Budd Lake to Long Valley, where nobody stocks
The river starts below the Budd Lake dam in Mount Olive and does not see a stocking truck until Long Valley. The state splits this top end in two. From the Budd Lake dam to a dam about 400 feet above Flanders-Drakestown Road it is managed as a native brook trout stream; from that dam down to the mill dam 200 feet above Schooleys Mountain Road (Route 517) it is a wild trout stream with more than one species. Both pieces are artificials only, no more than three hook points in total, all barbless, and every brook trout goes back. Browns and rainbows can be kept from April 11 at 8 a.m. to September 15, two combined; outside that window it is catch and release.
South Branch Outfitters, the shop that shannonsflytackle.com now points to, calls the stretch from the YMCA dam to Schooleys Mountain Road its wild trout section and says the Claremont water has not been stocked since 1995. The shop describes cold springs coming up close to warm Budd Lake, which is why brook trout hang on so near a lake outlet. This is small, brushy water; it rewards a short rod and a careful approach more than long casts.
Ken Lockwood Gorge: 2.2 miles, no fish in the creel
Below Califon the river drops into the Ken Lockwood Gorge Wildlife Management Area, bought by the state in 1948 and named for Kenneth Lockwood, the Newark Evening News outdoor columnist who died on April 2 of that year. The fisheries digest lists the catch-and-release section as the part of the South Branch inside the WMA, about 2.2 miles; the shop calls it 2.5. Rules apply every day of the year: no trout in possession, artificial lures and flies only, barbless hooks with no more than three points, and no bait or scented product of any kind. Unlike the rest of the river, the gorge stays open during the spring stocking closures.
The road through the gorge is closed to through traffic. The digest's directions send you from Route 31 to Route 513; for the upper boundary turn at Hoffman's Crossing Road and take the first right after the bridge, and for the lower boundary take Silverthorne-Cokesbury Road and turn left after crossing the river. Park only in the marked areas. The shop says the middle lot is closed for good and that the Columbia Trail from High Bridge gives walking access. Expect boulders and pocket water; the shop recommends studded boots and a staff and says to work the banks under overhanging brush for the bigger browns.
The stocked river: Tuesdays off and 12-inch browns
Everything from the Long Valley mill dam to the junction with the North Branch is stocked, minus the gorge. Trout rivers in New Jersey close from March 23 until opening day, which was April 11, 2026 at 8 a.m., and after that this river shuts from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. on its stocking days, which run on Tuesdays: April 14, 21 and 28 and May 5, 12, 19 and 26 in 2026. The closure covers tributaries for 100 feet up from the main channel. There are no fall closures, and the state says these waters are also stocked in autumn; its combined fall program starts October 13, 2026 with about 29,000 two-year-old trout up to 16 inches spread across nearly 60 waters.
From the Long Valley mill dam down to the Lake Solitude dam in High Bridge, gorge excluded, the South Branch is managed as a stocked stream with wild browns, and browns must be 12 inches to keep. Rainbows and brook trout have a 9-inch minimum. The daily limit is two trout combined from January 1 to March 22, six from April 11 to May 31 with no more than two browns, then two again from June 1 through December 31. The whole river sits inside the Brook Trout Conservation Zone, so any brook trout you catch below Long Valley goes back immediately too.
High Bridge and the 150 to 200 cfs sweet spot
The High Bridge gauge sits just below the gorge, so it reads the water you are standing in at Ken Lockwood. South Branch Outfitters gives 150 to 200 cfs as the best range for the gorge, says to leave the fish alone below 50 cfs, and calls anything over 400 cfs dangerous wading. The long USGS record shows why the good window is a spring and late-fall thing: monthly means run about 201 cfs in March and 190 in April, then slide to 84 in July, 78 in August and 76 in September before recovering to 108 in November.
In the three weeks before September 24, 2026 the gauge ran between 51 and 275 cfs, with one rain spike, and read about 54 cfs on the 23rd. That is right at the shop's floor, so in a dry September treat the gorge as early-morning water and carry a thermometer.
What hatches, month by month
The shop's South Branch chart, compiled from Matt Grobert's book on New Jersey trout streams, East Jersey Trout Unlimited and its own guides, starts the year with midges and little black stoneflies in March. April is Quill Gordon, Blue Quill and Hendrickson; March Browns peak in May, sulphurs run May into July, and Light Cahills peak in June. Isonychia show from May to September with a second push in the fall, Tricos peak in August and September, and blue-winged olives come in spring and again from September into November. October caddis round out the gorge list.
Below Clinton the river warms and the shop points to smallmouth bass instead of trout for the summer months.