Dock Discovery for May Fishing Conditions

We pulled 12 fish over the Dow's rental boat gunwale, but like all of these I photographed, they were small. We never hooked a good-sized fish, though my remembering a 2020 outing in May on Lake Hopatcong with my son somehow led to discovery of future possibility. If conditions serve that possibility. I told Kevin Murphy early on about Matt and I catching 10 largemouths, four of mine over two pounds, one of them 20 inches. It's fascinating how that memory presaged what we would discover near the outing's end, as if we might someday fish under similar conditions again in May and do even better than Matt and I did that day years ago.  

Kevin I had begun unloading shortly after 6 a.m. The night before, I messaged him, saying I might phone in the morning. The weather forecast had improved since I had last seen it--no thunderstorms expected until noon--but no one knew what morning would bring. I actually woke up an hour ahead of my alarm when rain fell heavily. I went back to sleep and soon got up with that alarm--to peace, quiet, and humid warmth at 70 degrees. Kevin had left a message 15 minutes earlier and was on the road. I like his determination.

He arrived two minutes ahead of me. No sign of rain existed besides clouds hanging low. Later, as we persistently trolled plugs, the sun came out. When we docked back at Dow's at 2:22 p.m., that's exactly when rain began to fall, but for only about 10 minutes. Not very heavy; not very light. Otherwise, we escaped rain all day, and those promised thunderstorms never came. I had been told I might as well cancel for next week. but bottom line, I go by what the planet presents. I pay attention to the media, but I judge what I see out in the world itself.

Trolling to Begin With

Beginning in my favorite hybrid striper trolling lanes, I quickly surmised that with the 74-degree water and otherwise summer-like conditions, we weren't going to hook any. I took us through our second pass and abandoned that approach, imagining a certain cove would produce that fishes well for pickerel and crappies once the water warms well. Otherwise, I've done well trolling for big hybrids with the water as chilly as 57.

We trolled the cove, never getting hit, but Byram Bay proved to be productive for small fish. We began by casting Senko-type plastics among rocks--getting snagged a few times--where I caught my first smallmouth bass. Neither of us could buy a second hit, so we moved on to another rocky area that's produced smallmouths in the past.

I began there by fishing a Z-Man paddletail, almost catching a sunfish, but I soon went back to the Senko, never getting hit. We trolled out of the area, and I soon caught a small hybrid striper on my favorite Rapala Sinking Minnow, Kevin trolling another of the same plug. The rear treble of my plug got snagged on my portable graph unit's fabric housing, and I pulled it out with pliers, breaking two of the tines. So I switched out, using from thereon--when trolling--a smallish Rapala X-Rap.

More Than Expected

The forecast still had thunderstorms on the agenda. I decided that rather than doing our usual tour by following the far shoreline around and beyond Cow Tongue Point, we would fish the far shore of Great Bay, where we could easily duck back and dock at Dow's, if we heard thunder. 

"That shoreline produces fish," I told Murph. "We've trolled brown trout and nice pickerel." 

Instead of beginning with trolling, I immediately got interested in casting Senkos to docks and boathouses, a little underneath them, and between them. We ended up fishing a couple hundred yards or more of really interesting structure that I didn't remember discovering, besides once taking note of it when ice fishing almost two decades ago. It seems as if by trolling by, the spots never registered as worth casting to. 

Worth Waiting on Favorable Conditions?

We fished a long range of docks and boathouses pretty hard. All for one rock bass on a Senko. Why no bass, I couldn't guess, besides thinking they had taken to 16-foot depths at the bottom edges of weedlines. And why that on a low-pressure day when it's not quite summer, I don't know. Besides, I often let my worm sink into 16-foot depths. 

But for sure. That memory of Matt and I in 2020 re-emerged, and I said to Murph, "If Matt and I had thought of fishing here four years ago, we might have done even better!" 

Four years ago, wind blew very heavily from the southwest. Since Murph and I fished the western shore of Great Bay, Matt and I would have been out of the wind. That was requirement Number 1 of the conditions we faced. To get out of the wind. Second requirement--fish five feet deep or shallower. And plenty of water that shallow exists along the shoreline I had re-discovered.

