Bass Fishing at Sunrise

Well, between having to relocate my web site to 110MB.com due to the mysterious demise of my previous free hosting service and a business trip to Germany, I haven't done much posting here. (My new web site address is http://njfishrguy.110mb.com.)

Things have picked up since my four skunked outings followed by my one keeper fish at Cranberry Lake on April 19. On April 26, we visited the southern half of Monksville Reservoir and I managed a 15 1/4" largemouth, a 14" LM and a dink, both on Sweet Beavers. (Well, I pour some of my own baits and it was actually one of my versions of the Sweet Beaver.)

On vacation the week of May 5, I skunked at Stone Tavern on the 5th, but did OK at Spruce Run on the 6th. Fishing with a group of buddies, I caught a 17 1/4" largemouth (or "Larry", as pro fisherman Charlie Moore would say), a 16 1/2" LM, and a dink. But the real reason we chose Spruce Run was that the Wipers were biting! Wipers, or hybrid striped bass, are a cross between striped bass and white bass (hence the term "Wipers"). I caught a small 18 incher, but he put up one serious fight. Some of my friends caught much bigger fish (I think 22" was the biggest); serious fun was had by all. The Wipers seemed to hit only crankbaits. Poor Rick had a flat on his trailer when he pulled his boat out, but his spare saved the day.

On May 10, we were supposed to fish Wawayanda Lake. I got there first, and found the gate locked. I know that Wawayanda is normally open for fishing 24/7, so I figured that they changed the gate that was open full-time. A little time with my GPS and it directed me up into New York State, down a road that cautioned it was build in the 18th century for horse-drawn carriages and please be careful, and finally found the alternative entrance. Of course, it was also closed. So back to the main entrance, but on the way the GPS said there was ANOTHER way in. So I turned on to Wawayanda Road (promising name, right?). At first, there were a number of houses. Then they got farther apart. Then there were woods, and one house off by itself that looked pretty forlorn. Then more woods. And more woods. And the road getting narrower and narrower. Then I passed a tiny cutout, but continued pressing on. About 200 yards later, the road ended. Just stopped at the edge of heavy woods. Unfortunately, at this point the road was about the same width as my car. So I had to back the trailer 200 yards to the cutout before I could turn around. It took about 15 minutes. Then I hightailed it out of there back to the main entrance, which was still locked.

I had gotten to the entrance originally around 4:30 AM. It was now about 6:30 AM. As I sat there pondering what to do (there is terrible cell phone reception and I couldn't raise my buddies), a ranger came out to the gate. He quickly let me know he wasn't there to open up, but was just taking a shortcut through the park. We talked for a bit, and it turns out that some kids had come into the park one night and trashed it. So the decision was made that they would now not open the park for any reason until 8:00 AM. Which basically means that my buddies and I, plus any other fisherman who has any dream of a topwater bite, will find somewhere else to go. Just because of the actions of some stupid kids. About then I got a call from a total stranger telling me that my friends were at Monksville but their cell phones wouldn't work from there. So I shot down to Monksville and found them on the north end of the lake.

It was sort of anticlimactic. After all that, I manage one 14" bass and one dink.

Saturday, May 17 found me at Aeroflex. Our other friends canceled out and it was just me and Danny. In a miracle, the bathrooms were open when I arrived at 4:00-something. As my friends know, one of my key qualifications for a "Charlie-friendly" lake is at least a porta-potty at the ramp. This was my best outing this year. The bass were all on the inside edges of the weed line. I ended up with 5 keepers (the largest 17") and 4 dinks, plus a 12" trout. One dink and the trout were caught on a Rapala Floating Minnow; all the other fish were caught on 4" wacky-rigged Senkos.

I took Friday, May 23 as a vacation day and Danny, Rick and I went to Pompton Lakes. Now, I really like Pompton Lakes. My largest bass (5 lbs. 10 oz.) was caught at Pompton Lakes. Sometimes I do well, but sometimes I don't. This turned out to be a good visit. I ended up with 5 keepers (largest 17 1/8") and 3 dinks, along with a 21" pickerel. This is a good example of how you can have a huge lake and catch all the fish in one tiny area. I caught all the fish on one bank into which the wind was blowing. It was no more than 50 yards long, and I spent hours going back and forth along this bank, catching fish.

After a week of travel that interfered with both Saturdays, I hit Mercer Lake yesterday with Danny. Mercer is a funny lake. It can be really tough, or you can catch really large bass. It's the only lake where Danny has caught three largemouth over 5 pounds. I got there at 3:45 AM (yes, I am crazy) and the fishing was dead... until the sun came up. The fish turned on with the light, and there was a lot of action. I caught one keeper and two largemouth early, then had a dry spell, to the point that Danny and I actually beached the boats and took a short nap. Then we headed into a cove that fishermen rarely use because it is too shallow... only Danny knew that there was one spot where you can get in, and this narrow (30 foot wide creek) ends in a T. The left-hand creek is about 150 yards long, the right-hand creek about 50 yards. There is more laydown in these creeks than in the entire rest of the lake. Half-way down the left side was a branch blocking the creek, which I tried to cut with the saw inside my survival knife. Thirty minutes and three blisters later, Danny says "You know, I think we can go around this". Sure enough, I didn't need to hack away at the branch. Danny insisted I go first because he said I'd be royally pissed if he caught a bass in front of me after all the cutting. Sure enough, I pulled a 16" bass out of a laydown, followed by a 13 1/2" bass less than 5 minutes later. The only problem was, it was now HOT. And there was no air moving in the creek. So we got out of there, but we were both pretty wiped, so soon headed back to the ramp.

That's it so far this year. I wonder if anyone reads this and, if they do, if it's too long and boring. Drop me a line at njfishrguy@hotmail.com if you make it this far. If no one reads the blog, I should stop wasting my time writing it!

Tight lines!
Charlie

posted by NJFishRGuy @ 5:25 PM