NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

Quote:

Originally Posted by bunker dunker (Post 343489)

I was wondering if any of you have ever iced fished the Mullica for the white perch???

Yeah, I fished it often back in the 70's with my fishing club...Central Jersey Anglers. Fishing writer, Don Kaminski, belonged to our club and he usually led these trips from the Bordentown, NJ area down Route 539 to the Parkway. Get off at the Port Republic exit. Then stop at the Chestnut Neck Boat Yard to get directions on how to get into the road to the Wildlife Management Area. To get to the river you have to ride through the WMA on unpaved dirt road...sometimes unplowed and with lots of big potholes. So it doesn't hurt to go there in a 4X4.

The stories about this place were not over rated. On good days there would literally be a hundred or more people out there on the ice, with catches of a dozen or more per person. These were all good sized white perch running from 1 to 2 1/2 pounds. Best bait was fresh grass shrimp which I think you can still get from the Chestnut Neck Boatyard right off the parkway exit. (I never did well with small Killies.) Don't forget that the river still has a current under the ice, so you'll probably need a few split shot or a small weight to keep the bait down toward the bottom. Once in a while, a small striper would also come up through the ice. At times, several entrepreneurs would drag plastic covered shacks out onto the ice and sell hot dogs, hamburgers, coffee and bait. Some energetic teens would also use power augers to drill holes for you at a buck apiece.

Back in the 60's and 70's it seemed like we got good ice at least once every few years. It doesn't seem like it now anymore. If you go, remember that this is brackish water sea ice, which is much softer than freshwater ice. So you really need a few more inches of ice to be really safe out there. Also, remember that the cove is tide water so the entire ice sheet raises and falls with the tides...at least 6 feet in this area. So sometimes at high tide, you can easily get onto and off the ice, but at low tide there is often a few feet of water separating the ice from the bank. Usually some nice person has brought down a long 2X12 plank that you can walk across. Otherwise it's hard making the transition on/off the ice.

Just as a matter of history, the hole at Collins Cove was initially over 50 feet deep. It was created back in the 1950's when the Parkway bridge over the Mullica River was being built. The concrete for the bridge was apparently mixed on the spot using the river sand dredged from the cove...thus creating the deep hole where the perch started to congregate during the Winter. However, over the years the currents and tides have filled it in quite a bit, and it is no longer as deep as it was, nor is it the great white perch location it was 40 years ago.

So if you go, let us know how you make out...BUT BE CAREFUL !!!

Denny