The New Jersey Fish and Game Council has scheduled a public hearing for the proposed 2005 Fish Code at 7 p.m., September 14, at the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP’s) Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Central Region Office (Assunpink) on Eldridge Road in Robbinsville, Monmouth County.

The Fish Code describes the legal angling methods, season dates, size and catch limits, and trout stocking locations/dates for freshwater fishing in the Garden State. The regulations are reviewed annually and revised based on biological findings and changing situations, then proposed for the next year’s code.

Anglers should note the following highlights of proposed changes:

• Opening day of the 2005 trout season is proposed for April 9, 2005. All of the dates throughout the code that are dependent on this date have been adjusted accordingly.
• Mill Brook would be deleted from the list of trout stocked waters in Morris County due to limited angler access and use.
• Due to a declining holdover trout fishery and poor returns on stocked trout, Monksville Reservoir would be deleted from the Division’s trout stocking program with Green Turtle Pond replacing the reservoir as a stocking location.
• A statewide minimum size limit of 15 inches and a daily possession limit of two fish per day are proposed for lake trout.
• April 16 is the proposed date for the start of the trout season on the Delaware River.
• The harvest of white perch and blueback herring by commercial gill netters would be permitted from May 1 to June 10.
• A creel limit of 50 fish per day is proposed for Greenwood Lake for yellow perch and sunfish. Currently, there is no established daily creel limit for either yellow perch or sunfish for New Jersey anglers fishing Greenwood Lake.
• A catch and release season for smallmouth and largemouth bass is proposed for April 16 to June 10 in the Delaware River.
• An increase in the size limit, from 12 to 15 inches, is proposed for largemouth bass in Boonton Reservoir.
• The current upstream limit of Route 1 for the closed season on spawning striped bass and their hybrids in the Delaware River would be extended upstream to the Calhoun Street bridge.