New Jersey Fishing Reports

Striped bass fishing remained one of the hottest fisheries on the Delaware River last week, said Bill from Brinkman’s Bait & Tackle in Philadelphia. Customers reeled up plenty, but smaller ones, from Trenton to the Philly airport. Angling for big catfish was the only good option farther downstream or below Chester, and really small stripers swam there but weren’t worth targeting, though a bunch of white perch roamed that area. One customer who striper fished on the river last week boated several, mostly small, but up to 36 inches, off Rancocas Creek on fresh herring, also hooking a bunch of catfish, and eels that swam everywhere. He saw anglers on several other boats there landing small stripers, none big, but thought they probably fished with no fresh bait. They seemed to fish with frozen herring, frozen clams and bloodworms. The herring run was just about finished in the river last week. A customer last week on Wednesday reeled in four stripers 12 to 20 inches from the Linden Avenue dock. Several other anglers also scored well on small stripers at the dock last week, also picking up catfish and white perch. Fishing the river off Station Avenue slowed a lot but sometimes produced a few small stripers and some catfish and perch. Lots of small stripers were also found in the river off the Palmyra Cove Nature Center. At Trenton on the river, anglers last week fished for stripers with livelined white perch, since herring couldn’t be caught for bait in the waters. They hooked the perch through the eyes, clipping off the dorsal fin, because the stripers grabbed the perch quicker without the dorsal. Farther up the river, one angler at Lambertville last week eeled good catches of stripers 24 to 37 inches in the early mornings and late evenings. During the daytime he switched to smallmouth bass fishing – limited to catch and release from New Jersey through Tuesday – pounding out good catches and an occasional walleye on minnows, grubs and tubes. Smallmouth fishing will pick up on the upper river because of the warm weather. A smallmouth angler at Point Pleasant on the river already tackled healthy bites, clocking more than 100 of the fish on several trips. The bronzebacks hung around the rocks, and minnows worked best, but plastic worms and grubs, tubes, spinners, spinner baits and top-water lures nabbed a few. The river had become warm enough for him to wade comfortably. The Schuylkill River at Gladwyne served up all the smallmouths one angler who fished there could want, though the fish were small. He threw minnows, spinners, tubes and plastic grubs and worms. Shad fishing dropped off even on the upper Delaware, the last place to hold the migration. Largemouth bass fishing – also catch and release through Tuesday – was going well on the lower river, both in the main river and in the harbors and marinas. Some anglers fished for them at Dredge Harbor, waffling plenty to 14 inches on 4-inch Power worms in red shad. A few perch and crappies also bit at Dredge. An angler who fished along the main river totaled 17 largemouths in three evenings, saying crank baits worked best. But he said the fishing was slower last week than before, apparently only because water temperatures rose quickly. Afterward he planned to fish the river from the Philly airport to the C&D Canal. Another angler knocked off a few largemouths in the river while fishing from the rocks at the mouth of Neshaminy Creek on nightcrawlers. For lake anglers, Lake Nockamixon was a place for largemouth bass fishing, when boat traffic was light. Weekends during the middle of the day could draw crowds. The lake put up nine largemouths and two chain pickerel on one trip for an angler, and five of the bass and three pickerel the next day for him. He said the shallower waters now produced the fish, after the deep was previously better. He drilled the fish on plastic worms, buzz baits and weedless frogs. Plenty of trout kept anglers busy on Pennypack Creek at Pine Road, Verree Road and Krewstown Road. They fished with wax worms, meal worms, earthworms and Power Baits, and lots of rock bass, smallmouth bass and bluegills also pounced on the baits. On the lower Pennypack, carp were played on carp baits, bread and corn. Small stripers and catfish were also hooked on other baits. In South Jersey, Union Lake anglers racked up good catches of largemouth bass to 4 pounds, pickerel, crappies and yellow perch. The largemouths and 15- to 21-inch pickerel were caught best along the shoreline on plastic worms, spinner baits and Rapala lures. Crappies moved offshore, and drop-shotted grubs or trolled grubs axed them.

