Delaware River (Trenton to Belvidere)

Below the Delaware Water Gap, the non-tidal Delaware River flows past Belvidere, Phillipsburg, Frenchtown and Lambertville down to Trenton. It's one of the region's most highly regarded all-round rivers: a big spring shad run, excellent smallmouth bass, walleye, muskies, summer-night stripers and big catfish, all in one river shared with Pennsylvania.

When to fish

• Spring into June: the American shad run. Fish start hitting once the water reaches the upper 40s, fishing is best in the 50s, and the run usually peaks at Lambertville by mid-April.
• May through October: smallmouth bass, which are almost everywhere in summer.
• Summer mornings and days: walleye in fast water and eddies.
• Summer nights: striped bass on live eels (fish of 10 to 22 pounds are common) and flathead catfish in shallow moving water.
• Spring: trout that drop out of the Musconetcong, Pequest, Paulinskill and Flatbrook.
• Late fall and winter: walleye in the bottoms of deep holes.

Where to fish

• Rapids, boulders and eddies: smallmouth and walleye.
• Deep holes: smallmouth near the bottom, and walleye in cold weather.
• Weedy slack water: largemouth of 3 to 6 pounds and pickerel.
• Tributary mouths: trout in spring.
• Lambertville: the shad run usually peaks here by mid-April, then moves upriver.

How to fish it

For shad, cast brightly colored shad darts or flies. For smallmouth, fish tube jigs along the bottom of holes, soft-plastic stickbaits at mid-depths, and crankbaits or jerkbaits in the rapids; anything worked behind boulders and in eddies catches fish, and 3-pounders are a realistic target. For walleye, throw jerkbaits in shallow fast water early in the morning, then crankbaits and jigs in 8 to 15 feet of moving water later in the day. Slow-troll live fallfish near the surface for muskies. Fish live eels at night for stripers, and turn off your lights once one is hooked. Flatheads want live fish; channel cats take cut bait, nightcrawlers and stink baits.

Getting there

The Delaware is a boundary water: either New Jersey's or Pennsylvania's license covers you from shore to shore, but each state's rules apply on its own side of the centerline, and striped bass rules differ by state. Check the current Delaware River section of the Freshwater Fishing Digest.