The hatchery that stocks the state
New Jersey raises its stocked trout at the Pequest Trout Hatchery in Warren County, and the river the hatchery is named for runs right past it, so the fish here have the shortest commute in the state. The state credits the hatchery with the more than 180,000 trout released for the April 11, 2026 opener. South Branch Outfitters puts annual production at about 700,000 fish and notes the free visitor center, worth a stop if you have kids along.
The Pequest rises at Stickles Pond in Newton, runs south past Huntsville, through Tranquility and along Allamuchy Mountain, then crosses the flat Great Meadows between Jenny Jump and Cat Swamp mountains before dropping through a small gorge, the Pequest WMA, Buttzville and Bridgeville to the falls at Belvidere and the Delaware. The shop describes a freestone with a limestone streak, rich enough to grow good bug hatches.
Conrail bridge to Pequest Furnace Road: how the TCA works
The Seasonal Trout Conservation Area runs from the Conrail railroad bridge just upstream of the hatchery access road down to the Route 625 (Pequest Furnace Road) bridge, about 1.4 miles. There is a paved lot at the hatchery; from Route 31 take Route 46 east about 4 miles. The rules change four times a year. January 1 to March 22: artificial lures only, no bait or scented product, one trout of at least 15 inches. March 23 to April 10: catch and release. April 11 from midnight to 8 a.m.: no fishing. From the 8 a.m. opener to May 24, gear rules lift and the limit is six trout of 9 inches. From May 25 through December 31 it goes back to artificials, one fish, 15 inches.
On top of that, the TCA is closed during the first six spring stocking days. The rest of the stocked Pequest, from Pequest Road in Green Township down to the Delaware, closes 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays after opening day, which in 2026 were April 17 and 24 and May 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29. Watch one wrinkle: the TCA table in the 2026 digest says the last closure date, when you may fish but must release everything caught between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m., is May 25, which is a Monday and does not match the Friday list. Call the Division before fishing that last week. The river is in the Brook Trout Conservation Zone, so brook trout always go back.
Fish that swim back toward the hatchery
From September through March, South Branch Outfitters says, big trout move up the river toward the hatchery in what it calls a mini steelhead run, and egg patterns are the fly to have. That lines up with the calendar: the TCA is back to one 15-inch fish from late May, and the state's fall stocking of two-year-old trout up to 16 inches starts October 13, 2026 across nearly 60 waters, with no fall fishing closures anywhere.
If the TCA is crowded, the shop points to Buttzville down to Belvidere for the best holdover fishing with fewer people, and to the water above the hatchery for shaded runs that stay cooler.
The Pequest gauge sits on the special water
USGS gauge 01445500 is at Pequest, at the TCA, so it reads the exact reach most people fish. No shop publishes a wading range for it; the 80 to 250 cfs band here is taken from the long-term record, which averages about 278 cfs in March and 262 in April, 190 in May, 135 in June and roughly 96 to 106 cfs from July through October. Near the top of that band in April the water carries color from the Great Meadows farmland; near the bottom in August it is clear and the fish get wary.
The upstream Huntsville gauge reads only the headwaters and was near 12 cfs on September 24, 2026, while Pequest read about 65. In the three weeks before that the Pequest gauge ranged from 69 to 188 cfs.
The sulphurs, then the white fly
The shop's short list for the Pequest is Hendricksons, a dense sulphur hatch, Light Cahills, Tricos and the White Fly. No dated chart exists for this river, so the months in the table are taken from the shop's South Branch chart, the nearest published one: Hendricksons in April, sulphurs peaking in May and June, Cahills in June, Tricos in August and September mornings, and White Flies in the evenings of August.