had to release the fish (you can't keep bass from April 15th - June 15th). Luckily enough, someone had told them a few minutes before I had that they can't keep bass this time of the year, so I atleast had an ally. They released the fish. The 4lber was pretty beat up from being on the stringer awhile I guess, its gill plate was pretty red, and it just didn't seem 100%. They "released" it by putting it into shallow water a couple inches deep and watched as it could barely swim off. I had to go over there and walk the fish out to deeper water to get it oxygen. After having it in the deeper water for a few, it took off so I am hoping she lived. I think they wanted to say "look, its in the water and it won't swim away, its dead why release it now?", which the truth of the matter was the fish didn't have the strength to take off in 2inches of water after being dragged around on a stringer for however long they had it on there, which was probably a couple hours.

Anyhow, I caught about 8-9 bass on a 1/4oz war eagle spinnerbait white/chart so I made out well today. Most were little 12inchers, the biggest was a 2lber. But it just frustrates me that when trout season comes along, these people who just don't seem to give a dam, and really aren't fishermen show up, and cause nothing but problems. Trout season is fun... but it sure does bring out some imbeciles... :-?

You don't need trout season for all that to happen. I agree though, I LOATHE being a mile back and seeing piles of styrofoam night crawler containers. Just ticks me off. You'd think all fisherman out there would have some respect for the area, but nope....