Fishing rodeo for senior citizens reels in happy fishermen

Fishing rodeo for senior citizens reels in happy fishermen

By Ed Murray

Source: nj

4/16/2022

Credit: Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

It’s called fishing, not catching, for a reason.

“I can’t set them, I see them nibbling on my line but I can’t do it,” said Judy Cruts who has been fishing for trout for sixty years.

Cruts was one of about two dozen senior citizens at a fishing rodeo at the Pequest Trout Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center in Oxford on Monday.

The program, held by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, lets 25 fishermen, 65 or older, fish in the stocked education pond at the hatchery. Rainbow trout 10 inches and up are stocked in the spring and fall.

“The Senior Fishing Rodeo provides the anglers a safe place to access the water to fish,” said Karen Byrne Principal Biologist, bureau of information and education, New Jersey DEP fish and wildlife.