Tried Bedminster Pond Again

Told Mike Maxwell earlier they'd be hitting over there. Two of us stood outside, temps in the 60's. It's funny how in society we tend to be so sure of ourselves, even when, at least on a deeper level, we know better. Bass are fickle this time of year. Fishing can be real good, like March 31st last year at 56 degrees when I caught eight in about an hour at this pond. Or, despite even "better" temperature, they don't hit at all. There has to be some reason for it, and it is true wind had come up, the front blowing in, temperature slipping easily, but I don't know if that was why.

I soon switched out my Blue Fox for a Mepp's Aglia that allowed me a slower retrieve through shallows. I like the reflecto tape on the blade, too, in sunlight like this afternoon's. Soon after casting that more than a dozen times, I switched to a Senko, and after nothing took it along a sunny shoreline where I catch bass when they're hitting, I headed towards that deep corner I remarked on last week.

I began fishing the edges of all that brush in the water. You would think a few bass would be there and willing to take a Senko, but nothing happened. In the meantime, I noticed someone else was fishing the corner itself, so I left him alone, and eventually got back to that sun-exposed shoreline, switching out for the Mepp's again.

I did get some suspicious bumps. No weed came in on the treble. And you'd think one of those bumps, if it were wood, would result in some grab, but that never happened. It was if bass just bumped the blade momentarily. Who knows.

Bass are certainly there somewhere in that pond. I also saw a golden/white carp about 28 inches long, when I finished by fishing a pretty deep corner out of the sun near the lot. That fish moved along the edge just out from shore persistently, active as I expected of the bass.

Some kind of duckweed growing in the water.

https://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2018/03/18-inch-largemouth.html

South Branch Raritan 53 Degrees this Morning

South Branch Raritan Ken Lockwood Gorge six days before the Opener.

If I were a true diehard, I would have got up at dawn this morning and fished Bedminster Pond. I know this, because I was right on the pulse of local waters during my teens. Yesterday, temperatures climbed to nearly 80. I think it was in the 60's when I walked Sadie near midnight. If I were still a true diehard, I would have realized dawn would be a real good time to fish bass today.

Trish walked Sadie early. It was warm out.

Instead, I had introduced Trish to Jim Holland at Shannon's Fly Shop in Califon this afternoon, and in the course of conversation, he told us the river's temperature this morning was 53. I was taken off-guard by this information, truly astonished...kind of like a greenhorn. Not like an angler who thinks first and foremost about the condition of his local waters.

I'm just being honest with you. First and foremost with myself. Such an angler as I admire in my mind at present is an ideal that possibly doesn't exist, perhaps, but he's certainly possible. And actually, by reading the NJ Fishing.com message board, I think quite a few of them do exist.

About a year ago, my life came to a critical juncture. I thought I could go deeper into fishing yet, immersing myself so deeply in nature that I would cross the line to identify myself primarily with the world outside, instead of with home and culture. Or I could stay within limits that, especially at my age, might be thought sane.





https://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2013/09/four-pound-smallmouth-bass-south-branch.html

Gave Bedminster Pond a Try

It was cold last night. The water might not have reached 45 degrees, but I really couldn't tell. It's unusually clear and the dark bottom of such shallow water absorbed today's sunlight, possibly enough to have warmed it more than last night's cold would make me think. 

As I write just after 4:30, it's 48 degrees. Maybe I'm the diehard--you be the judge of that--who just got in a little reel time, but I did see baitfish, surely sunnies, abandon their position en masse at the surface when I approached a beaver mess near shore. (Photograph is below.) 

Not as much of a breeze on the water as I wanted, but if I had taken Senkos along in my bag, possibly--not likely--I would have felt otherwise. Because I did get all the way to the back of Bedminster Pond where water is deeper, although no more than about five feet deep. This is a very shallow pond that becomes all but unfishable by May 1st. Right about now, though, it often offers some very good bass fishing. 

To hit it just right, water temperature should be about 50 or warmer, a breeze rippling the surface, and maybe some sunlight. Last March 31st, I caught eight largemouths, one of them over three pounds, all on the Savko Special, a homemade spinner weighted lightly so I can retrieve it slowly in shallows. Like today, I wasn't out much more than an hour, perhaps.

Intended to work on the rod, but realized I forgot about the epoxy to secure the reel seat to the blank. Rather than driving to Bernardsville Hardware and possibly not finding the 30-minute epoxy I need, I ordered Rod Bond on Amazon. That arrives on April 2nd at the earliest, but I have time to do the job on April 10th; I should have it done before we begin trout fishing.

Have to phone Steve Vullo in 10 minutes. Talk about fall fishing for very big bass. Soon I'll write an article for The Fisherman including quotes from him.

Sunnies or other baitfish hung by this timber in large numbers.

