Research Laboratory at Double Trouble

On 14 Jun 1918, the New Jersey Courier contained this write up about the place, apparently copied from the New York Sun:

Double Trouble, NJ- June 1: Good news from Double Trouble! The Board of Fish and Game Commissioners has discovered a really fine but neglected trout stream and stocked it.

The stream rises in Mount Misery, threads its wasy across the State to Double Trouble, passes Good Luck and empties into the Atlantic between Toms River and Forked River. The trout brook is Cedar Creek and was discovered by Ernest Napier, president of the commission. Such a find was it that he put in last year 500 two year old trout, observed that they made good and this year had a carload (2,500) of two year old brown trout put in and now the sport is open to all anglers for bait or fly casting.

Double Trouble may cause a chuckle and some doubt, but just as sure as there is a Hell-For-Sartin creek in Kentucky, there is a Double Trouble in New Jersey. Indeed, Edward Crabbe and H.B. Scammell are in business there and have had good luck, so much so that Mr. Crabbe saw no reason why they should not call their cranberry and blueberry business and their other industries the Double Trouble Company. The Double Trouble Company has a rating in Dun's and Bradstreet's.

How Double Trouble Got Name.
"How did Double Trouble receive its name?", repeated Mr. Crabbe. "Good Luck, further down from Double Trouble, was the birthplace of the Universalist Church in America. In 1770, the clergyman who established the Universalist Church built a dam at this point and the beavers and muskrats, according to the story, broke through the dam and when the men came up to inspect it and saw the havoc wrought he remarked, "More trouble, double trouble". The name stuck. If you will look at the topographic maps of New Jersey, you will see Double Trouble indicated. I have looked back over records in Perth Amboy and I find Double Trouble mentioned in deeds as far back as 1790."

"How Good Luck Point got its name is also interesting. In the Revolutionary War, Col. Coates, for whom Coates Point is named, was almost captured by the British, but he spurred his horse and the animal swam from Coate's Point to a landing which he called "Good Luck Point", where he made his escape. It is called Good Luck to this day."

Cedar Creek is most attractive to the angler at Double Trouble, where it flows through the cranberry bogs and is an open stream for a couple of miles until it finally meanders through the cedar woods, where casting fine fly naturally is more dificult than in the open. The stream is known to only a few anglers as a pickerl stream, because of its inaccessibility, yet Mr. Scammell's father landed a ten inch trout the other day and the next trout that rose to his fly smashes his leader and having only one leader with him, he was unable to come back.

Double Trouble is on the west road from Toms River, three and one half miles from that place. Shortly after leaving Toms River, Jake's Branch, a rather likely looking trout stream is passed and one enters the pine and cedar forests and no house is visible and the country seemingly as wild as remote sections of the Adirondacks or Maine. Deer rabbits and pheasants abound. Indeed, Mr. Crabbe nearly struck two while crossing Double Trouble dam recently. Arriving at Double Trouble one might fish all day and see no person except the men working about the Crabbe farm.

Cedar Creek has any number of cold spring brooks flowing into it, which makes it ideal for the raising of young trout. Also it has such a flow of water that in January, when the flood gates are closed in preparation for cleaning out the ponds for cranberry culture, the bogged dammed area will fill within twenty four hours.

In April the water is let out and instead of five big ponds, containing, say, 250 acres of water, only a smalls tream from ten to forty feet wide remains.

The brook trout angler should wear rubber boots, although it is not necessary in dry weather for the banks are practically hard enough to keep one from even getting muddy. Rubbers would do just as well for trhe man who does not own wading boots. But for the angler who is equipped with all the paraphenalia that goes with brook trout angling, it is a f ine stream to wade, being from eight to twelve feet in depth. For the man who delights to cast from the bank the steream is ideal.

If any sportsman takes advantage of this tip, let him not put in memory for next fall the big wild Canada goose that will follow him and answer the honk call. Let no gun barrel be pointed at this bird. The goose is quite tame and will accompany him along the bank, enjoying his society for it has few human companions. The goose has spent six happy years here. Of late its flight is not the best since a fox crept up to it while asleep one night and took a bite out of its leg.