Passaic Smallies

[Fred E. Goose]

Stopped off on my way home from work to toss it around a bit. My first trip to the Passaic River rewarded by my first smallie of the year. Followed by my 2nd, 3rd and 4th smallies of the year! Had another small one on but it threw the hook close to shore. Great way to burn just under 2 hours! Guess I'll be back.
1st one was the nicest, it nailed the lure and skyrocketed out of the water higher than I'd ever seen a fish jump! Then it bulldogged upstream fighting me all the way. It was so much fun!!!

[AndyS]

Glad to nice SMB in the Passaic, thanx for sharing.

[icebadger]

its so much fun to catch those river smallmouth, they fight real good for their size.it's a challange to get them in the little pools and eddies behind rocks in the river.you did well good for you.

[Fred E. Goose]

Yeah, thank you. You read/hear about how the river fish have "shoulders" from dealing with current, tides, etc... all their life compared to the lake fish. That first one I got sure proved it! With some acrobatics to boot!!!

[Jigman13]

I think River fish fight better bc they're better conditioned--constantly exercising. They can fight longer and stronger combined with the flows.

[Esox Luciano]

Not too shabby at all for the 1st trip on the P! Nice bag of bronze! These river fish all have that much more fight in them from the constant flow of the river literally working them out. Be careful if you're not using a leader though, pike & pickerel will take a lucky lure in the blink of an eye! The bass will still bite too, lately I've been having dinks hit pike lures while using a 45lb steel leader attached.

[Bruce Litton]

There you go...I think it's an amazing SMB river, given its notorious history with age-old pollution.