Union County Pickerel

[catfishonthelake]

Chris_JC and I decided to target slime darts today and we got some. We strapped the waders on and headed to a shallow lake known to have a few. We had some decent action in the morning between 8 and 11:30 scoring 4 apiece. After that, it slowed down for an hour until I scored two more around 1:30 right before we left. Chris scored all of his fish on a firetiger husky jerk, and despite trying different hard and soft baits, every one of my fish took a Carolina Pumpkin/Chartreuse Yum Forktail Dinger hooked texas/weightless. I even broke out the Smelly Jelly and caught the first two fish immediately after smearing it on. Morning was cold and I even had some ice on my guides. It warmed up a bit, but not too much. All fish came in very shallow water near the north end of the lake.

[AJFISH13]

Nice:cool: . Glad to hear of the good pickeral fishing.

[TheDreamCatchers]

Does Seely's pond still have pickerel? I am trying to find a decent spot in Union to catch pickerel with my friends because there are no pickerel options in Essex. I know Echo has 1 or two. Maybe the Cranford section of the Rahway River? Surprise used to have them before it drained. Milton is too over fished. And Nomahegan has an insane algae bloom. What do I do? All of these spots have pickerel but not very good numbers.

[logs22]

Does Seely's pond still have pickerel? I am trying to find a decent spot in Union to catch pickerel with my friends because there are no pickerel options in Essex. I know Echo has 1 or two. Maybe the Cranford section of the Rahway River? Surprise used to have them before it drained. Milton is too over fished. And Nomahegan has an insane algae bloom. What do I do? All of these spots have pickerel but not very good numbers.

I live in Cranford and have fished most of the cranford section of the Rahway (especially on north side of town) and never encountered one. I have caught one in Echo Lake (lower) near the bridge and the next closest pickerel was caught in the D&R Canal in Bound Brook. I bet Milton and the Rahway River Park pond have some but I have not caught any.

[catfishonthelake]

The only place I've caught pickerel in Union County was Lake Surprise in the Watchung Reservation and the last time I drove past it didn't have any water in it. :( I'd also recommend the D&R canal as the closest spot.

[Jigman13]

I live in Cranford and have fished most of the cranford section of the Rahway (especially on north side of town) and never encountered one. I have caught one in Echo Lake (lower) near the bridge and the next closest pickerel was caught in the D&R Canal in Bound Brook. I bet Milton and the Rahway River Park pond have some but I have not caught any.

Might be one or two in ALL of Milton. You have a better chance of catching a pacu in there than a slimer. Never saw one come outta Rahway park pond. Fishing used to be decent there but people don't know how to release fish and keep everything they catch so it's gone to shit. I saw guys punching fish and throwing them back over there on more than one occasion. They acted like they no aspeaka....

Darts are few and far between in UC unless you know where to go...

[Eskimo]

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Wow, this thread was resurrected from the dead. :D
Surprise Lake was drained and is now Surprise Meadow.

There are those two lakes by the Watchung Traffic Circle (Watchung Lake and Best Lake) but I haven't fished those lakes since I got my driver's license and could leave this shitty place. The state has recently stocked those two lakes a few times, but I think the white bucket crowd just doesn't let anything live there bigger than a baby sunfish.

Seeley's Pond used to have some pickerel. That's a trout stocked pond, so it gets fished non-stop from the moment the stocking truck drops off the trout (yes - before the trout season opener - "Peces gratis!!!"), opening day, through the spring stocking, and well into the summer. Any bass or pickerel that live in there are probably pretty smart.

The sections of the Passaic River going through Union County are shallow and narrow, but hold some pickerel, both Redfin Pickerel and Chain Pickerel. If you get lucky, you may even catch a pike.


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[acabtp]

Wow, this thread was resurrected from the dead. :D

haha yeah i was like "oh hey, nice to see catfish posting" and then i noticed the date

[catfishonthelake]

Hey I commented on this thread again. :D

[phil]

pretty sure this was about surprise lake, they shocked and moved all the fish to nomahegan/best/seeleys a couple years ago. that dam project was supposed to be like 1 year, in classic NJ fashion its probably going WAAAAAY overbudget and years beyond the deadline.

[catfishonthelake]

pretty sure this was about surprise lake, they shocked and moved all the fish to nomahegan/best/seeleys a couple years ago. that dam project was supposed to be like 1 year, in classic NJ fashion its probably going WAAAAAY overbudget and years beyond the deadline.

Yeah, it was about Surprise. It was always good for some very early spring pickerel action, although the pickerel were very very small. You're probably right, we won't see it back in action anytime soon.

[Matt A.]

surprise used to be so good, sad to see it in this condition. I have personally seen a 28" pickerel and a 16" crappie pulled from there. ironically right from that deep section near the dam. the fact that you had to walk all the way down probably reduced fishing pressure. i hope they stock it to help get it back on its feet once they fill it up.

[Billfish715]

There was a generous benefactor who stocked the lake the last time it was drained to remove the mats of Lilly pads and their enormous root systems. It will be some time before the fish population gets back to a healthy level even after it gets refilled.

[Fishinfire]

I keep telling you people there are no fish in the D&R Canal!! I would stay far far away from it! :p

[TheDreamCatchers]

Thank you! I will avoid Seelys and Milton but will try the upper part of Surprise that is still there, and possibly the Green brook. I also have heard there are some in the ponds along the Rahway.