Tried a Little Midge North Branch

Took my two-weight to the North Branch before sundown, and I managed to roll cast well enough to drift my zebra midge under an indicator back underneath the 202/206 bridge where I wanted it to go. I wanted it to drift back under even farther, but it did get further in than where I hooked a 16-inch rainbow late in November some years ago. 

Mild late afternoon.

I also tried the exit bridge at the Zoo, and for some reason, there I couldn't roll out my line as far as I felt I needed to. I almost think I need heavier grain than whatever two-weight line I have on my reel.

Ran into one of the guys I saw fishing there in October. He caught one last week. 

Some Trout at Round Valley

DeLucca releasing his rainbow

Got a jolt today, over at Round Valley. Came with my wife and black Lab Sadie, shooting photos. I was just walking over to my wife when Dave DeLucca drove down, window opening, "Bruce, how's it's going?

"I haven't seen you in years!" I said.

I used to run into him when I fished here. Realized as we spoke for half an hour, that the last I did fish here was about two years ago. After I crossed the gravel to meet up with my wife, before we made headway back to the car, I saw Dave set the hook, so I hurried over and watched him catch a rainbow. Another guy had just driven down and come over to watch. He led me back to the catch of his wife and him, asked me to photograph him with it, two of them 15-inch lakers.

I've been over there at least twice a month all year, and almost always, I see no one fishing, although more often than not, I park over at Lot 2, through the main gate. I believe last I was at the main ramp, no one was fishing then, either, so today felt surprising. 

 

Plugged the South Branch

Matt and I fished the South Branch Califon northward, catching nothing. We stayed warm, out of the wind, never needed gloves, though it never got out of the mid-30's. According to Shannon's online, water temp was 39.

So we worked our way from the back of a stretch into its belly, figuring the trout had settled into the depths. At another spot, I kept reeling in snagged leaves from depths eight or nine feet down. I did consistently work the plug--a Rapala Countdown an inch-and-a-half long--at bottom. Must've got snagged more than a dozen times, but I never lost it. 

 

Veteran's Day Jigging

Today made me look back on when I fished with Kevin Murphy near October's end. That's when we used what we needed today--live herring. I had thought Tuesday on the lake with Mark was an anomaly, and that with added cloud cover, Oliver Round and I would get them on the Binsky.

I did check into the supermarket this morning for chicken livers, but none were available. At Dow's, I asked Laurie if she had any for sale, and she gave us a supply-chain horror story. (The economy is getting scary.) Oliver had told me about guys on NJ Freshwater Fishing.com catching a boatload of hybrids on chicken livers recently, so I went on and read the post. And saw the photos. It happens, and I figured that maybe we would try that.

I left my treble hooks at home, but Oliver and I decided to stick to the Binsky before I realized I had, anyway. (Dow's still has plenty of herring.) 

It was an interesting day, beginning with casting Binskys along a favorite drop. I always bring a rod I can use for a plastic worm or Senko, and I rigged a six-inch Chompers without weight, casting it against rocks. It didn't take long before I caught a largemouth not quite 11 inches long. We continued to cast our Binskys--working the bottom, up and down the water column, in close and out far, but nothing hit--while I had my eye on some rocks too distant for us to reach. There's a kind of pocket there 10-feet deep. After I positioned the boat by use of the electric, Oliver caught a largemouth of about 11 inches on a Senko. After he released it, he told me it hit very lightly on the drop in that pocket, and then a few minutes later, he missed a solid hit.

So at least I got that much right, and so did Oliver by catching one and tempting another. 

We positioned along another drop. Cast Binkys. The graph screen filled with fish. That's when I felt crushingly--while I helplessly jigged vertically in the face of fish that wouldn't hit, fish traveling in an immense school--that I should have brought the treble hooks and bought herring. But other guys who come out here and jig for hours, catching just a few walleye, they must see fish on the screen en masse, too.

The wind carried the boat, the anchor dragging, and we found many fish well out and away from the drop-off, too. At the drop and beyond, fish were at bottom and everywhere else--as shallow as seven feet over 40 feet of water.  . 

Fished Deep and Shallow

Felt surprised Lake Hopatcong's water temp was 57, and relieved, but I guess that with such light penetration, little chop at the surface to break it up, the hybrids and walleye just weren't going to comply. Mark did seem to have one or the other on a Binsky for a moment, but other than that, he caught two yellow perch on a jig with a spinner underneath. A Roadrunner..

We had taken the ride in Mark's 22-foot Tidewater center console to the State Park, casting worms in close. I thought I had a pick up, but after I felt no resistance upon setting the hook, I believed the sense of line moving had been caused by the boat moving. It realistically seemed to be a take, though. 

Afternoon temperatures might have hit 70. We did have chilly weather for three or four days prior. One morning, my car thermometer registered 26 degrees as I drove to work. It was below freezing four consecutive mornings, I think. Mark took his boat out the other day, and the first question I put to him was, "What was the water temperature?"

