Minn-Kota Endura is a Good Motor

I've owned mine---a 55--for 10 years and never want to replace it. I meant to include the following incident in the previous story, but forgot. We motored back towards the dock, me trolling a crankbait in close, when I hit a thick, submerged tree branch at full force. The #5 setting. I heard the electric's tilt setting yank a notch higher as the canoe stopped cold. No damage. Not to the shaft, not to the tilt, nothing.

Dead Fishing After Storms

Having just got on I-80, Jorge trailing behind in his van, the view to the west of an approaching storm was awesome. In minutes, rain fell heavily, and I felt relieved wind wasn't a problem. I use a two-inch ratchet strap with big, heavy gears, so that canoe is secure on my car, but even so, there's a reason I was nervous. I found only one tie-down loop. In the front. So I was able only to rope the front to the right of where I sat driving. No tie-loop in the rear, I tied leftward to the frame. I looked underneath to the right, but refused to mess with a rope on the exhaust pipe and against the gas tank.

I've always thought I could just ratchet the thing down and do without the ropes. Maybe. 

My new car took not a scratch. Guys would wonder why I drive a Civic, not an SUV or pickup. I don't need an SUV or pickup. It would be nice for stripers and blues on Island Beach, but maybe I'll get an invitation. It would be nice on Ocracoke beaches, too, but I work way too hard for the little money I earn to spend thousands just so I can drive a beach once or twice a year. And when was the last time I was on Ocracoke?

We had to wait out the very slow moving storm. And a second storm behind that one. Went into town for coffee. Jorge caught sunnies from the dock. Cast them out hoping for a bass. I plugged for a few minutes. We talked and talked, and that talk was the best part of the excursion.

And we fished from the squareback for more than three-and-a-half hours. Afterwards, I figured that yesterday, it was a morning bite. Fishing just ahead of the storms would have been interesting, at least, but getting skunked thereafter was, too. I felt flabbergasted. Lush habitat everywhere. You could have sat on one spot and fished that the whole time, expecting to hook-up, because there has to be bass in such water. Not to mention pickerel. 

This is the second time I've fished Aeroflex from a boat, and the first was a slow day under intense sun. We caught only two bass and a pickerel. The bass were good ones, but I felt a little put off by so few, and I chalked it up to high pressure, even though we do a lot better elsewhere under the same sort of conditions.

Yesterday, forget it. Cloudy sky. Water temp 78, Cool air. Sound fishy? I think so. The water temp was four degrees above my comfort zone, but not really bad. The lake was dead. Something took my unweighted Chompers right up against the bank under an overhang, but I couldn't tell if it was a bass. Other than that, no hits from bass or pickerel. I was rattling on about fishing pressure. Aeroflex has a ramp. But if you want to talk about pressured bass, talk about Spruce Run Reservoir or Lake Hopatcong. When I go bass fishing at either, I do well.

Yesterday was the last I see of Jorge for awhile. He's moving to Florida, where I expect he'll find some excellent spots for largemouths, not to mention the shore. For the next four years and some months, I'm tied down to my job, but my wife's plan--since she manages many millions for a large corporation, she does well managing our finances--is for me to spend a couple of years writing, doing photography, and fishing before I actually retire. (Doesn't mean that when I "retire" I will stop doing same.)

Jorge generously invited me down. So four years and some from now, expect a few posts about it.

Flex 

Passaic High

Oliver and I tried the Passaic River yesterday, finding a high flow not very off color. We chucked plugs as we made our way downstream away from the bridge, where the river gets fished less, but came upon flowing water blocking the trail. Neither of us wanted to go in up to our waists and find out how soft the mud underfoot. 

So much for the pike.

It was nice working my plug close to cover. Gave me the feeling, anyhow.

We hit a couple of ponds afterwards. One of them allowed me to fish a Senko under and along overhangs and some pads. 

My line spooked a nice bass and a couple of small ones.

May on Lake Hopatcong

So many years on Lake Hopatcong. Have been coming to Dow's regularly for almost 15 years. When you're young and feel things are getting old, you turn to something else; when you get to my age, there's nowhere to turn! You savor what's left of life and if you've lived well, it's enough. But knock on wood. I'm only 60. It could be interesting to see what I have to say another 15 years from now.

Oliver and I got on the lake at dawn. Heavy cloud cover had just moved in. It would seem promising, but although I never voiced this feeling, it just didn't feel right. Many times I said, as Oliver concurred, that the conditions were right for feeding activity: The clouds had just come. The water was 67 degrees. We were fishing just after daybreak. But he lake was dead.

