Week of October 18, 2026: Mind the Reds & Temp Swings
Hey hey everyone! This is another very short report. Time is precious and I do not have enough of it these days, so excuse the typos in advance.
First - it is spawning season so let’s be extra careful protecting the next generation of fish after our brutal summer and drought conditions.
It is sufficient to say a red is a fish nest - a circle or oval shape on the stream bed that has been prepared by a fish to receive eggs. Once the red is ready, a fish will deposit eggs and another fish comes along and fertilizes the eggs. Easy to understand and relatively easy to spot if you have them in mind.
Leave the fish hovering over a red alone and certainly avoid stepping on or otherwise disturbing the red. This weekend I confidently said, “Brown trout spawn in the fall,” but an angler I know well and trust let me know he saw rainbow trout on reds as recently as last week. I am always willing to be wrong and hope that all of our fish take all of the opportunity and seasons they need to repopulate our waters!
Brown or Rainbow or Brook - or sucker for that matter - watch out for reds.
Does anyone know where this is going next?
It is time to fish EGGS! The trout also know that it is spawning season and are eagerly eating any eggs that float past them. In fact, the earliest and one-of-the-few positive reports I got last week was early early Saturday morning and eggs were key. When eggs are “fresh” they are brightly colored; choose vibrant orange, yellow, or pink. As the date of deposit recedes, so does the color of the egg. In a few weeks, they will be pale and more dead looking as the unfertilized eggs dislodge and enter the flow.
In the shop, “sucker spawn” or micro eggs are near the wooly buggers and streamers. I know last week I said I was going to write about streamers, but the cold front that came through, I am afraid, pushed the newly stocked fish and their hold-over friends back down to the river bed.
As I alluded to, there were few positive reports this weekend, meaning, few anglers who came into the shop (or online) reported wild success. I think the cold and the usual period of acclimatation frustrated many of us out there, myself included. Truth be told, I have not caught a trout in NJ in months! My excuse this time is limited time, but I did get out and still have the skunk.
That being said, fish are being caught. I had the pleasure of guiding a father and son this weekend. Only one fish came to the net, but it was a big one.
Stick with it! The fish are adjusting to the colder and new conditions and so must we.
See you out there,
Roy B.
