Friday September 9, 2005
Courtesy of
Brinkmans
Well my advice is starting to come under question. Reason is that I say on
the river for 3 to 4 hours fishing all my main spots with cut shad, herring,
bloodworms and nightcrawlers. We tried several different rigs, different weight
sizes and also different bait combinations. By the end of our trip I ended up
with two white perch around 4 inches. Helen was shut out. And to add insult to
injury we hit the ramp and I passed off the extra bait to a couple of guys on
the dock that in the time it took me to load my boat landed 2 decent catfish.
So I just wrote this day off and went home and worked around the house. Bruce
is heading back up river this coming week so I hope to have something to tell
you about his fishing trip next week.
Even know I did not do anything there are still allot of catfish, perch,
small stripers and largemouth bass being picked up in the main river. Several
other guys have been out bottom fishing with herring and chicken livers picking up
plenty of catfish. The small stripers have been picked up around the bridge
abutments and also around the pods of bait fish coming down the river. Most of
these stripers have been 6 to 14 inches with a few fish following the bait
fish up to 21 inches. If you do see a bunch of silver bait fish breaking water
try to follow them around throwing Kastmasters, rattle traps and Zara Spooks.
The largemouth bass fishing seemed to pick up a bit this week. Several guys were
out throwing crankbaits, Senko worms, and Carolina rigging plastic worms and
lizards.
Now the upper river has been a different story. The smallmouth bass fishing
has still been very good. Some spots have been better than others but this
fishery has really come back since the spring. Jay did fish the Washington's
Crossing only catching a couple of small bass so he went back up to his spot around
Frenchtown and did much better on numbers and size of fish. He is using
mostly minnows. Another customer was up in the Yardley area doing very well. He
picked up over 50 fish by himself early on Tuesday morning. He said all the fish
were on the small side but the action was good using minnows. His biggest fish
was 11 inches. Another customer was up in the Treasure Island area wading the
islands picking up 20 smallies and a bunch of small stripers. He said most of
the smallmouth bass were in the deeper water while the stripers were right in
the fast water. Again he picked most of his fish up on minnows. Dennis and
Larry were canoeing in the Point Pleasant area also doing very well with
minnows. The said both the numbers and size were very good. The only other report
from up river was in the Water Gap area. This group of guys did very well with
both bait and lures. The had plenty of smallmouth bass with a 20 inch fish to
top the stringer. They also had a bunch of rock bass, bluegills and even a few
pike. Not a bad weekend. Now the streams have still been very good for
smallmouth bass fishing but the levels of these waters is extremely low. Most of the
guys that have been fishing these waters are saying most of the fish are all
schooled up in what deeper holes that are left. We really need some rain soon to
help these places out. The Perkiomen has been one of the better places to go
with on report back from Collegeville with this customer picking up over a 100
mixed fish in a day of wading. He did have a few decent smallmouth bass up to
15 inches but the rest were small bass, rock bass, bluegills and pickerel.
Another report from the Skippack section of the creek with this customer fishing
with minnows picking up 30 or so smallmouth bass and also a bunch of
bluegills. He said it is had to find a spot that you can not wade now. The other good
spot for smallmouth bass has been the Schuylkill. A couple of guys have been
fishing from Flat Rock Dam up river to Norristown. These guys have been doing
very well throwing live minnows, nightcrawlers, small grubs, tubes and
spinners. Most have been catching up to 30ish fish per man. Now I still have not heard
one good report back from the Susquehanna river. I know several guys that are
still going out each week to their maintain houses and have been going to the
river from time to time. But most say if they can pick up 5 fish in several
hours it is a good day. They have even said the walleye fishing has really been
off also. And these guys have been fishing from Harrisburg up stream to
Towanda.
This was a great week for the shore. Low winds and great weather allowed most
guys to go where ever they wanted or I should say as far a they could afford
with the gas prices. The Delaware Bay has been really good for all the
croakers and weakfish you could want to catch. Most of the croaker have been on the
big size and the weakfish have been a few small fish but not hard to catch you
limit. And the crabbing in the Beaver Dam area has been the best in many
years. They are also getting some small flounder and croakers in the creeks also.
Now as you get down around the Cape May area the flounder fishing off shore was
better this past week for some bigger fish. Now they are still catching
plenty of smaller fish but there were some 5 to 7 pound fish taken off the reefs
off shore. Along the beaches they have done very good on kingfish, croakers and
weakfish. Now the piers, jetties and beach fishing in the Wildwood, Ventnor,
Margate and Atlantic City area has still been very good for kingfish, croakers,
weakfish, sharks, skates, bluefish and even some tropical fish like trigger
fish. Most of these guys are using bloodworms, Fish Bites, mackerel, mullet and
clams. Here again the flounder fishing has been very good off shore and in
the back bays. Most of the fish in the back are on the small side but off shore
they picked up allot of keeper size fluke. Up further in the Raitian Bay the
flounder, weakfish, bluefish and striper fishing has been very good. Now here
most of the flounder have been just under size but there is good catches of
stripers up to 20 pounds being caught and the weakfish are thick on the bottom in
parts of the bay. And most of these fish are keeper size. Bloodworms for the
weakfish, fresh bunker for the stripers have been the better baits. Now if you
are a canyon man the yellow fin, blue fin, dolphin are as thick as they can
get with a few marlin being picked up also. And down south in the Chesapeake
Bay the croakers and spots are being picked up in great numbers using
bloodworms, squid and Fish Bites bloodworm.
