Northern NJ Catfishing from the Banks

[AirborneNick94]

Looking for some advice on any good catfish holes in northern NJ. I was stationed in NC for the past three years and got hooked on Catfishing. I'm home on leave for a month before I head to West Point and I've been trying to catch some cats with my lady.

So far I hit the Passaic River at the Elmwood Park boat launch at night and got skunked besides an eel. I tried Garret Mountain during the day and got skunked again (besides my girl catching a sunny that I ended up cutting up for pair to no avail.) And today I tried Daherts in Garfield for about an hour without a single bite. Any suggestions/known spots up here would be much appreciated, also I have no boat so I will be bank fishing.

Also, if anyone has bait suggestions I'm open to them. In NC I always got at least a few throwing chicken livers on a 12-18 in leader with an egg sinker.
Haven't had any action with the chicken up here besides that eel.

[Bill Willix]

The Delaware river is really good. Also in my area a lake called Columbia lake is real good right off exit 4 on rt 80. Also furnace lake in oxford is pretty good. I also use chicken liver and do just fine with it. Hope this helps Good luck and Thank you for your service.

[AirborneNick94]

The Delaware river is really good. Also in my area a lake called Columbia lake is real good right off exit 4 on rt 80. Also furnace lake in oxford is pretty good. I also use chicken liver and do just fine with it. Hope this helps Good luck and Thank you for your service.

Thanks for the tips Bill! I'm camping on the Delaware in a few weeks so I'll make sure to bring my poles. And it is my pleasure.

[23cardinal]

Looking for some advice on any good catfish holes in northern NJ. I was stationed in NC for the past three years and got hooked on Catfishing. I'm home on leave for a month before I head to West Point and I've been trying to catch some cats with my lady.

So far I hit the Passaic River at the Elmwood Park boat launch at night and got skunked besides an eel. I tried Garret Mountain during the day and got skunked again (besides my girl catching a sunny that I ended up cutting up for pair to no avail.) And today I tried Daherts in Garfield for about an hour without a single bite. Any suggestions/known spots up here would be much appreciated, also I have no boat so I will be bank fishing.

Also, if anyone has bait suggestions I'm open to them. In NC I always got at least a few throwing chicken livers on a 12-18 in leader with an egg sinker.
Haven't had any action with the chicken up here besides that eel.

Always cleaned up with a bottom rig, catfish nuggets or liver. Try the boat launch up in lake muscenetcong. And if u don't catch there u could try the Passaic junction by two bridges road in Wayne/llincoln park

[River Renegade]

Round valley, spruce run, Monksville reservoir all got kitties in there.

[AirborneNick94]

Always cleaned up with a bottom rig, catfish nuggets or liver. Try the boat launch up in lake muscenetcong. And if u don't catch there u could try the Passaic junction by two bridges road in Wayne/llincoln park

Thanks man, I'll check both of those spots out.

[AirborneNick94]

Round valley, spruce run, Monksville reservoir all got kitties in there.

Thanks! I've been told monksville can be good but it's also very hit or miss.

[River Renegade]

Thanks! I've been told monksville can be good but it's also very hit or miss.
You're welcome anytime. If you're ever in the monks area give it a try you never know!

[briansnat]

I think you will be hard pressed to find a lake or river in NJ without a healthy population of catfish. In addition to the previously mentioned spots, also consider Scarlet Oak Pond in Mahwah, Verona Park Lake in Verona (go figure, what are the chances of that?), Pompton/Potash Lakes, Pompton River, Barbours Pond (Woodland Park), Green Turtle Pond in Hewitt, Furnace Lake in Oxford. If you are planning on keeping a few for the table, you will need to pay a little more attention to where you catch them. I don't think I'd eat anything out of the Passaic, unless it was caught well upstream.

I've had good luck with chicken livers (if I can get them to stay on the hook), night crawlers and have done really well with hot dogs of all things. Always use Kosher dogs because you don't want to lose out on a giant channel cat because it was the wrong religion.

[NJSquatch]

I've had good luck with chicken livers (if I can get them to stay on the hook), night crawlers and have done really well with hot dogs of all things. Always use Kosher dogs because you don't want to lose out on a giant channel cat because it was the wrong religion.

