If I Were an Atlas Mike's Salesman

Sorry about the out-of-focus photo. Didn't have time to remedy. Had been over at Round Valley shooting in manual and forgot to switch back. 

Had a fun half hour over at the Zoo, catching and releasing 10 rainbows upstream there from the bridge in view where I believe all are stocked. Came home and told my wife I should be a salesman for Atlas Mike's. I must have converted three guys, and if I worked at it, I could have converted a whole lot more. 

Referencing yesterday, two BB shot are a LOT of weight for microlight. That river MOVED. You can see there was some movement here, too, but one little snap, one little snap swivel was all the weight required, to have used any more than that would have ruined the drift. 

I wouldn't have caught 10 trout. 

Used the microlight rod I built in 2019 today. One-pound test monofilament. 

Salmon Eggs: An Oily, Smelly, Visceral Approach to Trout

I checked on my local river Monday and found it had come down, clarified pretty well. Called Mark Licht and began making plans for this afternoon. We found the river up his way running high and very fast, the clarity acceptable but not as clear as it usually is. 

Mark and I each had trout on our first casts. Naturally, we had instantly become suckers for hope, but had we enjoyed fast action at that first spot for the full four hours we had at our disposal, the day never would have developed through overcoming some obstacles.

Mark did catch three or four where we began many hundreds of yards from the stocking point. I missed a couple of hits. We mostly fished along a seam about 75 feet long. All of Mark's trout came from that edge, as well as the one I had on and  lost after it took several runs. I used two-pound test. An 11-incher in that current... 

One of my hits came when I drifted an egg through the fast water. Soon, I weighted the line with a BB split shot after Mark offered me one. I declined and opened my own pack. I had been managing the seam OK with a snap and a snap-swivel for weight. 

We walked upstream a good way. I fished another seam, and after Mark caught another trout and came upstream to where I stood, I tried to cast my salmon egg to the column of slow water near the opposite bank that he pointed out to me. He went back downstream and caught two more. It seemed to become obvious that his centerpin outfit was advantageous given the high water. He can work his float along an entire seam and let the current take it behind rocks, and so on.  I wasn't cooked, though. I still had plenty of interest in the limits of my microlight tackle against the heavy flow.

We drove to a bridge and no trout seemed to be there. We both felt the sneaking suspicion that it hadn't been stocked.

We moved on to our last spot, which is where it all came together for me. I weighted the line with an additional split shot and cast into the fast water, figuring that trout hugging bottom underneath where flow is slower might appreciate an egg moving slower, too. I did have to retie a few times, and had left my leader wallet at home, though I had a pack of the size 14 baitholder hooks I use. I started hooking up, and by the time we had to leave, which seemed to come pretty quickly, I understood that the fast water surely held a lot more trout than just the four I caught, the one I fought and lost, and the several hits I missed. I didn't quite catch up to Mark, but I closed the gap considerably. 

I enjoy fishing salmon eggs. It's an oily, smelly, visceral approach to trout amounting to a "fishy" quality, in fact. I did bring along my two-weight fly rod, but once I hooked up on that first cast, there was no turning back. I'll probably always be dual in that way. A bait fisherman who likes to fly fish when that makes sense. But stockers are a paradox. They're artificially raised, and yet using smelly, oily bait for them is more down-to-earth than the fly fishing I do for wild trout.

It's always interesting to watch Mark center-pinning. His big eggs sacks were interesting to see used on little stockers, too. I'm not interested in investing, but I avidly appreciate how it works for him. 

Five Years Ago

 

Fly Fished Last Day of Trout Season

Sunday the 20th was the last day of trout season until April 9, so I decided to fly fish Peapack Brook a little. I fished a pool where I once witnessed a friend catch a wild brown among stocked rainbows while  using salmon eggs. Fished that pool thoroughly with a beadhead nymph, and while using a strike indicator began to wonder about what I don't know about the fishing.

So after I got home--had caught nothing--I went online and began to read. About nymphing without an indicator, too. What I've learned, and I'll read more yet, will be useful I hope when my wife and I visit our son in California during the middle of April. It will be catch and release only and only on some streams until the last Saturday of the month. We won't fish much. We can't deny Matt's mother. Maybe we'll fish once or twice. 

Reading more about nymphing ought to help me around here, too. Anyhow, the most recent success I've had--besides some casting I can congratulate myself on--was on a stream that feeds the Pohatcong, in October 2020. I used no indicator but missed the direct hit of a brookie about seven inches long. 

