Round valley or spruce run advice

[Mzalla]

My friend and I have a 14 foot hobie kayak and we don't have any depth or fish finders so we can't really tell how deep we are We went to round valley today and fished with shiners with no luck except bluegills and 2 smallmouth bass. We are really looking to get into a lake,brown, or rainbow trout in either round valley or spruce run. We also tried trolling but I don't think we were deep enough, our jigs were about 5-10 feet deep. Any advice in what we should be using? Depths? Time? Tolling methods? Rigging methods? I hope I don't sound stupid but I mostly saltwater fish. So thank you in advance for your help. Tight lines

[briansnat]

Without a fish finder Round Valley will be tough if you are looking for trout. This time of the year you may need a downrigger, or lead core line to get down to them. Flat line trolling will bring your bait down 15 feet or so at most depending on your lure, how much line you have out and your speed. In August that probably isn't nearly deep enough for any trout. The browns and rainbows will be below the thermocline. A fish finder will tell you where the trout are holding and I suspect it will be below where you can get trolling with a flat line in a kayak. Before I got a downrigger and lead core trolling line, I trolled a 2 oz weight on a three way swivel to get my lure down below it's normal track. But you still need to know where the fish are holding, otherwise it's a guessing game.

Lakers will be down really deep, 70+ feet down. If you can find a map of the lake with contour lines it may help you find the proper depths. There is a very good map of Round Valley available in many NJ fishing shops that will help you determine the depth where you are fishing. This website has some decent info too. http://roundvalleyfishing.com/map/ h

In a kayak, jigging is probably the only realistic way to reach lakers, but you're going to need a pretty calm day to keep your jig near the bottom in 70+ feet of water. If it is really calm day you might be able to get a 3/4 oz Binsky to the bottom, but a 1 oz or 2 oz marabou jig is probably a better bet. That or drifting a herring (herring works better than shiners) on a three way swivel with a 1 - 2 oz weight to bring it to the bottom.

Round Valley is tough for all but the veteran RV anglers and a lot tougher without a fish finder.

Hope all this helps. Thought it hasn't helped me much over the years.

As far as trout at Spruce Run, forget about it. I've heard of some people catching trout there, but it is not a trout fishery. Try Merrill Creek Reservoir instead if you want to target trout. Most of the above will apply there as well.

[AndyS]

T.O.W. Time on the water. keep a log book, Pm others on here, use the search feature on here, go to Round Valley Trout Association meetings, talk to people at the ramps, look at topo maps.
I don't have a fish finder, I use the one between my shoulders.

[jimmythegreek]

I wouldnt bother fishing spruce if you are looking for trout, they are few and far between in there. Ive fished it for years and altho I target stripers only Ive never had a trout as bycatch there and I only fish with herring

now for RV theres many ways to fish it, as brian said jigging for lakers would be your best bet. If you can fish a deadstick Id throw a shiner on a fishfinder rig and make sure its close to the bottom and on the other side jig a binsky or a tube bait. You can also use heavy 3/4-1oz jig heads and use a shiner on it and jig that, works very well. There are lots of fish up high this year, theres no thermocline set in as of yet, but there is seperation of water temps and you will find the bait hanging out near that band of water and the trout will be as well. You can get down as deep as you need to with just snap weights or trolling weights, no need for lead core or downriggers. With a 2oz snapweight at 1mph its 2to1 w live bait, will be more with drag of a lure or spoon. RV is a tough place for guys w boats and electronics, trolling w a kayak isnt easy and keeping a steady speed is the hard part. maybe ur phone has an app, you wanna be 1.5 to 2 mph, you can go a lil faster but usually thats the speed range im trolling unless I see outside lines in turns getting hit. If you are gonna be doing alot of kayak fishing Id spend a couple bucks and get a basic fishfinder, you can do well for a hundred bucks, its crucial in alot of waters

[MattK]

I know it might be a trip for you but you might be better off going for trout on aeroflex with a kayak and no depth finder. Its a smaller lake and you wont need a fishfinder to figure out where the drop offs are. Once you get to the middle of the lake find where the weed beds stop and thsts pretty much straight down from there.Theres browns and bows in there plus they stock it with salmon.

[Mzalla]

Thanks for all the help I will be hoping to try my luck at rv with heavier tackle and more weight to get my bait deeper. I will most likely end up and buying a fish finder. Thanks again to all the help. I will let you know if I end up having any luck.

[zmerchant7]

Back when I used to fish off my kayak at RV I used to do well jigging or drifting Herring on the bottom for Lakers, as stated already by a few other people, and fishing Shiners under slip bobbers for Rainbows and Browns. Used to pick up a lot of Browns trolling with a three way swivel set up as well, but that was back a few years ago when RV was stocked more heavily with Browns than it is now. As far as depth goes, you want to get deeper for sure this time of year for the Trout. Rainbows and Browns have been coming out of deeper water 80-100 feet, but suspended anywhere between 20 and 50 feet down. As far as Lakers go, they're mostly in 80+ feet of water now, but you can catch them a bit shallower if you hit it early morning like right around sunrise before they move deeper for the day.