Some of my Summer Fishing Memoirs

[thomaskgrosvenor]

Fishing memoirs – Disappointment

When I fished this summer, I was fishing from shorelines with artificial lures for bass, pickerel and panfish. Taking the good with the bad, I just wanted to share with my new NJ fishing pals some of my UNSUCCESS stories. Feel free to absorb, comment, get bored, etc.

Vincent’s Pond – Degnan Park, West Orange, NJ. Caught nothing and no bites, however saw signs of small/medium sized fish jumping but not sure what kind of fish.
Diamond Mill Pond, South Mountain Reservation, South Orange – way too thick with algae and vegetation however saw trout signs in stream exiting past dam as well as other fish in the deeper pools of that stream. May go back later in the Fall.
Taylor Pond, Taylor Park, Millburn, NJ. Caught nothing. I saw signs of fish – bluegill and small bass, but no bites. The fish seemed very uninterested in artificial lures. Some kids told me they had success catching trout with trout magnets.
Little Swamp in Miesel Avenue Park, Milltown, NJ. Eneded up there by accident trying to get to Echo Lake and getting stuck in traffic on 577. Small Pond. Lot of algae and vegetation. I saw signs of fish, carp or catfish, if I remember correctly. Did not try too hard. Rahway river in that area had aggressive blue gill.
Lake Surprise, Watchung Reservation. “Surprise there is no lake” Lake was drained due to what I heard was slow motion dam construction. No luck. I saw some young men catch a catfish on what I heard them say was hot dog for bait.
Echo Lake – Echo Lake Park, Mountainside, NJ. No success here. Seemed like the type of lake to have some fish in it but I didn’t see much fish sign or feel much for that matter. I did find a large stash of golf balls that I think some type of animal was hoarding thinking they were eggs or something. Anyway, I packed them up for a buddy at work.
Shallcross Pond - Black Brook Park Union/Kenilworth - no signs of fish. A fellow told me all that's left are the turtles.
Watchung Lake, Washingtonville, NJ. Seemed like a nice lake to fish but there is only a very small area designated for fishing and I did not want to risk breaking the rules. Ended up there by accident trying to reach Lake Surprise.
Horshoe Lake, Roxbury, NJ. Lots of bluegill visible from shoreline, some looked pretty big, but they seemed totally uninterested in artificial stuff. Water seemed clean. I am not sure there is much depth to the lake. Saw what appeared to be a little bass come after my wacky worm as I was bringing it in and give a nibble but quickly retreat. Maybe the kind of place to a big worm on a hook and sit and relax.
Budd Lake, Mt. Olive, NJ – stopped there before going someplace else. Not much shoreline to fish from. I would say bring a boat to that lake. Messed around a little by the main public boat launch, saw a little pickerel follow my lure to shore and then retreat, and drove around a little pondering how nice it would be to have a boat.
Lamington River, Hacklebarny State Park – a bad dream for me. Started out hot and humid but then came the rain storm (luckily no thunder or lightning so I could continue fishing). Most of the stream/river was too shallow for my fishing tactics. Things got a little turbid with the heavy rain. I would say fish there for trout only as it is stocked. I tried trout magnets – but it was amateur hour and I caught a guppie. Nice hiking though on a very dreary day. Now that I reflect, there was a lot of rocky terrain and areas that looked like good bear dens, also saw signs letting me know I was in bear country.
Lake Speedwell – looking at it, I expected some decent bass action but was let down. After the dam’s waterfall, in the pool below, I caught some decent bluegill. Following Patriot’s Path along the Whippany River has some pickerel. But no luck in the lake itself around the nice vegetation.
Kearny Meadowlands – when I was a teenager, I used to fish out there for carp. There were some parts with nice sized carp to catch. Revisited the area after seeing something on the Internet about some bass out there. Unsuccessful as far as bass was concerned but saw signs of the big carp I remember from back in the day. I’m not really interested in carp though.
Clarks Pond in Bloomfield in Fall (end of October)- saw a facebook page for the pond with pictures of a little fellow and the fish he caught so I figured I would stop by and try but did not get any bites. Saw a nice carp jump a couple of times though. I could only access about 1/3 of the perimeter of the pond.
Yantacaw Brook Park in Bloomfield/Montclair in Fall (end of October)- real small pond, did not get any bites or see any signs of fish activity.