And I knew about, not only this particular shoreline, but the similar western shoreline of Lee's Cove, too, where Matt and I have caught both largemoths and smallmouths on different occasions, but it just never occurred to me that day to try either area. So who knows. Maybe Murph and I will, once again, set back our spring Lake Hopatcong outing to mid-May like last year, when we did so poorly in Byram Bay and around towards Henderson Bay, besides an 18 1/2-inch smallmouth. 

If we can remember!

One Last Shot at Trolling

I knew about these docks and boathouses, have passed them by while trolling more than once, and yet they definitely served as a discovery. Similar spots surely exist on other lakes nationwide, too.

We got tired of throwing worms around. I couldn't quit for the day without one last troll. Kevin still felt eager. I caught my third smallmouth bass, really little at eight or nine inches. We put a couple of yellow perch over the gunwale, too. 

Nice to know the shoreline still trolls well, but will the docks ever produce?   

  

Even a little hybrid about a foot long takes drag on runs.

We caught a couple of white perch.

Crappie nearly a foot long.

Second smallmouth on Senko. I knew the floating mat was a bass magnet.

Largemouth I caught by casting underneath a big willow-like bush overhang. I lost another largemouth of about 13 inches on the jump that hit under there.

Rock bass.

Yallor

Apparently the orange floats are for sailboat laning.

Couple of boathouses in Great Cove.

May 2020

 From the Trolling Lane

Inconsistent Sunlight Good Daytime Catches

Brian Cronk's 19 1/4-incher

I haven't been on the lake in two years. Memory needs to inhabit you, if continuity is going to be met at the start. It has nothing to do with the likes of the breaks between sunlight we experienced, as such are discontinuous rather than the opposite, but has to do with the nature of human interiority itself--whether it's accustomed to the wilds, or civilized constructions. The poet Robert Frost wrote of "inner weather," and I would say it's a fine thing if you can afford the sustained reverie of an inner life as attuned to nature. I don't mean that as a complaint, because I've known it myself, and working hard for not much more than minimum wage is an experience in its own right that teaches me to shut up and get the job done. It doesn't give me much time to entertain the comings and goings of leisure. It doesn't add much to my wealth. But as I struggle to constantly do the job, which means improving on it, I learn something about demand and creating supply. 

Partly Cloudy from the Beginning

We waited until 6:30 a.m. to meet at Brian's house, having planned at first on 5:45. When I pulled into the driveway, my car thermometer registered 52 degrees. We had wanted to make sure the rain would be gone, and Brian reminded me the fish hit there all day anyhow, a point the outing would prove abundantly correct as a kind of half-measure, as I believe our last attempt at them failed when the inconsistency of sunlight gave way to a completely clear sky, which I'll get to. 

Partly cloudy skies accompanied us to the lake and we paddled downwind towards an island with the same overhead, the temperature remaining chilly though we were dressed for it. As I say, I didn't feel as familiar as I know I've felt in the past. It's not that the job "takes it out of you," but that you "give your all" to it. That way it's there for you in the morning as something you've already achieved. Anticipations are reserved for the work, getting home, and other home activities. I'm not oriented to the Grand Affirmations I enjoyed through most of the previous decade of fishing, when I worked an easier job. 

I man a specialty case that was its own department when I began working at the supermarket eight years ago. I worked under a salaried manager and an executive chef who oversaw our department and others pretty much the same at different supermarkets. The executive chef often worked with us. Some of the time we also had a part time worker in the department. The salaried manager is long gone. The executive chef quit and moved to Georgia. No part-timer is assigned the case. 

I do it alone.

We fished a spot we've found good during the early season, where I had a nice fish on for a moment, having cast a blue Chatterbait with a blue Dinger trailer. Brian was intent on the area in front of the island where our Chatterbaits did get hit a few times. He observed that when he was here three weeks ago, the water was weedy. "It seems to have been weed harvested," he said.

