Big Flat Brook

The Big Flat Brook, which The Fisherman calls New Jersey's most beautiful trout river, starts below Saw Mill Lake in High Point State Park and winds about 20 miles through Stokes State Forest to the Delaware River at Walpack Bend. The upper brook is small, swampy and spring-fed, with native brook trout and wild browns; below Route 206 it becomes a classic trout river of riffles, deep pools and undercut banks, stocked all the way to Flatbrookville.

When to fish

• Spring: the main stocking season. The Flat Brook is one of the major streams stocked weekly, and it's closed on stocking days.
• October: the fall stocking brings big two-year-old rainbows, some of them large retired breeders.
• Late fall through winter: holdover and fall-stocked trout spread out, and the fishing away from the stocking points can be excellent.

Where to fish

• Steam Mill to Lake Ocquittunk and Route 206: a narrow, "pick-pocket" stretch through Stokes State Forest with the best chance at native brookies and wild browns.
• The catch-and-release stretch: 4.2 miles from the Route 206 bridge to the Roy Bridge on Mountain Road, including the historic Blewett tract. Trout Unlimited volunteers float-stock it to spread the fish out.
• Roy Bridge to Flatbrookville: wider, easy-to-fish water with riffles, pools and undercut banks.

How to fish it

The river is rich in minnows, sculpins, dace, stoneflies and caddis. Anglers fish small minnow plugs as well as flies, including hopper and cricket patterns into early November. In the catch-and-release stretch, special tackle rules apply (see the digest); plug fishermen there remove the middle treble and crush the barbs. Using barbless hooks everywhere makes releasing wild fish easier.

Getting there

Much of the upper brook runs along Saw Mill Road and through High Point State Park and Stokes State Forest, and Route 615 follows the lower river near the Flatbrook-Roy Wildlife Management Area. The brook lies within the Brook Trout Conservation Zone, where every brook trout must be released. Check the current trout regulations before you go.