[Eskimo]

Lake Surprise, Watchung Reservation. “Surprise there is no lake” Lake was drained due to what I heard was slow motion dam construction. No luck. I saw some young men catch a catfish on what I heard them say was hot dog for bait.

Watchung Lake, Washingtonville, NJ. Seemed like a nice lake to fish but there is only a very small area designated for fishing and I did not want to risk breaking the rules. Ended up there by accident trying to reach Lake Surprise.

Ha ha - the same thing happened to me. I parked and started walking to where I recall there being Surprise Lake only to find it was just a meadow with a swampy stream running through it.

Some of the bass were electro-shocked and transplanted from Surprise lake to those two ponds in the Watchung Circle. I don't know if anything worthwhile actually lives in those ponds due to their location, though.


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[Jigman13]

My advice, fish better waters. You're fishing mostly in heavily pressured park ponds, mud puddles, weeded-in impoundments. The lamington is the right track. Use the nj fish & game website to locate more fruitful waters.

Also, what artificial are you using and what are you targeting? Dismiss those trouts signs this time of yr when it's hot. Most of the places you are fishing are put and take fisheries. Targeting trout would be pointless as most fish have been caught or have died months ago due to increased water temps and lower dissolved oxygen levels. Big lakes and reservoirs hold trout deep this time of yr.

Fish at dawn and dusk for your best shot at action. Weedless rigged senkos, Weedless frogs, etc will get you bass in better waters.

[Chrisper4694]

Well I fished from the shore when I first started, after a few months I couldn't take it anymore...wondering how much more I could do fishing from a boat, any kind of boat! I got a kayak and since then a Jon boat and electric motor. I used to catch nice fish from the shore, but I could never go back.

Basically...get a boat! A cheap kayak, a tube, kids swim wings, anything!

Otherwise I'd say stick to river fishing from the shores.

[thomaskgrosvenor]

Don't get me wrong, I did a whole lot of fishing over the summer. For every Un-success story, I would say I had two success stories. Caught some pretty big bass (lm and sm), pickerel, white and yellow perch, crappies, and a few blue gill the size of my hand (I have pretty big hands).

I was just sharing the Un-success stories to see what other fisherpeople had to say about those locations and to share what I found out about them or already knew as well.

For example, there did seem to be some evidence of perhaps overfishing at some of the locations, read about pollution issues at Vincent's pond, have seen other people's posts about some of the locations etc. I was just interested to see what others had to say about those spots.

Basically spiraled outward from home in Northern new Jersey and kept trying out new places or places I have visited years prior with the dog or for mountain biking. Didn't really spend more than one or two visits to a location.

In a future post, I'll share all my other stops for the summer and let you know what my findings were. It will be a long one, though.

[AndyS]

We love photos !!!

[RWole]

There are indeed big bass in the Kearny meadowlands

[thomaskgrosvenor]

Are you serious? As a teenager, I used to occasionally fish off of rt 7 for carp. Over the summer revisited the area, went behind gunnel oval and followed the abandoned train tracks eastward in the hunt for bass.

Found access to the water difficult. As I started to get to the closed landfill there was all sorts of water diversion projects going on (it was a weekend) so the work was on hold and I could scout around.

Anyway I was looking for fresh water small mouths or large mouths.

I have heard that there are some areas out there near the Hackensack, perhaps a bit more brackish, that are good areas for striped bass if I remember correctly?

May have to gather some more information and make another trip out there sometime.

Although I don't boat, it looks like a great area to work from a kayak.

[Skunk City]

Originally Posted by thomaskgrosvenor

Are you serious? As a teenager, I used to occasionally fish off of rt 7 for carp. Over the summer revisited the area, went behind gunnel oval and followed the abandoned train tracks eastward in the hunt for bass.

Found access to the water difficult. As I started to get to the closed landfill there was all sorts of water diversion projects going on (it was a weekend) so the work was on hold and I could scout around.

Anyway I was looking for fresh water small mouths or large mouths.

I have heard that there are some areas out there near the Hackensack, perhaps a bit more brackish, that are good areas for striped bass if I remember correctly?

May have to gather some more information and make another trip out there sometime.

Although I don't boat, it looks like a great area to work from a kayak.

The only true freshwater area of the Meadowlands is indeed Kearny Freshwater Marsh. I have never fished in there, but my GF did nest/egg work in there this spring from her kayak and according to her, most of it is very shallow, water clarity sucks, and it is loaded with Carp. Supposedly Sandy completely rearranged that place. The main stem of the Hack is tidal/brackish.