Building a Rod

This afternoon, throwing an inline spinner might have worked for bass. Even in the very shallow neighborhood pond, the water wouldn't have warmed much higher than the low to mid 40's, but 45 is my magic number when it comes to water temperature and possibly scoring this way.

Instead, I had to install fire alarms or pay a stiff Condo Association fine. Otherwise, I worked on building a microlight rod for trout, very deeply satisfying. The sanding of the solid graphite ice fishing blank. And it sure felt good to see that annoying green paint on the tip disappear.

Had to order a bristle brush to apply rod coating to the now bare blank; even though I finished off with wet 600 grain sandpaper, I want that nice shiny finish. Believe it or not, though, it does add a little weight, logically a detriment, but practically negligible.

Looking to Sunday as another day to throw a spinner, I'll probably spend time with my wife instead. And then there's a week from today. Twenty six in the morning forecast, 48 for a high....no, not so good. If I were really enough of a diehard, I'd get out there and cast that spinner anyway. 

Think It's All Over

I'm not going to bug Laurie by emailing her again about it, but I think the ice is unsafe by now. She wrote me a week ago that she pretty much expected ice fishing through this past weekend, and maybe that did happen, but as the very last of it all this season.

Joe Landolfi said Wednesday he would phone me tonight and we would arrange ice fishing on Hopatcong this coming Wednesday, but he hasn't called, probably because he figures the same. I told him Wednesday I'm definitely up for a try next year. Guess that's just my normal prescience.

It's late. Mid-March.

Matt says he wants to fly fish Wednesday.

Sign of Spring

Well, I took a clue from a press release. Nothing outdoors is offering any yet, besides some daffodil and tulip pokes.

Anticipating amphibians on the move, the National Park Service is......

file:///C:/Users/Bruce/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/BAFG6LTM/NPS_River%20Road%20Amphibian%20Closure.pdf

Gave Round Valley a Visit

Forget Tilcon Lake. Hoped, last night, that maybe I could introduce my son to Oliver Round by ice fishing the lake after all, ironic as this would be, since we hoped to go in January. Last year, Matt and I fly fished when he was home on break. But I checked Round Valley Pond early this afternoon and most of it is open water. Since that's the case here, I don't believe for a moment Tilcon Lake has safe ice. Tilcon is about 20 feet deeper than Round Valley Pond. Tilcon also has a greater mean depth, its shorelines dropping almost immediately into deep water.

I came on over to shoot photos, but before I loaded my camera bag and tripod into the Honda, I checked on the mealworms in the fridge. Still alive. (So long as you keep them cold, they never seem to metamorphize into the black beetles they do become pretty quickly at room temperature.) I grabbed a bag of little marshmallows and a rod already rigged for the Valley. I had a couple of others rigged, too, but didn't care to complicate matters.

I set up to fish in a minute or so, and then began shooting nearby. Finally, I fetched my camera bag to begin an arduous walk from the Ranger Cover area towards the ramp. I trusted my rod and tackle bag to any strangers. Don't think I would have on a weekend. That's an expensive rod and reel, and so are the bag's contents. I also trusted that rod and reel to the trout. On one occasion in the past, a trout spooled my reel before I attended it, the bail open so the fish could take the bait, but the fish just sort of stopped running after all the line was out, so it didn't pull the outfit into the reservoir. Now I realize it wasn't really wise to trust it to the trout. Strangers? Less likely to take it.

But no trout hit.

I also hiked further back along Ranger Cove after I reeled my rig and stashed it in the Honda, surprised at the ice cover over there, though my photo doesn't do it much justice. I wore my hikers and felt surprised my feet never got cold. My Irish Setter pac boots never get swapped out for hikers when I ice fish, and these big boots are always warm, but I like my hikers here at the Valley, the way gravel and rock feels under them. Temperatures today down near 20 and the wind heavy, here we are well into March now, and out there alone by the reservoir, I didn't feel a trace of spring coming.

It would have been a good hour for a shiner rigged on a little Styrofoam for any possible lake trout, but I left the bucket home, though I could have turned left at U.S. 22 over to Round Valley Bait and Tackle. That's my only regret. I've had wonderful encounters with lakers in the past, and today really felt like a day for more, but with so little time to fish, I do doubt any would have hit, if any are in the shallows this late in the winter anyhow. Don't know. That's a good reason to have least tried.

I guess this is about all for winter until December. Very vigorous--and comfortable--occasion. I worked hard at getting good photos with my still-new camera, beginning with my 24mm Sigma Art lens, using the 70-200mm Nikon zoom for some, and then keeping with my 50mm Nikon. I got down on my belly in the snow on some occasions for close angles, but although I shot 101 photos, only a handful interest me very much. Shooting them was a lot of fun, though, and the more I do it, the more my collection of exceptions grows. Once the water level falls again for the work on the dams, there'll be some especially interesting opportunities. 

Ice formed inside a bend near the lower parking lot.

The back of Ranger Cove is frozen over.