NORTH JERSEY

Capt. Dave Vollenweider from Live to Fish Guide Service from Montvale attempted to fish for walleyes at Greenwood Lake on Friday night, he said. But on arrival, lightening cracked, rains started pouring and forecasts called for possible storms, so he called off the trip. Rains weren’t such a problem, but angling in the lightening wasn’t a good idea. A trip for muskies at Echo Lake was planned for Sunday, but howling winds forced the trip to be canned. Dave was considering pulling an all-nighter for walleyes at Greenwood last night. If he got out, he probably would’ve been motoring back to shore in the early morning when this report was posted. So the weather nixed trips, but Live to Fish started to hunt walleyes on lakes like Greenwood. Dave fishes for them on unique trips that boat the lake in the middle of the night, when the marble eyes swim up onto the shallows, attacking baitfish they corral against the shore. The fishing also kicks in at night because daytime boat traffic disappears, especially on weekends. His anglers throw top-water lures to the walleyes that average 5 pounds, a hefty catch, and a tasty one, a member of the perch family. Hearing the splashes of the fish that crush the lures at night is exciting. So is hearing the walleyes blast schools of baitfish along the shore. The trips are a cool experience. Dave also began his season’s trips for muskies, the large, powerful predators that are a trophy catch, at waters such as Echo. The mysterious fish become most active during the warm weather. Muskies will often follow a lure, and that itself is a thrill. But getting them to swipe the plug is another challenge. Muskie fishing is like deer hunting, and not every trip will score the quarry at all. But anglers fish for muskies because a catch can be the biggest fish the angler ever lands. Live to Fish Guide Service guides trips for trout, muskies, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleyes, crappies, chain pickerel, panfish, yellow perch, white perch, carp and more. Lakes fished include Greenwood Lake, Lake Hopatcong, Monksville Reservoir, Echo Lake, Mountain Lake and Furnace Lake. Rivers fished include the Flatbrook, Pequest, Paulinskill and Ramapo. ***Update*** The trip last night, an all-nighter on Monksville Reservoir, pounded and released a giant, 28-1/2-inch, 8- to 9-pound walleye, kept another walleye for a neighbor and let go two smallmouth bass and a rock bass, Dave said. The big walleye nailed a black and gold F18 Rapala. Waters were 73 degrees, and small periods of feeding activity popped up through the night. Dave got home at 6 a.m. and was back at work this morning, “but I enjoyed every minute of it,” he said.

Small striped bass 24 to 26 inches were wrangled from the local Delaware River, said Bill from Bill’s Bait & Tackle in Phillipsburg. He saw no large stripers at the shop in a week. The small fish are taken on chicken livers, cut bunker, cut frozen eels and all kinds of baits, mostly in the mornings and evenings but during daylight. When bigger bass are in, they’re mostly eeled in the dark. Channel catfishing started to turn on in the river, and the whiskerfaces are usually a by-catch hooked on the striper baits. Most are 5 to 7 pounds, and a 14-pounder was the biggest Bill ever saw from the area. He heard nothing about shad catches on the river in a week. At Merrill Creek Reservoir largemouth and smallmouth bass were spawning, but quite a few of the bass were caught and released. Chain pickerel fishing was turned on at the impoundment. Lots of small brown trout were hooked from the waters, maybe because the state stocks small ones. Bill started to hear about numbers of yellow perch plucked from Merrill, the first time he heard about that this season. Maybe the perch move in when the bass go on the beds. Swartswood Lake really tossed out activity with fish from walleyes to pickerel to trout to largemouth bass, also bedded down. That was a notable fishery, more so than usual this year. Bill was unsure why, but maybe more anglers fished there than usual, and he thought some tournaments were held there this year.

Sulfurs hatched fairly often at the Flatbrook and the Pequest and Musconetcong rivers, said Greg from Ramsey Outdoor in Ledgewood. Light Cahills were around, and nymphs and scuds were also choices for trout catches on the streams. The fish, living in the waters a while after stocking, begin to key in on aquatic insects more than baits like worms by this time of year. Fly-rodding becomes best. Waters were low in the heat, and anglers had to be a little sneaky. A group of anglers returned from trout fishing in the Catskills, saying those streams were low and warm, making the fishing best in the early mornings and late evenings. Hook-and-release fishing for largemouth bass tied into a slew of the fish at Swartswood Lake and Lake Hopatcong. Greg’s been fishing at Swartswood, and both largemouth and smallmouth bass were on a tear there, and chain pickerel couldn’t be kept off the hook. He fishes the lake mostly with Keitech soft plastics, and the soft-bait’s action is highly effective, the reason they’ve become so popular. Customers usually talk about fishing for hybrid striped bass and walleyes this time of the season. But nobody did, for unknown reasons.