X2 on the hot dogs. They always get me bites

[Eskimo]

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From the garbage I see on the shoreline, I would guess chicken livers are the most popular bait.

Anecdotally, I think catfishing has been slow this past spring. I usually catch Channel catfish as by-catch when I'm bass fishing in lakes where catfish are stocked, but I've hardly caught any so far this year.

Perhaps the water is still cool and the fishing will pick up as the summer progresses.


.

[AirborneNick94]

I think you will be hard pressed to find a lake or river in NJ without a healthy population of catfish. In addition to the previously mentioned spots, also consider Scarlet Oak Pond in Mahwah, Verona Park Lake in Verona (go figure, what are the chances of that?), Pompton/Potash Lakes, Pompton River, Barbours Pond (Woodland Park), Green Turtle Pond in Hewitt, Furnace Lake in Oxford. If you are planning on keeping a few for the table, you will need to pay a little more attention to where you catch them. I don't think I'd eat anything out of the Passaic, unless it was caught well upstream.

I've had good luck with chicken livers (if I can get them to stay on the hook), night crawlers and have done really well with hot dogs of all things. Always use Kosher dogs because you don't want to lose out on a giant channel cat because it was the wrong religion.

Thanks! I'll check some of those out. I've actually hit Barbours twice already and had no luck at all.

[AirborneNick94]

X2 on the hot dogs. They always get me bites

I've never tried dogs, I'll give em a shot. How big of a piece do you usually go with?

[AirborneNick94]

.


From the garbage I see on the shoreline, I would guess chicken livers are the most popular bait.

Anecdotally, I think catfishing has been slow this past spring. I usually catch Channel catfish as by-catch when I'm bass fishing in lakes where catfish are stocked, but I've hardly caught any so far this year.

Perhaps the water is still cool and the fishing will pick up as the summer progresses.


.

I always pack my garbage out with me. :cool: And yeah, maybe it's the weather up here, we were killing them in multiple lakes in NC a few weeks ago and the weather was warmer there.

[MudCat08]

Try out Spruce Run Reservoir in the summer months. should be starting up soon with the herring spawn, and will be best after all the catfish finished spawning.

Good baits there are simple chicken livers and nitecrawlers. Go at night anytime from 8pm until 3am or even later.

Spruce is a good spot to catch a catfish for the table, much cleaner than Ramapo, Passaic, or Hackensack rivers (which all also hold catfish).

I'd use the same setup you've been using, good luck out there, and post some photos once you start hooking them!

[NJSquatch]

I've never tried dogs, I'll give em a shot. How big of a piece do you usually go with?

i usually go no bigger than a half inch but obviously match to your hook size.

also try throwing out a chum pot full of stinky stuff

[SaltLife1980]

Hot dogs have caught me some real nice cat fish in budd lake last year. We were BBQin at my friends house right across from the lake and had a few extra so used em and they produced

[AirborneNick94]

Always cleaned up with a bottom rig, catfish nuggets or liver. Try the boat launch up in lake muscenetcong. And if u don't catch there u could try the Passaic junction by two bridges road in Wayne/llincoln park

Just took a ride over to two bridges to scope it out, within two minutes saw what looked like a monster cat skulking around under the bridge, definitly going to try and hit it tomorrow night. Thanks again for the tip!

[JDTuna]

I like live or cut bait.

[23cardinal]

Just took a ride over to two bridges to scope it out, within two minutes saw what looked like a monster cat skulking around under the bridge, definitly going to try and hit it tomorrow night. Thanks again for the tip!

Bring something top water. Mighta been a pike. Any time

Thank you for your service and tight lines

[acabtp]

the bullhead is the catfish that's native to our area and you'll find them in most bodies of water. ~12" is a pretty typical size but they can get a lot bigger. http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/fish_bullhead.htm

to target bigger fish you probably want to be going after channel cats at one of the places the state puts them in
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/fish_ch_cat.htm
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/images/fishing/map_chcat.jpg
here's the full list of places they stocked for channels last year
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/fwfisheries/htown_stocking_chc15.pdf

good luck out there!