Spring showers bring April flowers, but late October rainstorms bring high rivers.
Anglers had good smallmouth bass and trout fishing in the rivers this month, and the fish will be there when weather clears. Pond, lake and reservoir fishing won"t be affected, other than by the leaves that foul angler"s hooks.
It"s a good time to hunt and have fall cleanups. Lake Hopatcong will have a lake-wide cleanup Saturday.
The lake"s water level has dropped five feet since September, so lakeside residents can repair their docks and boathouses.
Most years the water level is dropped by one foot, but every five years, lakeside residents and volunteers remove debris from the exposed lake bed. When the lake"s full of water, it"s maximum depth is about 50 feet.
During the last five-year drawdown, more than 400 people participated in the cleanup, removing 23,000 pounds of debris from the exposed shoreline. At this year"s big cleanup, local groups and organizations and volunteers will participate.
The Lake Hopatcong Foundation, along with the Lake Hopatcong Commission, is coordinating with the four lake municipalities, two counties, the state and local groups to organize hundreds of volunteers for cleanup on Saturday, from 8 a.m. to noon. If you want to participate, call the Lake Hopatcong Foundation or email lakehopatcongfoundation.org.
At Dow"s Boat Rentals, Laurie Murphy said "we had hoped to be able to rent boats into November sometime, but with the earlier start to the five-foot drawdown, it has affected us more than it usually does.
"We were unable to keep our docks in the water, which means the boats had to be pulled sooner than we thought," Laurie said. "We will still be open with bait and tackle for some time, but please call to check on our hours. (973) 663-3826. We will be stocked and ready to go for ice fishing season."
The early bird gets the most worms according to an old saying, but not for woodcock this year.
The woodcock season opened on Oct. 20 in the state"s North Zone with spotty success. Maybe it"s because migrant birds bred from Maine and in the Maritime provinces in Canada didn"t have a good breeding season.
A Maine biologist said the woodcock early birds from the south got hit by bad weather in March. The ground-nesting birds, who eat a lot of worms, suffered through March"s harsh weather when mating was going on.last March"s weather was harsh when mating was going on. The birds also eat insect larvae, snails, millipedes and some seeds.
American shad have discovered the Millstone River.
The river"s Weston Causeway Dam was removed during last summer, and the 38-mile-long river is a tributary of the Raritan River.
The Division of Fish and Wildlife has made great efforts to restore migratory routes of anadromous fish species (those which live in the ocean but spawn in freshwater), including river herring and American Shad. In recent years, dams have been removed from the Raritan, Musconetcong, Paulinskill and Millstone rivers. And now the Millstone has 50 species of fish.
Migratory species, including American shad, gizzard shad, blueback herring, striped bass and American eel, have been documented passing the Island Farm Weir fish ladder on the Raritan River near its confluence with the Millstone River, about 1.5 miles downstream of the former Weston Causeway Dam that was removed.
Calendar
Nov. 4: Daylight Savings Time ends at 2 a.m.
Nov. 10: Pheasant and partridge season opens
Source: https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/sports/columnists/jim-stabile/2018/10/27/outdoors-fish-there-just-when-weather-clears/1789725002/
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