PASCACK VALLEY—A Montvale fourth-grader who prefers fishing to screen time is enjoying a leisurely moment in the statewide spotlight after landing a channel catfish big enough to put him on the cover of the 2026 New Jersey Freshwater Fishing Digest.
Brad Faller, 10, a student at Memorial School, appears on the cover of the annual guide published by the state Division of Fish & Wildlife. The photo shows Brad holding the hefty catfish he caught last year at Wood Dale County Park in Woodcliff Lake.
But the story behind the photo begins with a stranger on a dock, a bent fishing rod—and happy generosity.
Local angler Dave Vollenweidar, a retired Passaic schoolteacher, was fishing for catfish when Brad and his mother, Krista Faller, walked onto the dock. Brad introduced himself and her mom, and the fishermen got to talking.
“My rod went over,” Vollenweidar recalled. “So I gave him the rod. It turned out to be a really big catfish; he reeled it in, and I helped with the net.”
The fight lasted several minutes. As his catch ran, the line was “whipping drag, like really super hot, there was so much friction he was making … like a thousand head-shakes just to get off the hook. I got worn out pretty quickly,” Brad told Pascack Press by phone on March 4. “It was fighting really hard.”
The fish was brought up — Brad credits Vollenweidar with the assist (“he netted it perfectly”) — relieved of its hook, and, after weighing, was released to fight another day.
Vollenweidar says it was a large circle hook—about a 4/0. “With catfish, when they swallow the bait and you lift the rod, the hook slides out and catches in the corner of the mouth. That way the fish doesn’t swallow it.”
Brad estimated the catch, complete with barbed spines on its dorsal and pectoral fins, measured just under three feet long. A scale on hand read around 11–12 pounds, though he believes it may have been closer to 15.
Vollenweidar later sent the photo to contacts at the state hatchery, where, after swimming upstream in competition, it was selected for the 2026 cover of the digest—an annual publication distributed wherever New Jersey fishing licenses are sold.
The recognition quickly made Brad a celebrity at school.
“He brought the magazine in and kids were asking him for signed copies,” said his father, Jason Faller, who owns Village Pine Furniture in Westwood. Mom Krista Faller is a teacher of the visually impaired with the New Jersey Commission for the Blind.
Krista told us, of Vollenweidar — who turns out to be a neighbor a mere 10-minute walk away — “How amazing it is as a parent when people take time to interact with and support their children! Dave is a former teacher who clearly has a knack for engaging with children and a passion for fishing.”
The annual digest provides anglers with a comprehensive guide to New Jersey freshwater fishing. In addition to license information and regulation updates, it outlines trout and general fishing rules, fish identification guides, stocking schedules, special regulations for waters such as the Delaware River and Greenwood Lake, and programs ranging from youth education and volunteer opportunities to the state’s Skillful Angler awards. The publication also includes law enforcement contacts, fish consumption advisories, accessible fishing sites, and key dates such as free freshwater fishing days.
Dave Golden, assistant commissioner of the New Jersey DEP Fish & Wildlife, in his message in the 2026 Digest, says in part: “Let’s make it a priority this season to encourage kids and new anglers to join us in casting a line and discovering the joys of fishing. Look into NJ’s free fishing days, Buddy License Program, R3 Fishing Program, and our Hooked-on-Fishing Program as ways to entice new anglers.”
Brad, who has been fishing since he was very young, talks about bait and fish behavior — and recipes for fresh-caught fish — with the confidence of someone who has spent a lot of time at the water and in the fresh air.
“My dad and I have a rule: I gut them, which I’m really good at, and he fillets them. And I cook them. And they taste great. For trout I’ll gut, no head; I stuff the cavity with lemon, salt, and pepper, and wrap it in tinfoil and grill it or put it over a fire,” Brad said.
“If we’re talking perch or bluegill, I have a killer recipe that my dad invented: fillet and cut the fish into pieces, swish them in a bowl with panko bread crumbs and Frank’s RedHot sauce. Butter in a pan and stir them around until they’re done to your liking.”
Luring catfish, he said, he experiments. “Sometimes I use hot dogs with Jell-O powder,” he said. “It works really well.”
On this trip, the bait was Vollenweidar’s chicken gizzards coated in gelatin powder—a pungent mixture that catfish find irresistible.
Brad also fishes at Huff Park in Montvale, where other kids sometimes ask him for advice.
“The kid knows a whole lot more than I do now,” Jason said. “I actually ask him for advice.”
And he’s proficient with the bow and arrow, eager to grow into deer hunting.
Brad’s favorite class this year is science, he said. His favorite teacher right now is Miss Walker, the reading teacher. “She’s super nice and funny.”
Fishing, Vollenweidar said, can have a powerful effect on young people. “Hopefully it helps make more fishermen,” he said. “It keeps kids out of trouble. It kept me out of trouble.”
As a teacher, he ran a program called Trout in the Classroom, raising trout with students and releasing them into streams each spring.
These days he still gets the same excitement from the sport.
“I’m turning 60 this year,” he said. “And every time I go fishing, I’m still like a little kid.” He sees the same spark in Brad. “If I can light that fire in a kid like him,” Vollenweidar said, “that’s a good thing.”
Vollenweidar agrees Brad is a go-getter and well spoken: “My wife said the same thing. I brought him upstairs to show him some of my fish mounts and equipment, and he looks at me and says, “Can you recommend a good taxidermist?”
“Then he told me his grandparents got him a charter trip in the ocean and asked if I could recommend a good charter boat. Ten years old. I wasn’t doing anything like that when I was 10.
Vollenweidar made the cover of the digest as well, a few years back: “I take a lot of fishing pictures. Craig Lemon, who runs the Hackettstown hatchery, saw some of my photos and asked if I had one available for the cover. It was a picture of me holding a walleye I caught on Lake Hopatcong.”