We moved further up lake by taking the narrow passage between the island and shore. I felt concerned about how cold the weather, about how that might be affecting the fish negatively. Consistent sun might have warmed the lake a little, and though the mist rising off the surface gave away the fact that it was cooling, it also proved that the water temperature was much warmer than the air. I switched-out for a Yum Dinger and soon caught the first fish. A largemouth my bait found lurking near a stick-up, the bass a product of my typical effort at casting accuracy. About 16 inches. Brian soon thereafter hooked up on a Chatterbait. Largemouth, 18 inches and chunky.

Inconsistent Sunlight Advantages Largemouth's Predation

Brian did catch three pickerel, a crappie, and a 13-inch yellow perch. I don't know how inconsistent light affects those species, but I read Will Ryan in Field and Stream, academic studies cited by him in his article, on largemouth bass having an eye structure (not the same as walleye's) that advantages them for predation when light is changing. Situations include the magic hours early and late, and any time during the day when partly cloudy skies mean the quality of light is inconsistent. 

Will Ryan is on the staff of Gray's Sporting Journal, last I checked, and teaches at Hampshire College. By what I understand, he has privileged access to a large academic database, finding out all sorts of fishing facts. I fished with Ryan on one occasion. He was a good friend--maybe the best friend--of my economics professor and academic advisor, Stan Warner. I fished with Warner at least twice during my second semester at Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, when I knew him. Last I checked, Ryan still teaches there.

Action Until the Sky Cleared

We got into a pattern of paddling against the wind out into the middle of the lake and further than that, nearer to the opposite shore. Then we would drift under force of that wind almost to shore. It worked in spades. Every drift yielded at least one fish. At one point, Brian called the big, low hanging cumulus of dark grey "storm clouds." His Chatterbait got hit too many times to recall. He had fish on he lost, and my Pop-R took hits I missed, also. Right off the bat we discovered weeds that rise from bottom about five feet deep almost to the surface, and my having remembered Lake Musconetcong topwater success from decades ago, that Pop-R got violently assaulted on my first cast!

Topwater is fishing I love. It helped wake me up. After nearly three hours. 

We paddled and drifted, paddled and drifted, and eventually we began to talk about going home. We gave the weeds one last long try, and I felt puzzled about why nothing was hitting. After persistently trying for one more, we decided to engage the long paddle. Against the wind and back to the launch and pullout site. On the way, we got closer yet to that opposite shore, where weeds became more visible, and I felt moved to a deep reverie. Such reveries are natural to me, but instead of resenting the job that denies me many hours of them, I accept that social structure has further lessons to teach me, which should be helpful when I begin writing a novel once I retire.

I also realized that something Brian had said earlier, now made a load of sense. Brian had spoken about fish moving from the front of the lake to the back. Whether a weed harvester--a device mounted on a boat that pulls aquatic vegetation from a lake--or a chemical treatment had removed weeds from between in front of the island to the lake's dam, it made all the sense that fish would move to where weeds provide habitat.   

When we got to the launch and pullout, I noticed there was not a cloud in the sky. Instantly, I understood why the fish had stopped hitting. Cold front conditions had set in, and the sameness of the open sky had surely put the fish off the feed for the time being. 

The temperature hadn't risen all that much from when we began, either.

It was about 11:00 a.m. Brian had caught four largemouths, three pickerel, a crappie, and the 13-inch yellow perch that also hit the Chatterbait, as had the crappie. I caught four largemouths and two crappies. If I remember correctly, both of my crappies hit the Pop-R.  

My first and one of several largemouths on Yum Dinger.

Makes you wonder sometimes why the small bass don't get caught.

Brian caught all four of his bass on Chatterbait.

My 19 1/4-incher, one of four largemouths on the Yum Dinger and Rebel Pop-R.

Brian's crappie

One of three pickerel Brian caught on Chatterbait.

One of two crappies I caught, this one 12 3/4 inches.

20 1/2-inch pickerel. 

19 1/4 inches

Brian's measuring board.

After partly cloudy skies--some dark clouds at that--the bite suddenly ceased as the sky overhead became completely cloudless.

