Spruce Run Reservoir Bass Fishing March to May from Shore

This early in the season we catch bass (no smallmouths yet) incidentally on shiners fished for pike. Most have been about 17 inches, the one I caught today photographed a little shorter. Catches frequent enough that we think of them, we get bass at the end and along the jetty at Spruce Run Creek's mouth, and in Back Brook Cove (or is it Black Brook?). I once used chest waders to catch a 17-inch largemouth in 38-degree wind with some snow showers. My son's largest measured 20 1/8 inches at the end of March 2008.

Back to Spruce Run with my son, Steve Slota and his son Tom showed up half an hour later. Funny how things go. As much as one has "a wide grasp of existence," to quote my post two days ago, things can turn on a dime to make yours feel tenuous. But the wider the grasp, the less likely it is for you to get put out, depressed, defeated. It's an attitude before nature which assumes matter is fundamental and implies conceptuality ranging beyond human productions. The manmade is just rearranged elements of nature, so in order to be creative, a grasp of metaphysically given nature is necessary to change anything. And for fishing, the more you're attuned to this big picture, the less any part of it will seem to determine you. But any of us has bad days. 

As we turned into the lot two days ago it felt just like coming home. Year eight including 2005. First pike trip of the season. I told Matt, "Mom's right about traditions, although we do need to find new places too."

Today it felt like we're wrapping it up, moving on, not to return. So many places I've fallen in love with I've walked away from. Usually I don't remember them much either, although when I was younger I relished memory a lot more. I like the wonder of the new, my curiosity about what will happen draws me into something like Spruce Run became for us--a place to touch base in the spring with the kids having a good time. Catching some nice fish too. That especially kept us returning and I know Steve wants to catch a pike. Matt, Tom, another friend of Matt's, me--we've caught them all along. But the fish will still be there if we move on.

The kids are growing up, the bass still here and I'm sure we just missed the pike somehow tonight. Matt got a small bass deep into dusk and had lost another close to two pounds right at his feet.   

Spruce Run Reservoir Fishing: The Tax Man!

 West on 78, passing the Anandale exit (but that was Anandale VA cited by Steely Dan; I knew someone at Lynchburg College from Alexandria & familiar with the band's roots in that area), approaching Route 31 I remembered listening to the Beatles, 2007, having just caught some nice pike at Van Syckle, and every time since as I've returned I hear in my head Lennon's refrain lines as if taking on the role of governments. I love how he levels.

We felt great just as we got to the parking lot. We've done this since 2005 in the spring. But today I even put nightcrawlers out on two rods to just let them sit. In recent years, usually we catch at least one brown trout, have caught a channel catfish. Nothing today. Speaking of the Husky Jerk in yesterday's post, that's what I used last evening and got one hit that just didn't seem all that deliberate when I let the lure pause. Whatever took tried to take it away, but not with enough of a mouth around it for me to get the hooks in. My son fished that Storm Thunderstick I mentioned in the Passaic River post. Nothing.

"The cold front shut it down," someone told me. But it was very mild yesterday. And pike hit Husky Jerks with water in the low 40's sometimes. I saw some baitfish leap at the surface--that's not real cold water. The warm water season is here.

www.fishinginnewjersey.blogspot.com My other blog. Maybe dormant now, but plenty of posts.

Snakes in New Jersey and Waiting for Warmer Weather

Already out before my son got up, I asked him to step outside and see what he thinks. It's too cold. Matt's an amazing observer, catcher, and photographer of snakes and we hoped for more today. In New Jersey he's observed, caught, photographed and let go many snakes of ten species. If I knew him when I was a boy, I would have been more than amazed. I went after snakes too, but never had the opportunity Matt does. And this is 2012 when kids supposedly have abandoned the real world for the virtual.

Matt's not a protected boy who only catches snakes (and lizards--in New Jersey, hundreds in Florida) and goes fishing. He plays a range of computer games. His interests at school include baseball and football, social interests implied by this, yet he's smoothly immune to falling under anti-academic stereotypes while getting absolutely no flack from others for being a nature boy, as I was marginalized growing up until I began drinking beer and actually did put anyone under the table who challenged. Matt won't need to do this.

So give up on your moanings about how kids don't go outdoors anymore and just do it!

Guess what? It's not just a free country. It's a free world. All you have to do is choose that freedom.

So a couple of mountains and Ryker Lake wait until we try again Friday. 

Largemouth Bass Striking Spinnerbaits with Gusto!

I went out in the rain to see if I could finally hook a good bass over three pounds. My neighborhood pond has for the past couple years been yielding loads of bass about two pounds, but none larger. Interests me that a pond's bass population can alter over time in size. It used to be we caught loads from nine to 12 inches, and a 14-incher was the exception. We did catch some over three pounds, and four years ago my son caught a five-pounder and two others over four. I can't account for the shift to larger-size bass, but I am wondering if I'm going to hook a real lunker at all in the pond this year beyond whatever took that Senko a couple weeks ago and tore off on a run. I can't be absolutely certain that bass was any bigger, since a two-pounder sometimes feels much larger at first.

For the first five or ten minutes today I couldn't buy a hit. I began to think that had I brought along a Husky Jerk suspending minnow plug to work it slow, I might catch one. I have done so here in cold water before, but then I thought it didn't matter. I was interested in whether or not bass would respond in a warm water way. I began to think my claim about two weeks ago that we've already reached the warm water season beyond the early season fluctations with real cold water was bogus. It never really got out of the low 40's yesterday, and now it's in the low 50's or so.

