5/19 South Branch -- High Bridge area, etc - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

Jigman13 · #1 05-21-2012, 12:14 PM

Fished 5/19 from 6:30 AM till about 3 PM on a good stretch of the South Branch and another close by honey hole. Easily one of the best days I've ever had, numbers-wise, trout fishing. Started by throwing a small floating Rapala in shiner pattern. 2nd cast, hooked up--fat, cookie-cutter brown. Hooked up again a few casts later--another brown about the same size. These fish were aggressive and putting on a show--good fun on 4 lb test. A few more missed strikes and I switched over to a 1/16 brown rooster tail with a gold blade. Game on. Hooked a small brookie and another brown--smaller variety--easily released to fight another day. Gotta love barbless roosters. Wising up to my antics, the bite slowed. I moved down stream and started drifting butter worms in moving water and was hooking up almost non-stop--most released. Stopped under a bridge and loaded up on fat browns and a really nice brookie. Kept a few that were hooked deep. Nothing larger than 2 lbs but aggressive hits all day, even as the sun was high in the sky. Saw a few torpedo browns of quality size shooting around but they wouldnt take anything I threw at them. Found a 5 lb'er dead in some faster moving water--unfortunate.

Sat on a rock in the river and enjoyed the sun for a bit--and smoke... Time to move on.

Hit a lil' honey hole not too far from where I was fishing and didnt expect much with the lack of water we've been dealing with. Still, I gave it a go. Wound up drifting butters, throwing the Rapala and Rooster again into a variety of holes and fast moving water and absolutely KILLED it. All rainbows--angry, hungry rainbows. Kept a few meatier ones and let the others go. Also pulled out some small wild browns with some epic colorations on them--VERY cool to see.

Had my limit, played a little catch-and-release, then adios... Helluva day... Beautiful weather, landed close to 20 fish and was unbuttoned on about half as many. Didnt snap any shots as I left my phone in the car. I should do that more often... : )

AndyS · #2 05-21-2012, 12:32 PM

I hope Wilson reads this, he was just above you fishing worms and fatheads and got like 2 fish, ain't that right Wilson

Great report !!

Jigman13 · #3 05-21-2012, 12:51 PM

I saw a few people on the South Branch tossing fatheads, power bait, lures, and a few fly guys floating dry stuff--didnt see one hook-up. And loads of fish were busting the surface feeding. I dont know why, but I was slaying them. I had a friend with me--pretty much at my side all day and he only caught like 4 fish. Two went on his stringer and the other two were laughable. Maybe it was just they way I was presenting my lures and baits--who knows?!?! It seemed like every hole I saw and said to myself "that should be holding fish", it was... I managed to have a banner day. I didnt even lose a hook or lure lol... As we all know, that's fishing!

Wilson · #4 05-21-2012, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyS

I hope Wilson reads this, he was just above you fishing worms and fatheads and got like 2 fish, ain't that right Wilson

Great report !!

4 fish, 3 SMB and one Trout in about 2 1/2 hours. Also threw P.M's and a sinking Rapala black and gold. The water where I was fishing was real low.
Maybe Jigman already went threw the area I was fishing?

Maybe I just suck

Jigman13 · #5 05-21-2012, 01:25 PM

I had no SMB--all trout. I was immediately down stream of the tunnels; that was my parking/starting point and I worked down from there. We were the first car there and slowly people started congregating in that area so we fled to "greener pastures". I was surprised by the total number of brown trout and their overall acrobatics for stocked fish...and the fact that I saw no one else with fish.

To quote Rev. Maclean from A River Runs through It: "The Lord has blessed us all today... It's just that he has been particularly good to me."

I'm no holy roller but it seems fitting...

Wilson · #6 05-21-2012, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jigman13

I had no SMB--all trout. I was immediately down stream of the tunnels; that was my parking/starting point and I worked down from there. We were the first car there and slowly people started congregating in that area so we fled to "greener pastures". I was surprised by the total number of brown trout and their overall acrobatics for stocked fish...and the fact that I saw no one else with fish.

To quote Rev. Maclean from A River Runs through It: "The Lord has blessed us all today... It's just that he has been particularly good to me."

I'm no holy roller but it seems fitting...

I drove through the tunnel area on my way to Gronski's for breakfast and the area was packed with fishermen.

Jigman13 · #7 05-21-2012, 03:44 PM

When we started around 630ish, we were the only ones there. They started coming through in drips and drabs so we just moved it along downstream. Fished the fast moving water where it splits briefly and then continued down under the bridge there. Went a touch further but that was about it. There was a good number of cars parked over there when we shoved off but I don't know if it was fisherman or little league parents.

There was no one at the 2nd spot we hit.