New Jersey Trout Stocking Schedule 2026

Every sentence here comes from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife (NJ Fish & Wildlife), and each section names its sources. Updated .

The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife (NJ Fish & Wildlife) stocks trout raised at its Pequest Trout Hatchery in two seasons. By the end of spring 2026 it planned more than 570,000 rainbow trout for waters across the state, and the October 2026 fall stocking planned about 29,000 two-year-old rainbows averaging 14 to 16 inches. Spring runs from three weeks of pre-season stocking before opening day through seven weeks of stocking after it, and fall stocking starts in mid-October. Each season has its own schedule, water by water.

From NJ Fish & Wildlife: Trout Fishing Information, NJ Fish & Wildlife: Trout Season Begins Saturday April 11 (8 April 2026), NJ Fish & Wildlife: Fall Trout Stocking Schedule, NJ Fish & Wildlife: Spring Trout Fishing Information and NJ Fish & Wildlife: Spring Trout Allocations 2026 (PDF).

The NJ Fish & Wildlife trout stocking schedule

The fall stockings water by water, with the day, the date and the number of trout, starting Tuesday 13 October in 2026. Stream sections are stocked within the same boundaries as in spring, and changes are posted on the page as needed.

Open the Fall Trout Stocking Schedule
  • Spring Trout Allocations 2026: Every spring-stocked water in alphabetical order, with the number of trout it gets before opening day and in each week after it. Read across a water's row: the letter beside each week's number is the stocking day, with R for Thursday. The schedule can change, and changes are noted on the website and on the trout stocking hotline.
  • Spring Trout Fishing Information: The spring program's own page: the streams that close on their stocking days, each with its weekday, and the year's updates and changes to the program.
  • Trout Stocked Waters of New Jersey map: The spring program on a map: select a water for its stocking schedule, the number of fish and any closures. The same information is a tab in the agency's Freshwater Fishing Explorer.

From NJ Fish & Wildlife: Spring Trout Allocations 2026 (PDF), NJ Fish & Wildlife: Fall Trout Stocking Schedule, NJ Fish & Wildlife: Spring Trout Fishing Information and NJ Fish & Wildlife: 2026 Trout Regulations from the Freshwater Fishing Digest (PDF).

When New Jersey stocks trout

Pre-season

Nearly every stocked water gets fish in the three weeks before opening day; Round Valley and Merrill Creek reservoirs, the trophy trout lakes, are the exceptions. In 2026 that was roughly 184,000 trout from 23 March. Big breeders go in with them: between 6,000 and 7,000 broodstock of 14 to 26 inches and up to seven pounds in spring 2026, with nine small lakes and ponds getting 30 to 50 each. That spring also brought 20,000 brown trout from Pennsylvania, the first browns New Jersey had stocked in more than a decade.

In-season

Stocking continues weekly for seven weeks after opening day, 13 April to 29 May in 2026, and most waters are stocked at least three times. The digest shows each water's planned number of in-season stockings in brackets.

Fall

The 2026 fall stocking was set to start on Tuesday 13 October: about 29,000 two-year-old rainbows averaging 14 to 16 inches, with up to 1,000 three-year-old broodstock averaging 18 to 22 inches mixed into the truckloads, in nearly 60 streams, lakes and ponds. The agency says these fish can be caught through the fall and the following spring. From 2026 the trout once stocked in winter go out with the October stocking instead, and the combined program grew by 4,000 trout and at least 10 new waters. The winter program had run from 2000 to 2025.

From NJ Fish & Wildlife: 2026 Trout Regulations from the Freshwater Fishing Digest (PDF), NJ Fish & Wildlife: Trout Fishing Information, NJ Fish & Wildlife: Spring Trout Fishing Information, NJ Fish & Wildlife: Trout Season Begins Saturday April 11 (8 April 2026), NJ Fish & Wildlife: 2026 Trout Stocking Pages from the Freshwater Fishing Digest (PDF), NJ Fish & Wildlife: Fall Trout Stocking Schedule and NJ Fish & Wildlife: Pequest Trout Hatchery Stocking Summaries.

Rules on stocked water

  • Opening day is the second Saturday in April, from 8 a.m.; in 2026 that was 11 April.
  • During pre-season stocking only trout-stocked rivers and streams close to all fishing, from 23 March to 8 a.m. on 11 April in 2026. Since 2026, stocked lakes and ponds stay open all year.
  • After opening day the state's 14 major trout streams are stocked weekly and close from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. on their stocking day, tributaries included for 100 feet from the main channel, so the trout can disperse and settle. The spring trout page lists each stream's weekday.
  • Fall-stocked waters can be fished as soon as they are stocked. No water closes for fall stocking.
  • The minimum size is 9 inches. In 2026 most trout waters allowed 6 trout a day from opening day to 31 May and 2 a day from 1 June to 31 December.
  • A fishing license and a trout stamp are both needed to fish for trout: for residents 16 through 69, and for nonresidents 16 and older.

From NJ Fish & Wildlife: New Freshwater Fishing Regulations Effective February 17 (12 February 2026), NJ Fish & Wildlife: 2026 Trout Regulations from the Freshwater Fishing Digest (PDF), NJ Fish & Wildlife: Trout Season Begins Saturday April 11 (8 April 2026), NJ Fish & Wildlife: Fall Trout Stocking Schedule, NJ Fish & Wildlife: Spring Trout Fishing Information and NJ Fish & Wildlife: Trout Fishing Information.

How to hear about a stocking

  • The Trout Stocking Hotline, (609) 940-7266, is a 24-hour recorded message with weekly stocking updates, and changes to the schedule are noted there and on the website.
  • From 2026, signs along stocked water carry a QR code to the latest stocking schedules and regulations.
  • For questions about the state's fish stocking programs, the agency's number is (908) 236-2118.

From NJ Fish & Wildlife: Spring Trout Allocations 2026 (PDF), NJ Fish & Wildlife: 2026 Trout Regulations from the Freshwater Fishing Digest (PDF), NJ Fish & Wildlife: Trout Season Begins Saturday April 11 (8 April 2026) and NJ Fish & Wildlife: 2026 Trout Stocking Pages from the Freshwater Fishing Digest (PDF).

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • The agency's own pages disagree about how long fall stocking lasts: the fall schedule says a three-week period, the fall fishing page a two-week one. Go by the dates in the schedule's table.
  • Plans change with the water. The agency can suspend stocking when emergency conditions prevail, and low flows have ended fall stocking on the upper Big Flat Brook and the upper Wallkill River.

From NJ Fish & Wildlife: Fall Trout Stocking Schedule, NJ Fish & Wildlife: Fall Trout Fishing in New Jersey and NJ Fish & Wildlife: 2026 Trout Regulations from the Freshwater Fishing Digest (PDF).

Which day to fish it

The schedule says where the fish went in. Which day to go is a different question: the forecast scores each day of the week for trout at the water you pick, from its water temperature, the wind and the weather.

See the week for rainbow trout

Species guides: Rainbow Trout · Brown Trout

Sources

Every sentence above was read on one of these pages, and a check re-reads each quoted line against the page it came from.

Spotted something out of date or plain wrong here? Tell us and we will check it.