NJ Sweetwater

August 30th Decided to head out to North Western New Jersey to do some trout scouting for the fall season. I usually don't make my first trip until late September but I had some free time to explore new areas. What I found is making me very anxious for some cooler weather. I hiked into some stream sections that I thought would be rarely explored as there are no trails in the area. I picked a northern portion of a tributary that eventually runs down into the Delaware River. I must have seen well over 200 Rainbow trout and numerous Brook Trout over a 1 mile stretch of water. The flow was slow but the water was still cool under the dense tree canopy despite the heat. The fish were easily spooked in the clear shallow stream so some stealthy crawling was a must. First pool I found was holding around 20 fish from what I could see. Took my first cast and worked a small brown rooster-tail with a silver blade downstream toward the waiting fish.... not a single fish took interest. Second cast.. no rises... third cast... no rises. At that moment a school of small juvenile creek chubs swam by and I saw one trout rise up to take a swipe. I looked through my box and found a small black panther martin with a gold blade which I decided looked like a creek chub... turns out I was right. A few casts in and I brought in my first rainbow of the day which was a healthy 12inch fish. To my surprise this fish was stocked! fins were worn and clipped so I assume it was stocked down stream in the spring and worked his way up in high water. Got two more bows and a beautiful little brook before losing the panther martin to a submerged stump in chest high water. Tied on a brown trout patterned spinner and continued to catch two more bows and another brookie. As soon as the leaves start to change these fish will get their fall colors and start to aggressively feed which is when I will be back in these pools.