The Rahway River has long been an ignored fishing treasure. Meandering slowly from its start at the South Mountain Reservoir to its brackish endpoint at Arthur Kill, this degraded waterway is making its way back after decades of neglect.

Yet along this urbanized wetlands, there are majestic red-tailed hawks, tall snowy egrets, statuesque great blue herons and ancient snapping turtles big enough to send grown men scampering up the riverbank!

The Rahway flows nicely in some stretches. It even has fairly decent clarity when runoff from heavy rains isn't a problem. Last year, the state had enough confidence in the river's ability to hold trout and draw anglers that it increased its stocking efforts -- with good results!

For the first time in decades, the state stocked portions of the western Rahway in Essex County in North Jersey. In that county, no running water had been stocked in years.

New Jersey's trout fishery is mostly a put-and-take effort. Brown, brook and rainbow trout 9 to 11 inches long are stocked from late March to mid-May.

Along with these good-sized trout, much bigger breeders are also stocked to excite those anglers skilled or lucky enough to catch one. I've seen these 5-pound trophies being caught by fishermen each spring.

A rule of thumb is that most of these stocked fish don't live through the heat of summer. But that isn't a hard and fast truth. During a heat wave this past summer, I watched an estimated 5-pound brown trout mulling about near a storm drain in a lake that feeds a tributary of the Rahway

During my early-morning hikes through the hills surrounding this particular lake, I'd always stop at a storm drain, and there was this trout in two feet of water, hanging out with the largemouths. Since I keep a rod in the family van and my fishing license in my glove compartment, I decided to try and entice this fine specimen with everything at my disposal.

I favor artificials and particularly, a gold Acme Phoebe. But each time I got near the big brown, it darted off into the depths. So clearly, some of these trout do survive the summer!

Last time I checked, well into September, the fish was still there, lolling about with a school of juvenile largemouths. And while casting during my early-morning walks along the river in midsummer, I've taken my share of smaller browns.

Perhaps my best day came last spring, during an unplanned trip to an area of the river flowing past a waterfall and under the Garden State Parkway near Exit 136.

If you've headed south on the Parkway toward the Shore, you must have seen this spot and the anglers it attracts. But you might not know it's chock-full of hungry stocked trout.

There's an unfinished hiking trail here. While investigating this small piece of trout heaven, I wasn't really expecting much, but was surprised to find myself battling a feisty rainbow near a thicket of wild blackberries.

More trout came, one after another, pouncing on the little lure with gusto, until I realized I really had no place to keep them. I simply hadn't anticipated that much luck. As a result, I released each fish back into the river, where they got to fight another day.