State Fish Of New Jersey
Brook Trout Is The Official State Fish Of New Jersey. New Jersey adopted the brook trout as the official New Jersey State Fish On January 8, 1992.
IDENTIFICATION:
Brook trout have a long, streamlined body with a large mouth that extends past the eye. Color variations include olive, blue-gray or black above with a silvery-white belly and wormlike markings along the back. National Fish Of New Jersey Brook Trout have red spots sometimes surrounded by bluish halos on their sides. The lower fins have a white front edge followed by black and the remainder being reddish-orange. During fall breeding time, State Fish Of New Jersey male brook trout will develop a slightly hooked jaw and become very bright orange-red along the lower sides which are highlighted by a black vertical stripe along the belly.
FISHING:
New Jersey State Fish Brook trout are ready biters and they can be caught by using various baits and lures including worms, crickets, grasshoppers, wet and dry flies, spoons and spinners. They can be found in deep holes and under the cover of logs or overhanging banks in many streams where they often pursued by anglers drifting worms along the bottom. New Jersey State Fish Brook trout are more diurnal than other trout, giving them a reputation among fly fishermen as “gentlemen trout,” and are perhaps the least discriminatory.
DIET:
National Fish Of New Jersey Brook Trout have been described as voracious feeders with the potential to consume large numbers seasonally available mayflies, stoneflies and other aquatic insects as well as terrestrial insects. However, New Jersey State Fish Brook Trout will often feed on whatever is most readily available like zooplankton, crustaceans, worms, and fish.
LIFE HISTORY:
State Fish Of New Jersey Brook Trout can be found alongside rocks, under cover of logs and undercut banks, in cold water, spring-fed streams, rivers, lakes and in the Great Lakes. Larger brook trout often inhabit deep in stream pools moving to shallow water feed. Spawning generally occurs in the months of October and November. Mature brook trout seek a gravel riffle area in spring-fed streams, seepage areas of ponds, lakeshores with swift currents or groundwater seepages. Female brook trout use their tails to create a spawning bed (or redd). After spawning the female covers the eggs (up to 5,000 per female) with gravel.