Three Bass Slightly Under 20 Inches and Bigger

 

Delaware River Lewis Island Shad Netting Report

 

Delaware River at Poxono Island

I've known about the commercial shad-netting operation at Lewis Island for decades. Long before my wife and I attended the Lambertville Shad Fest, which essentially involves the Lewis Island netters, maybe 25 years ago. I ate a shad sandwich. 

I've never fished for shad. I can't do everything, so I've stuck it out otherwise, but my best appreciation of shad in the Delaware River is of the little fry, two, maybe three inches long. I've witnessed them a couple of times at Poxono Island in September. Coming down river by the many hundreds of thousands or millions. Dimpling the river surface. Smallmouth bass breaking water as they bust them. 

The river widens like a lake at Poxono. The shad fry spread out, and then they get funneled into the narrower stretch to the left of the photograph above. It's amazing to think of the great number of them that must make it to the ocean. 

Enjoy the report from Lewis Island by Steve Meserve: 

Good Evening Everyone,

Well, we didn't make it on the water on Friday. Too many things going on for too many of the crew. There was also too much going on in town to get out on Saturday.

 

Tonight was a perfect day to be on the river today. The river was down to 1.56'. We still pulled in on the point. The temp was up to 68F. We kept the 200 yards on again. Everything went very well. We ended up with 10 bucks and 2 roe. We also had a smallmouth bass, 11 catfish, 3 suckers and 2 quillback. Not a bad haul for this time of the season.

We will go out again Tuesday. The weather is looking good until Wednesday night when rain starts coming in. And it's going to get hot for a couple of days. Hopefully we'll still be able to get hauls in each night this week. As always, We'll keep you posted.

 

If you know anyone who would also like these updates just send the email address and contact info to me.

If you do not want to be on the list that gets this email just reply back and let me know.

Take care and stay safe,
Steve

Steve Meserve
Lewis Fishery
1 Lewis Island
Lambertville, NJ 08530

Poxono Island Fishing

South Branch Raritan Stocking at Neshanic Station

The state puts trout in above the mill house and to the left.

I fished the South Branch Raritan River at Neshanic Station late this afternoon and as evening began to come on, fulfilling yet more of my desire to trout fish new water near state access spots. Besides October and February for fall stockers, I've never fished trout here until today. I gave it only an hour and 15 minutes, but I pleasantly felt drawn into the fishing as if I were out much longer. 

The Center Stocking Point

I decided to begin at the 5:00 PM opening of the river by fishing at Neshanic Station's well known Elm Street Bridge, imagining the river gets stocked by trout getting dumped off it. I saw a little trout near to where I had waded, but I got no hits by drifting salmon eggs four or five yards above the bridge. So I positioned myself underneath, and got hit a few times before I had the trout on, though I lost it during the beginning of a fight. I tried a few more casts and then, having accessed the walkway over the bridge, studied the water underneath. I saw river bottom but no trout, and I became aware the river probably was not stocked from the bridge. The walkway was in the way on the upstream side, and besides, the tank truck would block traffic. 

A few guys fished upstream of the millhouse, which made me wonder if that stretch upstream gets stocked. I would soon learn that it does, by speaking to an informed angler who caught five trout. He also told me the river gets stocked just upstream of the Elm Street Bridge on the side opposite to the parking lot. Even so, I had studied the bottom at that spot and saw no fish, though I'm sure some were put in.

Upstream

I walked beside the parking lot and onto the trail leading back to the upstream stretch, wondering if they carried trout in somehow on that trail. Soon I had the conversation with the guy who told me about the stocking. He was fishing orange Power Bait. I learned of how the state accesses the river at three points. I'll name the third shortly. More than half of my total time on the river used up, I wanted to catch a few trout. I fished opposite to and upstream a little of where I was told the state accesses the river just upstream of the millhouse.  

My first drift resulted in a hit as the line began to belly out before it would straighten, and I'd reel in to make another cast. Pretty soon I had a trout on. A 10-incher I let go. My wife likes trout, but I wasn't expecting to catch five to make a meal. But on the next drift, I hooked up again. The little 10 1/2-incher put up a great fight on microlight tackle. I found it badly hooked, so I did keep this one. I missed another hit and hooked my third and last trout. 