"50.8," he told me. 

Even that was some relief. Once it gets below 50, I don't feel comfortable about catch prospects. Other guys go on vertical jigging through December, and they catch walleye, but while I've caught plenty of cold water fish, including December walleye from the Delaware, at least right now I'd rather fish warmer. 

Mark had to go to work after we quit shortly after 3 p.m. He's working late into the night. Me? Right now I'm off for the week, and it feels more natural than when I have to work, as if that would surprise anyone. 

Mexican restaurant

Some nice fish on bait balls.

Lee's Cove

 

Walleye, Hybrid Striped Bass, Panfish

Kevin Murphy's first time on the lake, he drove to Dow's on Sunday, just so he could be sure of the route in the dark very early Tuesday morning. They told him Bruce wasn't going to take anyone out on Tuesday, there would be a big storm. Meanwhile, I was coming home from an afternoon in New Hope with my wife, and I didn't learn of  the storm until after we got home. So we met up there yesterday at 11:00 a.m. to stay until a little after sunset. 

I figured live herring would be the best approach for a beginner, and we also bought a dozen nightcrawlers, which kept Kevin occupied a long while. He caught nice-sized bluegills and a pumpkinseed. Tending herring lines, I felt a fish on one of them and insisted that Kevin take it; I had already told him we take turns on the bait lines, but he said, "Nah! I just feel good being out here. The fish is yours!" He wouldn't take the rod and I reeled in a walleye about 18 inches long. Unhooked, photographed, and released it. There I was, catching the fish when we bought the herring expressly in the interest of Kevin's getting acquainted. 

Later on, he caught a yellow perch on one of the herring rods, and then, after we moved the boat for the third time, something jerked one of the four bait rods forward violently--I immediately thought hybrid!--and I just grabbed the rod and set the hook. Since the fish was on and the rod was in my hand, I let the situation be as it already was defined and fought the small hybrid of 16 inches. I keep bails open, but even so, hybrids rush away with the bait so fast that anything hampering the line from flowing smoothly off the spool means the rod will jump.

I cast a Binsky bladebait repeatedly and eventually hooked a walleye of at least four or five pounds, lost at the net. The fish never took drag, but walleye never do no matter how big, Like other big ones I've caught, however, it stubbornly refused to come to the surface, and being a big fish, was hard to raise. A moment or two before Kevin would have slipped the net under the fish, the treble hook just gave out under the force I exerted.

We moved to a fourth spot where I put out the last herring and Kevin fished a dead one. I cast the Binsky, missing a hit and finally hooking something that came in easily at first. Then it began fighting and took off on the several powerful runs only a hybrid striper could exert. The fish measured 20 1/2 inches, a fair-sized bass. I worked the same water, maybe 25 feet deep, not letting the Binksy hit bottom before I began a yo-yo retrieve. I felt another hit, missed it, then hooked and caught a small white perch. 

The other hybrid and walleye came from water probably no deeper than 20 or 22 feet  The big one I lost might have been 15 feet down. Water temp was 62. The trees are still mostly green, although some color has definitely worked through a fair percentage of the leaves. It' s almost November, I would hope there's some color, but the lake is turned over only so deep. I never noticed a fish mark on the graph deeper than 21 feet yesterday..

Last year, when I fished the lake in October with Jorge, we finished the day by jigging Binskys. (Jorge did try other lures.) I think I never got hit, but I was into the exercise and considered coming out here the next season--this one--only to jig. That's how I feel again about nest year, and maybe we'll really limit ourselves to Binskys, besides nightcrawlers for some panfish. Kevin was talking about his learning how to jig a Binsky. One thing for sure. By anchoring in place to set bait, I've jigged the water thoroughly. It would be possible to jig spots all too superficially before moving on to others.

 

Kevin's pumpkinseed. I wanted to get a close-up.

Kevin also caught a nice white perch on one of the set lines.

 

Does Woolrich Cater to Hipsters?

Woolrich shirt birthday gift.

My wife went to Woolrich in Manhattan with my old and torn, rustic Woolrich shirt, and she showed it to them and they said they had nothing approximating its look. They told her they keep all the old patterns in a vault and release them some years, so she should keep an eye out in the future.

She also had trouble sizing the shirt with them that she got me. (A shirt a little too red.) They told her they switched to European sizing.

"Why would they switch to European sizing? Woolrich supplied blankets during the Civil War," my wife said to me. Woolrich is an American outdoor tradition. 

"It's odd," I said.

"I think they're catering to hipsters in Soho," she said.

Well, what the hell. If they're catering to hipsters in Soho, they can't escape Woolrich's past as an outdoorsman's company. 

I still wear my old and torn shirt, and the red plaid? Looks like Santa Claus but it might have its occasions.