Bass Fishing at Sunrise

I fished Cranberry Lake with Danny and Nicky (we fish together a lot) on April 19. I was coming in with a terrible skunk; I hadn't caught any fish in the previous four outings.

The plan had been to go to Pompton Lakes, one of my favorite places. But while I was away on a business trip, Nicky had said he preferred Cranberry, and I went along with the choice.

The bass fishing was tough. Though the pickerel were very aggressive (I caught four and missed another 4-6), the bass were not. I tried Chatterbaits, Senkos (4" and 5"), buzzbaits, finesse worms, swimbaits (the pickerel loved those and hit them regularly), various crankbaits, Rat L Traps, jigs, Culprit worms, Sweet Beavers and more. Nothing seemed to work.

After a few hours, Danny caught several dinks on a 4" Senko. Then Nicky caught a 17 inch bass on a Beaver. It seemed the bass were getting turned on. And then it stopped. No bass were caught for the next three hours or so, in spite of everyone's best efforts.

I finally caught a dink on a finesse worm (I like the Zoom finesse worm in green pumpkin for most lakes), then around 2:00 PM (I had gotten to the lake at 5:30 AM), I finally caught a 15 1/2 inch largemouth on a finesse worm, officially breaking my chain of bassless outings. Also good was that I subsequently hooked and worked to the boat an even larger bass (I would guess around 17 inches) which I lost when I was unable to turn him. But I found him and got him to strike; the rest is technique that I have to work on.

Danny finished the day with a 17 1/2 inch largemouth, earning the lunker of the day. Sorry, Nicky, you should have stayed!

The outing was fun (you can use unlimited HP gas motors on Cranberry, and it's one of relatively few lakes in NJ where that's the case) and I count it as a success. It took a lot of pressure off me and I'm excited about next week! Maybe Pompton Lakes or Monksville Reservoir...

posted by NJFishRGuy @ 3:28 AM