Lakes again this week the reports were slow coming in. The regulars that have
been fishing the shopping center lake say the bluegills, bass and catfish
have been real good on nightcrawlers, earthworms and minnows. One customer
fishing out of a belly boat did very good on smaller largemouth bass in Magnolia
Lake. He was using a bass color Model A Bomber crankbait. He never switched lures
all day and caught 15 bass in four hours on Wednesday. The guys say the
largemouth bass are still hitting very well with some monster fish still being
caught up at Rohm Haas. They have been using allot of plastic worms, rattle traps,
spinner baits and live minnows and gizzard shad for the guys that can catch
them. Here most of the bass have been 2 to 5 pounds with a 6 to 7 pound fish
here and there. And most of the guys that fish here are putting these big fish
right back in so they are there to be caught again. I only know one guy that
was up to Noxamixion fishing the spillway Sunday night. He caught a6 walleyes
and one largemouth bass with nightcrawler tipped jigs. A couple of guys were
down to Dennisville picking up largemouth bass, pickerel and crappies. Fish were
hitting 3 inch white, yellow and chartreuse grubs. The guys that were up to
the Hapatcong were back up last weekend. They said the fishing has even gotten
better with the cool night. They had pickerel up to 5 pounds and all the
largemouth bass they wanted to catch in the 2 to 3 pound range with four fish over 5
pounds. They said the fish are starting to get in the deeper water and the
biggest fish are hitting rubber skirted jigs tipped with pork rind. And they
also said they had the lake to themselves with very few boat running around. With
the holiday weekend they expected traffic jams but said it was just the
opposite.
Just a fill in a customer was up to the Hulmeville falls yesterday and had a
great day on carp. He picked up 6 fish up to 15 pounds with vanilla and
strawberry carp bait with a slip sinker rig. He was just in and heading back again
today.
Well that is all I have for the week. I hope for a bunch of reports to add to
the page. Well good luck and again enjoy this beautiful weather. Don't know
how much long it is going to last.
Bill
FISHING REPORTS
Meet my buddies up at the water gap for a canoe trip down river last weekend.
There was 6 of us all together and we fished both saturday and sunday.
Saturday we used mostley bait, minnows and nightcrawlers and we had to catch at
least 40 fish per boat. The big fish that day were a 20 inch smallies and a 8
pound catfish. But by sunday we had used all the bait that we took up with us so
we had to go to lures. We acually did much better using grubs and spinners but
the fish size was much smaller. We picked up another 25 fish per boat but the
biggest fish this day was only 14 inches. Most were under 9 inches. In both
days we also picked up a couple of small pike, a bunch of rock bass and big
bluegills. the water is very low and when you get down around the state park there
is a ton of people swimming and keeping the fish on the other side of the
river. What a great weekend. Bryon, Frank, Jimmy, Ted, T J, and Ralphy.
Fished various places Friday Sept.2nd in the South end of Bay and also
gathered information from other fisherman at marina.The Best things that are on the
Menu that is worth the gas prices are the Weakfish.They are hitting just plain
old squid in shedder oil and also shedder crab they both worked well for
me.The Bay is giving weakfish that are keepers from 13" to some going to 20" and
shorts.Flounder you can catch in spots but I did not manage any keepers in the
Bay others say they are hard to come by as well.Croakers are everywhere really
nice size with lots of action.Tons of those toothy sharks as well.That is the
Most Part of the Bay till the Stripers Run.Gas at my marina if anyone is
interested is a whopping $3.90 a gallon
Billy was down off the piers off AC and had a great day with small blues,
kingfish, croakers, sharks, skates and even a couple of trigger fish. Bloodworms,
Fish Bites bloodworms alteritvers and mullet were the best baits. The fish
wer funny all day with most of the fish being caught three different times
during the day in 30 minutes spurts. But duing the spurts we could pick up s many
as 20 fish. All day long they were maixed together. There were a few boat just
off shore that were picking up some small flounder. Take care and keep up the
good work. Frank
I was up in the Trenton area fishing on Monday with bloodworms, herring and
nightcrawlers. We fished up in the bridges picking up a ton of small stripers
and white perch. They were hitting the bloodworms the best. Then we headed down
around the power plant and fished in some deeper water to pick up a bunch of
catfish up to 3 pounds. Then the last move we were around Tullytown cove
bottom fishing first picking up more catfish and perch. So we headed into the cove
and fished the shore line with all different kinds of lures from rebels,
bombers, rapala, rattle traps, and rubber shads. We caught a bunch of small
stripers just inside the cove up to 12 inches. As we moved into the cove the stripers
stopped biting and the largemouth bass and crappies started. I think after
two hours we had 9 bass and 12 crappies all on the smaller side but a blast to
catch. The cove was around 82 degrees and the main river has dropped intot he
70's. But we sure could use some rain with Trenton being very tough navagaing
around the rocks. Bernie M.
Anglers should be aware that the rules for the recreational harvest of
winter flounder have changed. Modifications were made to keep New Jersey
in compliance with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's
(ASMFC) management plan for this species.The winter flounder recreational
season for this fall that would have
run from September 15 through December 31 has been cancelled. The season
for 2006 will run from March 23 through May 21. In addition, the
recreational minimum size limit has increased from 11 to 12 inches and
the recreational possession limit has changed from no limit to 10 fish. The
new rules will help protect the winter flounder population, whilestill allowing
the state's saltwater recreational anglers an
opportunity to participate to the fullest extent possible in thefishery.