We trolled my favorite lanes, not a hit. We put Senkos on spots in my favorite little cove, not a take. We trolled my favorite shallow-water cover for pickerel, bass, and crappie, not a hit. But finally, not long before the sun came out, I caught a 13-inch smallmouth on a Senko. Shortly thereafter, I boated another about the same size. And shortly after the sun did come out, we enjoyed our best trolling action: a yellow perch, a largemouth maybe better than 14 inches, and a 17-inch hybrid for me.

Oliver had also caught a hybrid, maybe 15 inches, on a retrieved paddletail. We caught some rock bass on the Senkos, too.

It was a successful day. There have been days when much bigger fish got caught, and days when many more got caught, and in any event, there's a need to make the connection. Once I caught that first smallmouth, I began talking more fluently. It was suddenly a different day. 

And today was a day for the shallows. Oliver suggested jigging deep a few times, and I won't deny it could have worked, judging the amount of fish we marked down there. Another thing we could have done would have been to have lowered live herring to them, but we bought no herring; even though Oliver had asked about that before we departed, I didn't want to mess with them. It's May. The water is warm (rose to 70). And although many times I thought I should be letting Senkos drop into 15-foot depths, and even tried that a few times, I'm waiting a few weeks or so before I start letting unweighted worms drift down below. 

Ironically, the pickerel came from the deepest water, 16 feet. But it seemed closer to dock boards it was underneath than to the bottom.

Oliver and his hybrid.

Oliver remarked that this slide seems custom made.

Big Hybrids

 

Tried for Hybrids, Got Brown and Crappie

We came for hybrids, and the nice fish Brian lost just as it would begin to run might have been one. I had 41 degrees coming in, Brian said it was 40 at his house, and it was 39 at Jimmy's house when he left for Dow's. Some clouds did roll in later, as you can see in the photo, but skies were bluebird to begin with, the wind strong, the water getting cooler. It dropped from 55 to 54. 

I've never caught a hybrid on the troll in water cooler than 57. One would expect the lake to be at least that warm by mid-May, but according to Joe, also from the shop, it was 39 here in the morning yesterday, too.

We fished for close to four-and-a-half hours. Afterwards, I parked elsewhere and plugged the shoreline for 10 minutes or so. Brian had to work, and I could have gone back out in the boat, but with whitecaps bearing down, I was beat. 

I could have gone afar to certain little coves I know about from last year, but under today's condition, I doubted they would produce.

The 15 1/2-inch brown trout hit a #7 Rapala Floater. Brian caught an 11 1/2-inch crappie on a pretty big plug at the last minute. Earlier, I had had another trout on for moment that hit over 25 feet of water. In the shallows something nipped the plug very subtly and then was on in the next moment, but only for a moment. It felt very small but didn't I detect the wriggle of a trout? 

 

Laurie's Report

Laurie Murphy:

Hybrid Striped Bass are starting to hit, with some fish still shallow and others out in deeper water. A 9 lb 13 oz fish , along with some smaller stripers, were caught by Jake Bozik, fishing with herring in deeper water off the Main Lake. Jim Welsh landed his 10 lb 1 oz Hybrid in shallower water, also caught on a herring. Pete Pelligrino is catching carp up to 18 pounds on dough balls fishing in the Woodport section of the lake The walleye bite was outstanding this week and are being caught consistently during the day and night. Daytime efforts should focus on deeper water fishing off the bottom. The nightbite will be shallower and stickbaits are the way to go. The larger walleye caught by Lake Hopatcong Guide Service this week were all mostly out of deep water. Some giant yellow perch were also landed while fishing in the deeper water. Crappie fishing continues, using fatheads and small rubber jigs. Jim Macaluso’s crappie hit the scale at exactly 2 pounds.

Pickerel at Swartswood Lake

Hard to believe it's been over 10 years since I last fished Swartswood Lake.

I selected an available shoreline that looked promising. Tree branches gave some shade. I found water shallow in close to them, but variegated by large rocks. I saw the water attained maybe four or five feet of depth within the length of a good cast. A definite breakline between visible and invisible bottom. I was really thinking smallmouths, but noticed my worm rubbing against some newly emerging vegetation, though it was sparse.

"I catch them from shore at Round Valley, Merrill Creek, Spruce Run...I ought to be able to do it here,"  I was thinking to myself. And besides, last I was here, I did just that.

A basstoat positioned not far from me. The fishing seemed dead for that guy, best I could judge. But that was no reason. 

A few minutes later, I came up with a pickerel of about 21 inches that hit my Chompers worm just a few feet beyond that breakline in the dark water. Really good fight. I fished maybe 20 minutes in total. My wife sat at a picnic table, reading, while after hiking we waited on our reservation at the Boathouse Restaurant. 

Pickerel