[goodfishin]

I'm not huge into pike but I used to hit up the Passaic for smallmouth fairly often - especially when I was pressed for time. Had a string of reliable holes that almost always coughed up at least a few dink smallies and an occasional nice one.

Then, about three or four years ago, we had one of those horrible, horrible storms long before the fishing season. Can't remember if it was Sandy or one of the big storms prior... Next season rolled around and it was like - Poof! - smallmouth: gone.

A couple of those old spots will yield a little guy or two these days but whatever that storm did to the river, the smallmouth flat-out were having none of it. The best of the holes in that stretch are all but barren now. Amazing how little it takes to entirely change the distribution of fish within even large bodies of water like the Passaic.

Bottom-line, they ain't gone; they've just moved. Learned my lesson the hard way... Sometimes you have to start anew and hit up a body of water with a clean slate. Wasted too many outings stubbornly expecting yesterday's hot spots to be today's hot spots.