For so many opening day of trout season is an annual ritual. I used to do it, mostly in my early fishing years in the off-color and underwater maze of debris in the Manasquan River. Most of the fish I caught would be filleted and placed in aluminum foil only to wind up solid in a block of ice at the bottom of the freezer.
On my way for slightly bigger fish I stopped before the 8am start and talked with the above guys. They were talking of the current water conditions and the inevitable question that always comes up, "I wonder if they put a lot of fish here?". Anglers had it all out there for bait, garden worms, salmon eggs, meal worms, PowerBait, but the go-to was the old-reliable Mepp's Spinner. Most of the people who limited out quick on the 8-10 inch trout had luck with lures in the murky water. My man below had a three-rod
soak going on and had one floater to show for it. It's not my jam but it used to be. This is surely a put and take fishery here in the Delaware and Raritan Canal as the waters warm up quickly as spring turns to summer. A few people told me they saw a large muskie patrolling the banks and I am sure it didn't wait for the 8 o'clock start to pick off a few of the stockie rainbows.
And in the category of- we ned to do better- somehow we need to change the direction of belly hooks for striped bass. Striped bass historically eat head first so the three hooks you have up front should serve you well. Nicely, the ones below have had the barbs pinched down, which is great. But that treble that
hangs off the back does more bad than good. Gill plates, eyes, a second set of hooks in the mouth, or even the pectoral fin depending on the length of the plug, can be places where the needless hooks find a home. If needed you can hang a single hook or what a lot of plug makers do these days is hang a flag, or bucktail, off the back.