This one's going to be a little long. With this summer's hot spell gone and the air temps dropping at night to the mid 60's the water temps have dropped like a stone in the last two weeks
from almost 90 to the mid-70's. I gave it a go and after hitting a few spots I wanted to check out the action down by the river in Trenton. In recent weeks I have seen a lot of cars, trucks, and heavy machinery in the parking lot. After finding a parking spot I got out to see what is going on, well, there's a lot, and the changes are
going to be massive and detrimental to fishing, at least from the waters edge on the Trenton side. For the past few years I have spent my best times fishing crawling down amongst the rocks, rebar, and concrete in pursuit of striped bass. When I went home I did some research to see what the plan was
for the waterfront. I spoke with the guys also, and they said they are clearing the land and buidling a bulkhead which will become an extension of waterfront park which stops at Cooper's Riverview, which is nect to the Trenton Thunder stadium. The plan, it seems is to have the promenade go from
Bordentown all the way to New Brunswick. The waterfront redevelopment may include the structuring Route 29 and making it more of a Main Street feel rather than a highway where the homeless shake you down for change at each intersection. That will make way for the promenade,
new streets, shops, restaurants, and of course housing. Should make for an interesting 12 weight backcast as people enjoy the river. The history of the Trenton waterfront is deep in history. Once lined with factories, shops, and housing it all went away as Trenton slipped and other means of maufacturing and transportation came to light mid-century. As far as the river itself it was nice in the
17, 18, and early 1900's thewn went to shit and thgen started to improve in the late 1970's. Shad, herring, and striped bass have been coming up the river to spawn since th beginning of time and the migration has waxed and waned with the water quality. Below is a finding from the USEPA.
I took the below photo while on assignment in 2010, 10 years after the EPA declared that shad and bass had returned to the bay and river. That was taken when herring were still able to be caught and livelined. What is interesting about that photo is you'll never be able to stand there and fish
again. Nor will the homeless be able to use the cover of trees and fencing for their temporary housing. When I used to sneak down at 2 am and there was no one fishing I always worried about startling one of the guys, never saw a woman, and his first survival reaction was to fight or push me into the drink. But, I got more offers for help getting back up and hellos than anything else.
So how will this change things for the better. First it will look nice. Second it will clean up the area greatly. In the dark of night in the thick of the brush poachers run wild and campfires burn while garbage piles up along the once nicer promenade. Third, it may stimulate growth to the area which will include more dining, floating docks for people to pull up to and get something to eat. Now, why is it bad. First, river access. This will be become a promenade fishery with anglers catching 30-40 pund bass and tying to hoist them up and then drop them back into the river. It won't be good for catch and release. And then that area is the only way to access the river bottom. That's done. No more waiting for the dropping or dead low tide, you won't be able to get there. Second, it will become a boat fishery, not that it isn't already. Third, the Pennsy side will become stupid jammed up with anglers, with limited access to begin with. That will kill it for sure.
When I spoke with the workers they said the deconstruction will take a few months and a new bulkhead will be in place by the end of the fall, with no access to the water, up to the Amtrak bridge. Below is a bunch of photos of the area for histories sake....
This all puts a knot in my stomach like it did before beach replenishent hit Monmouth and Ocean counties, regularly, over 10 years ago. It was good on the beach then, and the dmage has been so great and widespread it may never recover. That is more of an environmental disaster, while this is purely fishing related.
But with that I did go fishing anyway. It was the start of the outgoing and the surface was alive with shad or herring fry making their way out to sea. They got 130 miles to go. I ddin't see any
surface action, and I would think you would, unless there's no reason to blow up on something when all you have to do is filter feed under the surface. I had on a popper, which my buddy uses religiously on this river, and did have a little action in the way of a smallmouth bass that came up
and grabbed it during a pause on the retrieve. Before heading home I went to check on my pet snakeheads and found the water up and higher than I have ever seen it. We're five days since the super moon so I was a little surprised. Didn't see or catch anything there, but that's nothing new.