The Downstream Spot

I liked the view downstream from where I fished. The three bridges create a complication of lines and angles that tantalizes the mind, and you can see the railroad trestle, which is where the state also stocks here at Neshanic Station. It's not as if people who know about the stocking points fish right where they get stocked. I never saw anyone fishing at any one of the points until I was leaving. Someone fly cast about where the trout get stocked near the center bridge. I had stood on that bridge and examined the water there where they get stocked. I didn't see a single trout. It just helps to know the points so you can fish confidently in the vicinity. That I hooked a trout underneath that center bridge on the side opposite to where they got stocked goes to show that trout move fast.  

This late in the season, it makes sense to take trout home if they're caught where they won't survive summer. Neshanic station is bass water. Even though I have heard about trout getting caught during summer at Stanton Station not too far upstream of here, for the most part, the trout water is upstream of Clinton. I also thought of the 68-degree rule. I don't know which trout species the rule applies to, but the fight can kill a trout if the water is too warm.

The river was plenty warm. I just wore wading boots and shorts. That warm water might be why so few got stocked today.  

Trout get put in at railroad trestle on the left.

Trout was badly hooked and died, so I took it home.

 Three bridges photographed from above the old mill dam. Trout are stocked to the right in front of Elm Street Bridge, the white bridge in the middle.

Overview of South Branch Raritan River Fishing

Over the past decade, access has improved at Neshanic with the parking lot. For a while, access on the other side of Elm Street Bridge from the lot was denied and you couldn't park on the side of the lot existing now. I'm always pushing back when they push us out.

The Microlight Quest: Trout, Adventure, Renewal

Fishing Online

Temperature Drop Complicates Bass Post-Spawn

Nature expects a drop in water temperature, such as accompanied Brian Cronk's second time on Tilcon. He went last week with a friend from Ridgewood, the two of them losing count of the number of fish they caught. Lots of them. On Thursday, Brian and I caught only 12, but it was a deeply enjoyed almost (not quite) four hours of fishing. For comparison sake, Brenden and I fished a quarter hour more than six hours on May 7th. Brian and I faced a steady wind, the sky was overcast, and the water had cooled off to 62, which in any event didn't amount to the balled-up herring Brenden had observed and Brian had seen, too.

A Little Put Off

When Brenden and I fished, the water temp was 69 and 70. I know 62-degree water means bass and pickerel are plenty active, but it's under the optimal range for bass. When the water temperature drops out of that range, I expect the fish to be a little put off.

Which describes what we encountered pretty well. For a couple of hours, neither of us hooked a bass, and though I had caught a big pickerel of about 22 inches and Brian had caught some, Brian kept losing pickerel right at the boat. He told me he had learned legendary New Jersey angler Gen Wong's cadence. (They fished together in the same boat recently.) I couldn't argue with the number of fish Brian hooked. 

Jerkbaits Like Earlier

Brian pretty much had his mind made up: jerkbaits. Brenden had remarked to me when we fished on the 7th that jerkbaits are more of an early season lure. With the water temperature signifying the warmwater season set back a little, I wondered about the comparison Brenden had made. Brian did try a Chatterbait for a little while and caught a pickerel on that. I wanted to fish a Senko. We tried anchoring where a weedy flat drops off, and I worked the edges and where the flat slopes carefully. Nothing. Brian got another pickerel on a jerkbait. We tried a little cove-like spot where I've done well in the past. Brian lost two pickerel at the boat. We trolled at high speed to the back of the lake, where it appeared we could get out of the wind. I had snapped on a diving plug, which did result in a 14-inch largemouth. Having situated in the calm, I cast a Senko parallel to the bank, progressively working my way along the edge by gaining an additional three yards or so each cast, focusing with all the interest I was capable of, when a bass grabbed it. Good fight. Maybe better than 15 inches. I tried the worm even further back in the calm, got a pick-up, tightened up as the bass headed into deep water at perpendicular angle to me, and set the hook to only come up empty, cursing loudly at the fish. I don't know why, but when bass move off at that angle, it's hard to get the hook set. 