Another New Pond and First Open Water Fish

This is the pond Brenden's been fishing. The other one he hasn't tried yet. 

I couldn't stay into dusk last evening, because my wife came with Sadie the black Labrador, who is almost 13 and has severe arthritis. I decided to keep morale up by being with them as Sadie struggled back to the car. I guess I fished about 20 minutes, not long enough to really get a handle on the fishing, but long enough to take the Beetle Spin harness off and just fish the jig, lose that to a snag, and then tie on another jig and stupidly yank the tail off one of my 8-inch blue Chompers. I have six-inch green ones. Blue Chompers aren't on the market anymore, last I checked, and I managed to get three packs off ebay, though I might not be able to find any now. 

I did spot a nice 13-incher pretty quick. It didn't care for the Beetle Spin so I switched to a jig, the water dropping off quickly. The little one I did catch rushed that jig as I retrieved it for the next cast, and that next cast meant it got whalloped by the bass instantly. 

I like the place. Bigger than I expected, too. A lot of wood in the water, always a good sign, although not so much wood as Mount Hope Pond where I used to fish. Water color is well balanced. Does not have the off-color tinge the pond I fished the other day has.

Temperature was 72 when I arrived.

 

Laurie's Report

 Laurie Murphy:

Open water season has started out on a good note for yellow perch & crappie.  The 2 snowstorms have wreaked a little havoc, but the nicer temps should get things back on track. Aaron Graybill of Lake Hopatcong Guide Service has reported water temps of 39 on the main lake and up to 47 in the shallower sections of water. The perch bite should remain hot for the next couple of weeks and the crappie should continue good into May.  Also caught in the shallow water were some Largemouth Bass, pickerel & white perch.  The water level is still down about 15 or so inches, but continues to rise with the dam closed. Aaron ’s guide service is available full time now with multiple boats available to book. (856) 577-0653 We are open early 7 days at 6:30 AM with bait & tackle and boat rentals will be available sometime early April. Call (973) 663-3826 for more info. Have a great week !

Tried a Pond New to Me for Bass

 

Got news of action here in Clinton, but I've left it to the youthful talent to show me up once more. Brenden caught 10 or 12 largemouths that warm day just before it turned cold, on a little jig and Z-Man plastic. One or two them 16 inches, he told me. I got over there early in the afternoon when it was 64 degrees, and very soon felt it would be a late bite. I saw no evidence of any fish, as I worked my way around to the back where there's a flat.

I was throwing an old favorite, the Johnson Beetle Spin, my "Beat Spinner" as I play with the name, which is basically a spinnerbait, but you can detach the spinner arm and just fish the jig, if you want. All 1/8th ounce of it casts pretty well on my St. Croix, the reel loaded with 6-pound mono. 

Something little did whack it, because I saw it carried to the side, though I didn't see the fish! I continued further around the pond, fishing the side that had got the most sun, and as I say, it was shallow and that muddy bottom was warming. I saw three large carp wallowing in that warmth like pigs. A pleasant thing to see. 

Saw no bass. No sunnies. No crappies. And Brennan had also caught a 13-inch crappie.  

Later on, I was at Round Valley shooting photos, and after I left, I got 70 degrees. Maybe it will hit 80 on Friday, and if so, that will be some evening to fish.

Beaver Cuts and a Coot

Now I felt determined to see signs of life, and I found that easy. I guess I just didn't notice these recent beaver cuts yesterday, unless they were done early this morning. Notice how one of the beavers got up there pretty high on the tree cut down some three feet or more from the water surface. Down below, it almost cut through but abandoned doing so for some reason. 

Otherwise, I did see a coot. I got photos of coots with my 35mm film camera at the Bedminster Pond more than 10 years ago, and I've never seen one since, except for today. 

I fished the same Rapala. I just figured I'd keep playing with that. I did get into tight spots, the two photographed below, figuring that if any bass finned in the warmer shallow water, these corners would easily hold one or two. Sixty-seven degrees out. Some sun, too.

But for the most part, the water's cold and nothings moving. When the frogs begin making song, you count on at least a little bass action, but not a sound yet. 

The Township has been working on the pond. Treating the heavy algae buildup and other aquatic vegetation. I'm surprised that includes water chestnuts, only because they take over rapidly and thoroughly, and I haven't seen that happen. Only the algae. 

Tight corner. To the immediate right in the top of the photo, the bank forms a little buttress against water that has a couple feet of depth or so.

 Here there's a shallow and tiny little cove I tried out in front of where the picture begins.