Kittens in South Jersey towns
And in the suburbs and rural areas too.
Certainly the catfish, or “kitty,” as aficionados of the bewhiskered bait grabber clan often call it, is a major player on the freshwater scene. Sure, it’s overshadowed by the duo of largemouth and smallmouth bass, muskellunge, pike, hybrid striper, and trout, but when it comes to a fish you can pretty much catch. anywhere, that grows to very respectable heights, that bites day and night, and really puts an elbow in a rod, well, the channel catfish is headlining. Whether a winner via the deep fryer makes the channel cat a summer favorite.
“He’s (the canal kitten) everyone’s game fish,” said Craig Lemon, superintendent of the Hackettstown hatchery. The Division of Fish & Wildlife’s state-of-the-art facility in Warren County breeds, breeds and stores hundreds of thousands of different sized canal kittens each year statewide on a rotating basis in 90 lakes, ponds and tanks up and down and across Garden State. The significant percentage of released catkins is equal to or greater than the minimum 12 inch limit, which allows for an available crop.
Swimming areas such as the lower Delaware River, Tuckahoe River, Salem River, and Mullica River are home to natural populations of canals.
The list, numbers and average lengths of stored cats are available at www.njfishandwildlife.com and go to the freshwater link then to Hackettstown
Hatchery page.
In addition, every two years there is a restocking in early October in selected waters of depleted spawners ranging from 18 to 30 inches and above and weighing over 10 pounds. The best baits for canals are chicken livers, live little sunfish and minnows, hot dog pieces, bunker pieces, chopped mackerel, nightcrawlers and Berkley Gulp! PowerBait Catfish and Catfish Pieces.
Some South Jersey Channel Catfish Waters with easy access include Heritage Park Pond, DOD, Swedesboro Lake, Birch Grove Park Pond, Turnmill Pond, Lake Shenandoah, Sylvan Lake, Lake Carasaljo, Ponderlodge Pond, Grenloch Lake, Oak Pond, Greenwich Lake and Woodstown Memorial Lake.
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