Returning to the area where we had seen the herring balls, paid of in a couple more fish for Brian on the Rapala Husky Jerk he had stuck to. On the way, I had trolled the same diving plug, which I think gets down about 10 feet, hoping to ride the edge of the weedline where the flat drops off. I remembered a bass I caught trolling that edge from five years ago or so. Instead, I found us cruising through 38 feet of water, but when I was about to turn the canoe into shallower, I got hit in the punchy way of a salmon. Hooks never set, we cruised on, but that was a vivid moment. 

Temperature Drop Complicates Bass Post-Spawn Bite

All Told, Brian caught three largemouths, compared to my two. He caught them on a Rapala Husky Jerk. He also caught three pickerel, a nine-inch bluegill, and a 12 1/2-inch crappie. My total was two largemouths, two pickerel. 

I don't think the wind or the overcast skies put the fish off as did the drop in water temperature. It could also be that the bass had already spawned when the water was warmer, and the exceptional action we had then was related to that spawn. Natures inevitable setback that we faced meant less active fish. 

46-Fish Evening Last Year

 

Prepare Your Lure Collection

Brenden selected this day months in advance, not only because it's the same Tuesday we caught 46 fish at Tilcon last year, but because it's the day of the New Moon. I didn't expect us to beat last year's number, let alone get close to that figure, as I tend to judge a coming situation conservatively. But we caught 61 fish in little over six hours, most of them largemouths, although we caught just about every species in the lake, besides smallmouth bass and rock bass. I even caught a nine-inch pumpkinseed as well as a couple of big bluegills. Whether or not other sunfish species exist there, I don't know.

Once again, Brenden was taken aback by the average size of the bass we caught, over two pounds. Even so, unlike last year, we caught none over three pounds. I caught the biggest we weighed. Two pounds, 13 ounces, 18 1/4 inches long. It took a little Z-Man Swim Slimz plastic on a 16th-ounce jig. But Brenden caught some pickerel over 20 inches long, including a 26-inch fish that weighed four pounds on the nose. It erupted upon a Zara Spook Junior steadily "walking" calm surface. The last fish of the evening just after sunset. We caught four or five black crappies, including my 15-incher also caught on a Z-Man Slim Swimz. Three or four yellow perch would have measured about 13 inches. One of them hit a trolled Phoebe spoon, but the only landlocked salmon we caught, mine, exploded on a Yo Zuri jerkbait the moment it hit the water. That fish measured 19 1/2 inches long and weighed two pounds, five ounces.

Initial Action and Good News

I had action moments after we pushed off and began casting at the launch. A salmon made a pass at my Z-Man Slim Swimz when I was just about to lift it for the next cast. I also got hit by something, before we turned and began making our way along the bank towards the other side. There a few other salmon did the same thing. And Brenden had caught a bass and me a pickerel, when the guy we had noticed in the distance on a kayak pedaled his way very quickly towards us, looking like Tarzan. No shirt on and wearing shorts. 

"Here comes the Harbinger of News," I said to Brenden, though I felt altogether neutral about receiving any. 

The guy surprised me, because he was absolutely true to my statement, saying, "I've got to go to work. There's bait balled up over there with bass on them. I used this." (He pointed to a large swim bait on one of his rods.) 

"I was just talking to somebody about big swimbaits," Brenden said. (He and Cronk had discussed them.)

"I got four bass. Four to four-and-a-half," the guy said. (I notice people tend to overestimate bass weight, but who knows, it was a big lure he had on that rod.) "Over there where you saw me, between those two trees."

"Right beyond that first cove?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Thanks for telling us," Brenden said.

The guy turned his kayak towards the launch site and pedaled in. I felt slightly flabbergasted, and certainly didn't ignore the guy's sincerity, even though I doubted the bait ball would still be there. Brenden and I decided to fish no further than the corner, so we clocked the squareback over at full speed, soon seeing herring dimple the surface, a couple of fish breaking on them.

Herring Bait Balls

I wasn't fully convinced those were largemouths. I've seen salmon bust herring, though always out over deep water. The graph informed me we were in about seven feet, but in any case, I put a Phoebe where something had just broken the surface and got hit by a small largemouth about a foot long. Brenden caught one on a jerkbait, which prompted me to throw my favorite chrome Yo Zuri, and in no time we were tied at five fish apiece. 

