Pre-Spawn Largemouths to 20 Inches on Lake Hopatcong

Thinking ahead to this outing more than a week ago, I planned on Matt and I targeting largemouths as well as hybrids. I imagined catching a five- or six-pound largemouth, because we might find ourselves in a situation fitting this possibility just right before they would spawn. I don't really know why it would be any more likely to catch a big one just before the spawn than a month before the spawn or a week after, except that big females usually weigh a little less after they drop their eggs, depending on what they've eaten. Nevertheless, having spent nearly 60 years outdoors since I was three years old, I have a sense for things going on out there, and transitions of any kind imply activity. Otherwise, nothing would be changing.

We got to Dow's at 5:30 a.m. Jimmy was loading his boat to go out and fish live herring. Joe came out and got a boat ready for us immediately. We were on the lake just after 5:45. As we crossed its main body, the sun broke over the horizon. It was windy.

On the initial trolling pass, I noticed a lot of fish on the graph, but when we turned around for the second pass, we hadn't got hit. Soon, I realized I was marking more fish than I ever have marked in our favorite trolling lanes, big icons on the graph; apparently these were hybrids weighing at least four pounds. On the eighth or ninth pass, I finally got hit. I had been changing plugs at each turn. Running a Storm Hot 'N Tot, a crankbait diving about eight feet, for a split second,I thought I might catch a hybrid on yet another kind of plug. A couple of seconds after I got smacked, Matt hooked up and the fish ran hard before the Rapala Finesse Sinking Minnow he used pulled free.

That's all the hybrid action we had today, besides a few other knocks on our plugs, perhaps. I told Matt that Mike Maxwell and I once began a long day at these lanes, catching nothing, and then came back five hours later and slayed a bunch of five-pounders. Matt and I would return later but then not only fail to hookup. We saw no fish on the graph at all, either.

Water temperature ranged from 57 in the morning to 62 in the afternoon. The day began as very chilly, especially with that wind I mentioned. Heavy. Numerous times during the day, I scooped water out of the boat. Whitecaps marked rolling waves.

The key to this day was the opposite to all this churning and chaos, as anyone might think of big female bass getting ready to bed. They don't want to lay eggs where moving water will disrupt them. I felt so eager to hook a big bass, I almost had us start fishing the way I'll explain in a moment, before we even gave a favorite shallow cove a try by trolling. In the past, it's been a fish on every pass here, but always when water temperature is at least 70. I did once catch a hybrid at the edge of the cove where it drops off, but most of the fish are crappies, pickerel, and largemouths.

As I expected, nothing happened. I felt much better when soon I had us go into a little cove completely protected by the wind. Shallow, about four feet deep. On my first cast, I hooked my first fish of the day on a Senko, a 20-inch largemouth I weighed at four-pounds, 10 ounces. A fish most might call a five-pounder. In that shallow water, it rolled about heavily on the hook like a pig. It's a fish I expected, and yet I felt shocked.

The big one boated and released, I knew this is where we would fish today--any quiet, little shallow coves we could find. They weren't readily available. Some spots looked great, except that they were impossible to fish because waves carried the boat against the power of my electric motor. But despite the handicap of that wind, we managed to catch five largemouths apiece, a crappie, and a big rock bass. We caught them all over the lake, searching out our special opportunity. My second-biggest largemouth was 17 1/4 inches. The others were about 15, 14, and 11. The crappie was 13 1/4 inches.

On the way home, I decided to pull over so we could fish a part of the lake publicly accessible by shore and protected from the wind. I let Matt have sway. From the boat, he had caught two largemouths. In yet another half hour of fishing, he caught three more, including his biggest of about two pounds.

Lake Hopatcong

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.