Forecasts for thunderstorms kept anglers off the lake during the weekend, so nothing different than last week could be reported about the fishing, said Laurie from Dow’s Boat Rentals in Lake Hopatcong. Sunday was also way too windy. But plenty of herring schooled, and they’re good baits on the lake but also for fluke. Last week Laurie said hybrid striped bass and walleyes struck livelined herring and top-water lures in 15-foot depths at Lee’s Cove, Davis Cove, off Bed Bug Island and near the ferry. She also said last week that chain pickerel gathered around Halsey and Raccoon Islands, crappies schooled toward Brady Bridge, and channel catfish lurked in the shallows toward the state park.

Lake Hopatcong and Greenwood Lake’s largemouth bass smacked hooks a lot, said Nick from Meltzer’s Sporting Goods in Garfield. Not only the spawn, but the post-spawn, when the bass remain sluggish, was finished, and waters were warm. A customer said Greenwood was 80 degrees this weekend. The lakes warm quickly, and Nick saw temps in the mid 50s in April that reached the 70s in May. He planned to fish soon at Hopatcong for the bucketmouths, catch and release angling, on a trip to prepare for a tournament. He’ll probably begin the day fishing with a Rebel Pop-R, a popper lure. Afterward he’ll mainly fish with Keitech Swing Impact swim baits and Senko worms. The Keitechs really slammed bass. The state park at Hopatcong became closed to shore angling since Memorial Day weekend, so shore anglers at the lake would have to fish someplace else for the hybrid striped bass and walleyes they had banked previously from the shallows along the park, in the evenings from 7 until dark. They could walk around to the woods surrounding the park or fish at the few other areas that offer shore access, like at Landing. The state park is such a popular place for shore angling simply because of the access. But because fishing became closed there for the season, boating will be the means to a catch more often. Trout fishing somewhat slowed on the streams since spring stocking ended. But diehards caught the fish on the Ramapo and Rockaway rivers. Trouters bought lots of super meal worms, the big mealies, and butter worms. Smallmouth bass often jumped on the mealies at the Ramapo, too.

Depths 75 to 85 at Round Valley Reservoir attracted a population of lake trout, said Steve from Lebanon Bait & Sport Shop. He said in the past that livelined herring or jigs like Crippled Herrings dropped to the right depths will hook the fish. He also said then that the best rig for the herring is probably a size-6 Gamakatsu Octopus hook on a fluorocarbon leader on a swivel with an egg sinker above. Live herring were currently stocked. Brown trout and rainbow trout were cranked in from the Valley, more often on boats than from shore, because waters warmed. Slowly trolled lures like spoons or Rapalas could sock them, and so could live bait like herring. Catch-and-release largemouth bass fishing heated up from the Valley’s shoreline, and usually does after the shoreline trout depart. Live baits including nightcrawlers and shiners got chomped, and a few of the bass were plugged on lures. Hybrid striped bass were busted on Spruce Run Reservoir in the evenings to night on live bait. A customer bought two dozen herring, whacking the fish one night this week. Anglers just have to be there when the bite goes off, and now was the time to catch the bite. Stream trout fishing doled out tugs, and the fish started feeding on naturals or aquatic insects more than on baits like worms. Stocked trout became acclimated to the waters, so they fed more on naturals.

CENTRAL JERSEY

Hybrid striped bass anglers plowed constant action at Spruce Run Reservoir in the evenings, mostly on herring, but also on nightcrawlers, said Nick from Efinger Sporting Goods in Bound Brook. Catch-and-release largemouth bass fishing gained steam at Spruce and also at Round Valley Reservoir for anglers working spinners, soft-plastics like worms and crank baits with rattles. Good reports were heard about Round Valley’s catches of lake trout, brown trout and rainbow trout in around 65 or 70 feet, deeper waters now because of the heat. Smallmouth bass fishing began to amp up at the South Branch of the Raritan River. Nick sacked the smallies Sunday on small frog poppers and large Wooly Buggers. Anything buggy or terrestrial like that worked well. Trout fishers on the South Branch wiped up on fairly good catches on fly rods and ultra-light spinning rods. Trout anglers who fly-fished the various streams bought lots of Wooly Buggers. But caddis will always hatch now, and sulfurs, blue-winged olives and Light Cahills will be found. The spin anglers cast baits like meal worms.

