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North Branch of the Raritan River

The rule for this water, with the receipt.

Special regulations for North Branch of the Raritan River, as the state words them

Somerset County · River · NJ

Has its own special rules
How to read this page:Official text quoted regulationParsed fields from the ruleDerived calculated from rulesContext conditions, not a ruleAdvice our suggestion

The rules for this water, verbatimOfficial text

Straight from NJ's official regulations. Rules in force today lead; out-of-season rows are dimmed. Nothing is paraphrased. Not legal advice: verify the posted rules at the water.

Whole water
  • Trout
    Trout stocking extended over 2 miles upstream to the Ravine Lake Dam in Somerset County's Natirar Park.

Statewide base layerParsed

These defaults apply where the rules above do not modify them.

Season
Not captured yet - consult the statewide regulations
Gear
Fish may be taken only in the manner known as angling with handline or with rod and line, or as otherwise allowed by law.Statewide
Bait
Only the following species may be taken for use as bait. American Eel, Banded Killifish, Creek Chub, Fallfish, Fathead Minnow, Gizzard Shad, Golden Shiner, Margined Madtom, Mummichog, and Tadpole Madtom.Statewide
Poles
When fishing from the shoreline , no more than three fishing rods, handlines or combination thereof may be usedStatewide

Where the verbatim rules above name a species, season, or limit, they replace the rows below. Each row is tagged with the layer it comes from.

SpeciesDaily limitSize
Brook Trout
2 trout in total (Brook, Brown, and Rainbow Trout combined)min. 9 inchStatewide
trout
Varies by water: limit of 6 (general trout regulations); limit reduced from 4 to 2; daily limit remains 2 (general trout regulations); limit will also be 2 (general trout regulations)
one daily creel limit in possession-Statewide
Largemouth Bass and Smallmouth Bass
daily combined creel and possession limit of fivemin. minimum length of 12 inchesStatewide
panfish
daily limit of 25min. no minimum size limitStatewide
American Eel
See sizemin. minimum length of nine inchesStatewide

How this answer was assembled

  1. StatewideStatewide river rules are the base layer: default season, gear, bait, and limits.
  2. This waterSpecial rules written for this exact water replace the statewide defaults where they speak.
  3. Emergency orderEmergency orders in effect today override everything else. They sync quietly when the phone has coverage and never lock you out of the app.

Where this stretch begins and ends

Loading map…

The drawn shape is the named water, matched from the official list against OpenStreetMap and accepted only because the name resolved to a single feature in this water's county.

Different sections of this water can have different rules. The exact section boundaries are not marked on the map yet; each rule above describes in plain words where it starts and ends, and that written description is the authoritative boundary. Map boundaries come water by water, never as a guess.

At the water nowContext

Overnight
63°F
Chance Showers And Thunderstorms
Wind 5 mph · 46% precip
Wednesday
79°F
Chance Showers And Thunderstorms
Wind 5 to 10 mph · 51% precip
Wednesday Night
61°F
Chance Showers And Thunderstorms
Wind 5 to 10 mph · 40% precip

Streamflow: 1,010 cfs at north branch raritan river near far hills nj (2026-07-29 02:45)

Forecast: National Weather Service. Flow: nearest active USGS gauge in this water's area, which may sit on a different reach. Conditions are context, not rules.

What are you fishing for here?Advice

Pick from the species named in North Branch of the Raritan River's rules. Setups are checked against the gear rules in force today, and your picks are remembered on this device only. These are rule-aware suggestions, not a claim about what is biting; advice, not law, and the rules above govern.

Receipts

Statewide rules
Statewide
Checked against this official source on July 12, 2026.
Special rules - North Branch of the Raritan River
This water
Checked against this official source on July 12, 2026.

Local services near North Branch of the Raritan River

Tackle shops, guides, and boat launches that serve this water will appear here - a separate lane below the rules, so a local business can reach you without ever getting between you and the regulation.

Run a shop or guide service on North Branch of the Raritan River? Get listed.