Then Brenden began gaining a long lead over me. I could not keep up, and I began to think the Bogos clear-bodied jerkbait with some purple tinge advantaged him. He got hit on almost every cast. Soon he was ten fish ahead. 

Rethinking Lure Collection

That forced me to radically rethink my attitude towards lures. I had felt proud--for years now--of my jerkbait collection, but suddenly, it didn't seem so large. It's not just the absence of a clear-bodied Bogos, but that besides my chrome Yo Zuri floater, I have only one other Yo Zuri, which sinks slowly, with anything like chrome finish. I don't have smaller versions that would have more closely matched the size of the little herring in Tilcon, I had forgotten all about my sinking Rapalas in chrome, and found another chrome jerkbait in my study after I came home, about the same two-and-a-half inch size as those Rapalas. None of those little plugs would have cast but half the distance as did my Yo Zuri, but the point is that I should be prepared to try different lures out, rather than forgetting what I have. A lure collection should be organized in the brain as well as in the trays.  

Brenden later said it himself, in some other context, "Scout's motto, 'Be Prepared." Absolutely. It's all too easy not to be. The guy who does his thinking--and buying--in a way that prepares outings for better results is better at the operation of fishing. I enjoy pairing off with Brenden, because I think he catches more and bigger fish than anyone I know. We did some trout fishing together in April, and he catches fish steelhead style with the float and Berkley Worm. Microlight salmon egg method is tough to beat, though, but Brenden's had 30-trout days on different occasions. I hope to draw comparison next year, too. My brother Rick is fishing the Pohatcong Saturday, but I told him to bring his fly rod, and he concurred. It's May and the bugs are thick.

Something Didn't Work 

I feel pleased that Senko-type worms never resulted in any catches Tuesday. And Brenden threw them repeatedly, which I did just a little. I judged that the whole pace of the outing was up-tempo. I was able to slow down enough to fish a Slim Swimz, but that usually involved a moderate retrieve. It made me feel vanquished that the whole endeavor was not without rhyme or reason--in a sharply defined way--that at least something didn't work. And that something, on other occasions, is usually most effective--besides traditional plastic worms I fish even slower.

The Size of Largemouths 

That herring bait ball was more and less one or two conglomerations of thousands of individual herring, and a breeze allowed us to position the boat ahead of them, get carried by, and then float further to the edge of the shallow flat, where we clocked the squareback back to the head of the action again. Tilcon is very clear, and underneath the boat, six or seven feet deep, we saw largemouths as big as 18 or 19 inches scurry along the bottom. Brenden hooked one bigger, which he estimated at four or five pounds. I saw the bathtub-size boil it made on the surface. Many years ago, someone told me about seven-and-a-half pound largemouths in the lake, but I'm skeptical of the existence of more than a relative few. By comparison, I've caught three largemouths on Clinton Reservoir, having fished there a handful of times. One was 20 inches, another 18. And the third was 21 inches. It's a smallmouth lake, but the largemouths are very big. Tilcon is loaded with 16- and 17-inchers, and over the course of the past decade and some, the largest I've seen got caught by Brenden, 19 and 15/16ths inches long, weighing under four pounds. 

Even so, 46- and 61-fish days are very far from being the rule here. And it wasn't only the fish on the herring that responded to our various presentations. We caught plenty in the back of the lake, too. But Tilcon fishes slowly all summer and into September. I've never fished the lake in October, and in late November, my son and I had a few pickerel on we didn't actually catch. 

I snapped a relative few photos, compared to all we caught; many of them you can see below. Brenden finished with a total of 40, me 21. I asked him if he's interested in fishing tournaments. Impossible to do with work, though.   

First bass caught among the herring, on a Phoebe spoon.

 

15-inch black crappie

Yellow perch on Phoebe trolled over weeds near herring congregations.

Salmon

Bogos jerkbait.

The heaviest we weighed. Two pounds, 13 ounces.

46-Fish Afternoon

Tilcon 2013