Manasquan Reservoir’s largemouth bass came off the spawn, and the time was about right for that, and one angler burned some of the fish, catch and release, along the edge of the trees on a ½-ounce jig-and-pig with blue and black pork rinds, said Dennis from Murphy’s Hook House. Crappies swiped jigs fished under bobbers along the trees. A few trout could be caught, including at Prospertown Lake, though trouting at lakes and ponds will end soon, because the still waters become stale through summer. But a customer creeled trout at Prospertown on a small, white Roostertail. A neighbor limited out on trout on the Toms River off Route 70 on spinners. Previously, a couple of weeks ago, trout angling had seemed slow on the Toms, but the neighbor started talking about catches, proving the fish could be located. A few families were seen fishing at the Ocean County College pond, tangling with a mess of bluegills on worms under bobbers. Nobody talked about fishing at Lake Riviera, but the lake, holding some deep areas, consistently produces a few largemouth bass and some chain pickerel on shiners or killies. Carp stirred around actively at Trilco on the Toms River. The fish were abundant, and anglers would hang one or two on a trip, chumming with corn and raisins, fishing with dough balls. Trilco, a stretch of the Toms known to locals, used to be a lumber yard, and is no longer identified by any sign, but is located behind the post office. Small striped bass 12 to 18 inches hit along the canal in 4-foot, shallow waters between Trilco and the saltwater on black and gold Rapalas.

Catfish like 4-pounders milled around the bottom of the Delaware River, and anglers will fish for them for the next three or four weeks, said Sean from Harry’s Army and Navy in Robbinsville. Chuck out chicken livers, worms or hot dogs on a 2/0 hook on a three-way rig, or any rig that will sink the bait. Largemouth bass, post-spawners, began to cooperate again for anglers who caught and released them at waters including the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area lakes, Carnegie Lake and Gropp’s Lake. The fish inhaled soft-plastics like Senko worms or Power Bait worms.

SOUTH JERSEY

Catches of largemouth bass increased as the fish ended spawning, said Ed from Creek Keepers Bait & Tackle in Blackwood. Blackwood Lake was a popular place for the catch-and-release angling for small largemouths. One customer slugged them on shiners there. Kids had fun mugging sunnies from the lake’s spillway, mostly on meal worms. New Brooklyn Lake was ever the spot to beat chain pickerel, especially on minnows. Though trout fishing was on the downturn after stocking ended and the weather warmed, anglers in the know wrenched up small trout at Grenloch Lake. But one angler walloped a 5-pound brown trout at Grenloch on a Mickey Fin streamer while fly fishing. Large and small shiners, minnows, nightcrawlers, Nitro Worms died green and meal worms are stocked. Ed previously said the Nitro’s will do a job on largemouths at Hammonton Lake. May be time to check out that fishing since the spawn ended.

Fishing for largemouth bass, catch and release, dusted up catches, so the fish seemed to stop spawning, said Lou from the Sportsman’s Center in Williamstown. Richard Price cracked six largemouths to 4 ½ pounds at Parvin Lake on Zoom lizards and Senko worms on a trip during the weekend. Customers Justin, 11, and his pop pop hit Franklinville Lake, coming up with crappies, yellow perch and chain pickerel during the weekend. A few trout could be scared up, probably at waters including Oak Pond and Iona Lake, though the fishing was on the down-slide for the season, after stocking ended. Hammonton Lake might also be an option. The lake is often overlooked, under-fished, but is stocked with trout and also holds largemouth bass and pickerel. No customers who fished Delaware Bay seemed to score great on summer flounder. They pumped in lots of throwbacks, maybe a couple of keepers among them. The bay’s drum fishing slowed a lot. Freshwater baits stocked at the shop include minnows, nightcrawlers and meal worms. Frozen saltwater baits are carried, including mackerel and squid for flounder.

Largemouth bass, finished spawning, were eager to smack lures, said Rick from Blackwater Sports Center in Vineland. They were caught and released at Union Lake in the shallows; Alloway Lake, always a good producer; and Parvin Lake, giving up and a few, not a ton, but some sizeable. Black buzz baits were the No. 1 lure lately. But top-water lures coaxed lots of attacks, including frogs in the weeds, Jitterbugs, Hula Poppers and Yum Money Hound soft top-waters in the weeds. Waters were warming, but smallmouth bass kept chewing at Lake Audrey and Union Lake. Tube lures are a top choice for the smallmouths. Minnows also work. Chain pickerel hunted down spinners, Rapalas, swim baits and minnows at nearly all lakes. The Maurice River was a place to claim channel catfish on chunks of smelly bait like bunker, the most popular. In saltwater Delaware Bay anglers rounded up summer flounder but lots of shorts. One customer totaled 64 including two keepers. Drum were sometimes still caught in the bay at night.