Bass Fishing at Sunrise

Wow, I've done a stupendously bad job of updating my blog! Nothing since May... so let me bring you up to date.

Work has kept me from a lot of fishing this year, so I've done less than I would have liked. Here are the highlights.

I fished Wawayanda Lake in early June, catching and releasing seven (7) decent bass, all on a green pumpkin Zoom Speed Worm.

Then the week of June 18, I traveled up to Lake George, NY, to fish in the NJ BASS Federation Top Six Team Tournament. Lake George is an absolutely beautiful lake, and it contains an abundance of bass. I practiced one day, hurt my shoulder and sat the second practice day out, then fished the two days of the tournament itself. My first day partner had a completely different plan than I did; while I was all set up to fish deep for smallmouth, his plans were to fish shallow for largemouth. We decided to start with his plan, and then switch to mine if it wasn't working. Good thing that we did; I caught a limit (4 largemouth and one smallie) weighing 11.34 pounds. My second day partner didn't believe in nets, leaving me to lip all my fish. We fished a bunch of spots, and I caught a limit, but they were mostly smallmouth with modest weight. Then, 20 minutes before weigh-in but within sight of the ramp, I caught a good smallie and culled one of my smallest fish. I ended the second day with 7.95 pounds, giving me a two-day total of 19.29 pounds, and finishing 56th out of 177 anglers. For me, that was great and I was on cloud nine for weeks!

In early July I fished Aeroflex Lake, Mercer Lake, Cranberry Lake, and Dallenback Pond. An interesting component of all these trips was that I caught big fish or a good sack in the each case in the last hour of the fishing time. In a few of these cases, some friends and I were having an informal tournament and in one case in particular, I went from no fish all day to 4 bass in 35 minutes to win! Mike Iaconneli is right; never give up!

August was a tough month, both because I traveled a lot and because I didn't catch any decent fish, just some small keepers. I did prefish the Hudson River for an NJ Bass Federation tournament, then fished the tournament itself the following day. Caught some fish in practice, but caught none during the tournament itself.

Then in late September, I fished Lake Hopatcong with some friends, and caught a fairly decent limit. I was surprised (and a little pleased; I'll admit it!) to learn that they had not done well at all. It's always a good feeling when you can outfish the guys who you learned so much from, though I'm always happy when they do well and vice versa.

In early September, I prefished the Delaware River in preparation for a NJ Bass Federation tournament and caught one decent keeper and some smaller bass. On the tournament day, though, I couldn't buy a keeper. My partner nailed 5 in less than 30 minutes on one spot; he had the pattern down cold.

October found me on Little Swartswood Lake, Dallenback's and Farrington Lake, catching mostly 12-15 inch bass. Farrington was interesting; I fished with a friend that I rarely fish with, and we weren't doing well. No taps, nibbles, nothing. He gave up several times and just sat in the back of the boat. I kept telling him he had to have his line in the water to catch anything. We worked all the way from Sir John's to the dam, fishing cover all the way. Then I suggested we change tactics and fish only structure on the way back. After all, if Bill Dance recommends it, it has to be right, no? At least we started getting taps, but nothing else. All the way back to the bridge by Sir Johns, and 200 yards from the ramp. I told him the last place I wanted to fish was the overpass. A couple of casts and boom! I catch a 17 1/2 inch bass; the only bass of the day! Suddenly he's engergized and casting like crazy, but to no avail. I guess the key is to keep yourself motivated... you never know if the next cast will bring the lunker of a lifetime!

My last trip was yesterday, November 11... I caught only one bass at Farrington Lake in 9 hours of fishing, but it was 4 pounds 1 ounce, so I felt it was worth it.

I apologize to my loyal readers (both of you) for not staying up to date and for not updating the web site. I'll try to be more conscientious in the future.

'Til next time, Tight Lines!

Charlie

posted by NJFishRGuy @ 5:50 PM