Pequest River · Warren County, NJ
Trout water by the Pequest Hatchery. Live flow and water temperature from the USGS gauge, against USGS’s normal for the date. Real numbers or none.
Right now · Pequest
Pequest River at Pequest, NJ
84 cfs · 50°F · normal for Oct 23 · gauge read 11:15 PM, Oct 22 ET
The water
New Jersey stocks the Pequest with trout from Pequest Road in Green Township down to the Delaware River, through Sussex and Warren counties. About 1.4 miles of it, by the Pequest Trout Hatchery, is a seasonal trout conservation area with its own rules.
The card reads the USGS gauge at Pequest, which drains 106 square miles above it. A gauge reads one spot, so take the number as the river’s mood, not the depth at your boots.
Normal is USGS’s own call: the middle half of the daily flows on record for this date, across every year the gauge has run. You know your water better than a chart does.
Rules on this water
- Spring stocking days. After opening day, the stocked water is closed to fishing from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. on its stocking days, Fridays from mid-April through May. The digest lists the dates.
- Trout conservation area. From the Conrail railroad bridge above the hatchery’s access road down to the Route 625 (Pequest Furnace Road) bridge. In 2026, artificial lures only, except from opening day to May 24.
- Sizes and limits. In 2026, in the conservation area, 1 trout a day of 15 inches or more most of the year, 6 of 9 inches or more from opening day to May 24, and catch and release from March 23 to April 10.
- Brook trout. Parts of the Pequest are in New Jersey’s Brook Trout Conservation Zone, where every brook trout you catch goes back right away.
Seasons, sizes, and limits are New Jersey Fish & Wildlife’s call, and they change. To fish for trout, New Jersey residents aged 16 to 69 and all non-residents 16 and older need a trout stamp along with their license. Check the trout pages of the 2026 Freshwater Fishing Digest (PDF) before you go.
Throw five on it
