Round Valley Trout Association has Stocked the Reservoir

Round Valley Trout Association recently stocked 45 trophy trout, 21-24 inches, 500 brown trout 10-14 inches, and 480 tiger trout, 10-14 inches. These trout will grow very fast, although the trophy rainbows will not last very long.

The club is worth joining if you fish RV. I was a member for a number of years and served as the managing editor of the newsletter for about a year, although as anyone there can tell you, Jim Saccento, the former editor, was still there mentoring me at it. I could edit writing better and faster than anyone, but a managing editor also deals with many other procedures. My work schedule proved too much. Elected to the board and needing to be there as editor, a function Jim had given up, I couldn't make the meetings.

I found RVTA really has the down-to-earth feel of what the trout fishing at the reservoir is all about.

RVTA Trout Stocking

Back to Round Valley

Went back to Round Valley late this afternoon, hiking from the ramp back into the Ranger Cove area for photos. Such a release from the unreality of all you can lump together as comprising life inside, including the work I do at the supermarket, even though the parking lot is outdoors and does relieve me somewhat. (Since my department is closed, I'm pushing carts and spraying them with disinfectant.)

Sadie is an old, slow dog who tried my patience. I admit I conspired with the open breeze to not bring her along next time so I can walk with a tighter step, but that would break my wife's heart. And Sadie's. She sure knows when I'm going out.

That stump in the photo is about 25 feet down when the reservoir is at full pool. Any guesses on how many bass have stationed next to it over the years?

I brought my rod, but Sadie was so slow, I didn't stay to fish. It was chilly out anyway. I spoke to some shore-bound trout fishermen carrying on the wintertime quest, and they had one 17-inch rainbow. 

Hike at Round Valley

We had a great afternoon. Matt, his mother, me, and Sadie. Last time Trish and I hiked here, before she came with Matt along and they hiked, me staying near the ramp and shooting photos, we came short of walking all the way from Ranger Cove to the ramp, and she was pissed. Sciatica in my right thigh and leg was pretty bad, and I was under the delusion that my new Nikon D850 wasn't focusing. In a word, I was a mess. Anxiety was so bad for about two months with everything gone wrong after Florida, that it affected my judgment so I couldn't tell if my camera worked. After I got home and loaded the images, I did change my mind. Everything finally got righted when Covid-19 hit.

Today, I learned that we were much closer to the goal that day than I had felt we were. And the hike back to Ranger Cove was so easy that I understood I can come over here and work from some new spots with ease to get shots with my camera.

There are dozens of trails. All sorts of them are makeshift, more than half of them below the normal water line. It's really cool hiking with so many choices and making the way up as you go. What a different feel back in the woods than at the water among bleached rocks in direct sun. And it's easy to find a way back in under the trees, and then back out. Very interesting.  

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.