Matt and I Plan on Hybrids

Dow's shop is closed, but they're selling bait by placing it curbside.

Laurie says she'll rent me a boat, but has to fill out paperwork. I have the boater's certificate. She knows that. She also knows me and I don't know if she can rent to just anyone. Don't even ask if you don't have the certificate. Since Matt and I do plan on going, and there will be a blog post that shows one of Laurie's boats in a photo, I see no harm in announcing this.

Dow's is hurting, but it's good thing they have some business. 

Sourlands Hiking

I fish in Neshanic, though I've never hiked in the Sourlands. I've read about them, and there are some interesting spots among the rocks. I have a desire to do it sometime, but it seems my wife and I always end up elsewhere. A coming destination is the Lake Hopatcong Trail. I give it priority for obvious reasons, all the fishing I do there, and also because I'm collecting photos of the lake to create a book of the best in 10 or 15 years.


Sourlands

Tried Round Valley for Largemouths

Went to Round Valley this evening to do a photo shoot, and naturally I brought a rod along, since May is my favorite time to catch largemouths there. I usually do catch some. I went to a corner of the pond, and found a big deadfall blocking the path of my Senko. The path that has resulted in my losing three or four big bass over the years, only then, nothing in the water was responsible. My bad hook sets, and once a bad knot, were responsible. I tried to get a shot of that deadfall, but you can only make it out if you click on the photo for an enlargement.

Tall phragmites get in the way of casting anywhere along this bank I fished, but here there's an opening. I placed casts aside of the wood, and then went to the left and managed more casts, although I doubt I would have got a big bass to my hand on six-pound test, dragging it across the yards of stuff out in front of me. I didn't think of it then, but inevitably, I would have soaked my Dockers and pants. As I cast and retrieved, one of the planets was very bright overhead, even though a lot of light remained in the sky. And I heard peeper frogs. I've heard them in early March, but I don't recall hearing them this late in the spring. Nothing hit, and I returned to the deadfall and cast over it a few times, anyhow.

As I retrieved after my intended last cast, I got snagged on it and broke off my Senko.

Mostly Pickerel Once More

It's been almost a month since I fished with Brian and Matt on the lake. Matt's busy with physics projects for his Boston University classes, so he couldn't come along. 

Brian asked for my opinion on where to start, so I said near the island where Matt and I had done well. Within minutes, I caught the pickerel photographed above on a Mepp's Aglia Long, size 6. I had set up the sonar. Depth was about three feet and water temperature 56. That temperature has definitely come up after most of April having hovered in the 40's. I did get readings as high as 57 today, mostly 55. The water was a single degree warmer than it was on April 5th when last here.

Brian lost a very good-sized pickerel on a weighted Keitech.  

I caught a smaller pickerel on the spinner before we entered the cove where Matt and I had done especially well. Nothing happened. There's some great shoreline brush in the water, too. Depths there about three feet. That was Matt's idea last time. Then we positioned outside the cove when he suggested we go in and try that brush. I got the canoe in perfect position for him to place his Mepp's size 3 right at the edge of a protrusion. The result was a 25-inch pickerel.

Brian and I went all the way through the cove and out the other side into the main lake, hoping that deeper water would pay off. I felt definitely psyched for catching fish. I had hoped we would catch a five or six pound largemouth. This is the time of year for that. Right before they spawn, the eggs of big females add weight, and they may be spawning within a couple of weeks. Late this year. Earlier, I was afraid we wouldn't get the chance we had today.

Brian's 12 1/2-inch perch took a shiner. I had lost a bigger one right at the gunwale minutes before. Then he caught a pickerel on a shiner. We spent an hour or more at very slow fishing, getting nothing but some perch taps on shiners. Finally I hooked a nice fish on the spinner back where we started. Brian got the idea of trying a jerkbait. He got hit on this first cast, and caught the pickerel photographed below on the second. I switched to a Husky Jerk, and then to a #9 Rapala Floater, after I found the Husky sank, weighted by the wire leader. (It's supposed to suspend.)

I caught a little 15- or 16-inch pickerel on the Rapala. Wind died. All the while, we had set rods in rod holders, keeping live shiners out. I put on a bobber, since without drift, the shiner tended to get into residual weeds. My shiners got hit a couple of times. The second time, a pickerel took the bait across the lake's surface fast as lighting. I set the hook into a very good fish, but lost it. Brian caught a 13 1/2-inch black crappie on a shiner.

Wind came back up and we drifted down lake as time to go neared. I baited the bobber rig, heaved it out, and before I could cast my Rapala, it went down. The result was a fat largemouth of about 2 1/2 pounds. 

A Gift

We fish when we can, not necessarily when conditions are best for catching, unless we're independently wealthy and utterly committed to fishing whenever and wherever it's best to. Today would've been a day to fish trout, and after the heavy rain not long ago spreading out those trout, I know of spots I would have loved to fish today, far from the madding crowd. But I showed John Lusk this pond, so he can come here on his own sometime. 

Matt and I discovered this place not long ago. I am about 100% certain it has bass, but John and I didn't prove that today. We fished an hour at most, first throwing in-line spinners against a brutal, cold wind, but not getting any knocks we could have interpreted as reluctant fish. Then we switched to a traditional worm on John's rod, a Senko on mine, and, as expected, tempted nothing from near a few a deadfalls, getting those worms as close to sticks as we could. 

You never know. But probability is pretty fool proof. I once cast a #9 Rapala floater against the wind into a pond in November, water temps in the 40's, and scored a 13-inch largemouth. That pond, which my son and I fished, gets a lot of pressure, too. On a more recent occasion, I threw an in-line spinner into another pond with no exceptional catch rate, the water temperature 45 in March, and scored another largemouth about the same size. I could say a lot more....

As we departed, John checked distance on his device. "I'm 20 minutes away,"  he said. Now he has an alternative to ponds even closer to his home, which are closed.

Delaware River Honored by American Rivers

Delaware River

Lenny, are You Re-Opened?

Sign of spring.....