Then I got a jolt way out in the middle.

The pond is shallow. It's about three, maybe four feet out there. But I know from experience these fish orient to very shallow water around the edges as well as deeper, and even to the edge between where the difference may be a foot of depth.

In little over a half hour total I caught eight bass on the 3/8th-ounce black Colorado blade spinnerbait, two of these just over two pounds, the rest of them close to two pounds. I usually just grab a lure or two and go, the pond in close walking distance, and the irony today is that the spinnerbait I previously used has a larger blade commanding a slower retrieve you'd think would be appropriate today. But what the hell; I got the bass chasing. All of these bass struck out in the middle. Certainly they were not rolling over spinnerbait wakes at the surface, but they were pouncing on that lure for sure. This was not true cold water fishing at all.

Appreciations for Delaware & Raritan Canal/Millstone River Aqueduct at Lake Carnegie Princeton New Jersey

I had my camera bag right by the door, and going out I just felt I didn't want to drag it along. By my plans it was altogether unnecessary. I was on my way to register our 12-foot inflatable with the state of New Jersey (55 pound thrust Minn Kota Endura--nice), visit my parents, and a friend at Princeton Medical Center with a bill over a million. No problem with that--he's alive and completely confident.

But I make it up as I go along. Plans I never allow to bind me anymore than I would any other tool. I turned out of Washington Circle onto Route One north, vaguely intending to cut through Kingston and either take Route 533 or 206 into Somerset County and then on home. I ended up on a road flanking the south side of Lake Carnegie as it passes "Hogwarts School" (Princeton Center for Arts and Education) and follows along the Delaware & Raritan Canal back westward. In short order I realized where I was headed--the Millstone River. But it wasn't until I got there that--of course--I found ample parking exists for an area I've actually had in mind on occasion over the years, where the Millstone passes underneath the canal to enter Lake Carnegie at the lake's deepest hole of over 20 feet. I have not been here for about 30 years, when I caught a largemouth on a crankbait in the lake right about this time of year where I soon found myself standing. But certainly no lilypads had emmerged then as early as they have now. I can hardly believe it--lilypads, New Jersey, and the month of March.

Experiencing this place moved me profoundly--the Millstone, canal, lake, the fishermen with a five-gallon bucket full of big bullheads--brown/yellow bullheads at that, nice, healthy fish--the lilypads, the crew racers--some from Annapolis Naval Academy--and just a great, wholesome feeling that I have been at this place all these 30 years.

It's the interchange of waterways that attracts me strongly to the vistas here, the sense of connection to Roman aqueducts and other marvels of ingenuity in a wide open world. I don't care for the ancient Romans so much since I despise power and might when it is valued above intellectual reflection and aesthetics. Intellectuality is fun, aesthetics joyous, and power and might without these values are brutal stress and torment, despair, defeat, and death. If intellect and aesthetics triumph, there will be no war, no presumed reasons for it. But I appreciate the mind's practicality in any civilization. A friend of my younger brother once suggested years ago that I could be an engineer. It is fascinating, but I would write about engineering before I would do it. There's only so much time in life.

I want to go there again, with my son, a rod and reel apiece, and a bucket of shiners (and camera). Why shiners? Well, I caught the bass years ago on a proper crankbait in cold water. Now I might go in July--with shiners--because I want to behave contrary to expectation, and not even care if we catch anything until we might. I just want to be there.

Passaic River with Pike in Mind

 Had only 20 minutes to fish the Passaic River on my lunch break. This second time I've ever fished it I got skunked, as if anything more would be expected on such a short stint. I caught three smallmouth bass in 2006 or '07. First time I've fished a Storm Thunderstick. I really like this plug. It has excellent bouancy, but it gets down a few feet and responds very well to tip action. If any pike stalked it I would be surprised. However, plenty pike are in the river. Stocked by the state each year, the fingerlings grow fast and large. Considering that this is New Jersey, the 46-incher reported by the angler who wrote a great piece on Passaic pike for On the Water magazine is a huge fish.

Should get out again next week. I'm off work and pike are on the agenda. Spruce Run usually yields a few for my son and I and friends. I want to try Ryker's Lake for bass too, although the main focus of this trip will be snakes, as my son observes and photographs many different species. Ryker's Lake is reportedly a mile hike into the wild, so this should be interesting.

Never Saw Millstone River in Better Shape: Looks Like an Ideal Trout Opening Day Ahead

Today I drove along the Raritan River, over the Millstone River at Wilhousky Street, and over the South Branch Raritan at a couple of points, and the Neshanic River as well. All of these streams are in perfect shape. I really thought of Opening Day ahead a week from now less than I did of what a perfect spot for spawn-driven pike that dam at Wilhousky appears to be. But I guess it's too late now. Better to have tried sometime in February this year.

I could have geared up to fish at lunch break, but I'm just not so organized because I can't stand being bound to routine, so if I can get out the door in the morning without even thinking at all of gathering my camera bag and tackle tote, I will tend to do that and enjoy a little freedom. I find little ways to let go of the grip of routine rather than being fixated on security. Today I had intended to meet a friend during my break time, so it was easy to have overlooked preparing to fish in case this didn't work out as it didn't.

Had a taste of Paradise at Wilhousky Street, Manville, New Jersey--just the sight of that clear Millstone River water for a moment, which is so unusual for the Millstone, typically more off-color than clear. I think it will be an ideal Opening Day for trout, not that the Millstone will have any. I'm thinking of Opening Day for my son's sake; I'm just along for the ride to serve as guide.