Passaic 7/21

[basspilot]

Hit the river which was really low but gin clear and managed to pick up one low 20's pike. Alota smallies mixed in but pretty slow day for piking anyway. Now is definitely the time to hit the passaic though if you want to find the submerged structure.

[gnuisance]

Originally Posted by basspilot

Hit the river which was really low but gin clear and managed to pick up one low 20's pike. Alota smallies mixed in but pretty slow day for piking anyway. Now is definitely the time to hit the passaic though if you want to find the submerged structure.

Gin clear?! In the livingston area yesterday it was chocolate milk. Where are you fishing?

[msgdan]

Nice going !! I was on the river for 3 hours on Sat. as well and landed 3 pike, all under 30" and 1 pretty good LMB. Again I had real monster on for about a minute that got caught up in the weeds and came off. This was the same spot I lost a 40" plus 2 weeks ago. I went back yesterday for 30 minutes trying for this guy and had a huge blow up on the second cast and then nothing else. I need about another foot of water in this area to go back and try for this fish that is driving me crazy !!

I even used a heavier rod and reel yesterday to try to keep this fish out of the weeds. With my regular pike set up, I could not turn the fish at all before getting into the weeds.

Danny V

[Skunk City]

Originally Posted by gnuisance

Gin clear?! In the livingston area yesterday it was chocolate milk. Where are you fishing?

Two Bridges area was clear and low as well.

[FASTEDDIE29]

Stretch I fish is clear to the bottom. Dog days of summer, AHHHHH!!!

[Fish n Jeep]

Originally Posted by Skunk City

Two Bridges area was clear and low as well.

And how! Jigman and I launched "Ol' Claw-Foot" on the Pompton at Aqueduct Park and travelled downstream to the Passaic without much drama until we got to Two Bridges. Switched to the trolling motor, which quickly became a salad spinner. Trimmed the outboard way up and tried to power through, also a no-go. I thought to myself, "Self, this is either gonna be a really short day on the water after an hour and a half drive, or desperate anglers call for desperate measures." I waded in and pulled the boat upstream past the big boulders, jumped back in and motored us up into the Great Peace Meadows. All sorts of fishy-looking cover, plenty of water depth, and a veritable crocodile hunter nature show. We fished from 7am-3pm and barely kept the skunk at bay. Jeremy caught a yellow perch that was only marginally larger than his spinnerbait, as well as a 20"-ish pike, and a long ear sunfish on the Pompton with a small senko during the return trip after I pulled the boat back across the weedbed. I threw all manner of lures and caught nada. At least the mosquitoes behaved themselves.

As an aside, we encountered some friendly locals in another boat who gave us the real skinny on a certain disputed boat ramp in the area. PM for details.

[buzzbaiter]

Its been yoohoo over in the Madison/East Hanover/Livingston/Fairfield stretch for quite some time even though its low. Its hit or miss with the clarity but shallower inlets clear-er. If Carp are stirring things up, forget it - you can't see a gold spinner 6" below the surface. Other rivers like paulinskill, raritan, rockaway, pequest and musky are all pretty clear and fishing great -less skeeters too and far less boats as well.

[basspilot]

Dan I gotta fish whever you go because I haven't seen a 40" pike in the river in a long time. I've been getting a lot of high 20's to mid 30's but the pike bite has been slower than it was last year I think anyway. @gnuissance try fishing closer to elmwood park there's a lot of area for that mud to filter out. My goal in the next month if we still have the crazy low water is to launch below great falls who's in!