Lake Hopatcong fishing - Lake noob.

[Jenger]

Hey guys

So basically I grew up in hopatcong my whole life, always loved fishing, but was always raised to fish the streams.

Lately I have been becoming more and more interested in fishing the lake for walleye or stripers, but I have no boat. I do however have a buddy who lives right on the lake at pickerel point.

We have been fishing there the last few days, nothing besides a few decent sized bass. I feel so limited fishing the lake shore line.

I have always figured the "main lake" right there by pickerel point was pretty deep so I assumed there was a nice drop off maybe < 20' out, but who knows.

Anyway, we used fat heads the other day (got jipped.. they were way too small) we might try herring tomorrow. We have been also using rapala's with little to no luck wit them. I wanted to try the thunderstick, but I havn't seen one in the stores yet.

Is it worth going for these types of fish from the shore line there? I know brady's bridge is a hot spot, what about form the shore line there?

Everybody says the walleye are close to shore this time of year.

I do fairly well in the streams with trout, but the lake is a whole other ball game.

Any tips?

[birddog]

The best time for me has been after 10pm, The rapalas that work best are the f-18 worked slowly

[AndyS]

WELCOME to the site. Any chance of getting your hands on a small 14ft boat ? The kayak guys seem to be doing well also.
I know this doesn't answer your question but I think the shore line drops off slowly at LH.

[Skunk City]

I've also found that live herring will catch almost every species in that lake. You can't go wrong there, and nice to have a bait setup out there while you are casting lures. During the day you'll get bass, trout (now), all sorts of panfish and pickerel. If you want to catch Walleye and Hybrids, night time is where its at. BIG floating lures or stickbait style lures.

[Jenger]

Sorry I should of specified..

90% of my fishing is late afternoon / night. Last night we fished in between the rain from 6:30p ~ 8:00p then again at 9:30 ~ 10:30.

I know the majority of the action occurs around midnight, I think we are planning on casting out late tomorrow.

We have access to a little fisher boat, its a friend of a friends. Her husband passed, she has no use for the boat, but I don't know the first thing about marine engine work. Not sure if it was winterized or what. Plus neither me or my fishing buddy have our boating license.

Id like to get a kayak but I have too many expensive hobbies going on right now lol I cant afford to shell out ~$500 on a kayak, everybody seems to want top dollar for their used ones on CL.

I agree having a live bait rig + lures is the way to go. When using live bait as in fatheads, shiners, herring, should a bobber be used or no? I figured with a bobber on, the bait can only hang down 2.5' or so max?

Lure wise, will any old rapala work? They had all these code names, I thought I was looking at a fighter jet catalog with all these F-7's, etc

[bunker dunker]

That Point Is A Great Point To Fish.fatheads Are Not Native To The Lake,they Work But Not Great.once You Put The Herring Down You Will See A Huge Differnce.i Suggest Using Strike Guards And Letting The Herring Swim Freely.you Will Have To Check Then Every 10-15 Minutes But I Know You Will Catch.

[birddog]

f-18 is the model # of the rapala they work the best for me, I have also done well on the knucklehead poppers that they sell at Dow's

[Jenger]

About to go back out and try our luck again. We fished from 6 ~ 830 with nothing. Saw a rise close by (we were fishing from his boathouse). I know the fish are out there, just no action for us. I've been using rapala f9s & f11s (rainbow) along with thunderstick jr perch + others.

Wish us some luck pls.

[GetANet]

Keep at it my man. if you know the fish are there gotta keep trying different things,retrieves,etc. Sooner or later you'll hook up and be happy as hell!!! This year has seemed to be a little later starting, it's never exactly the same every year usually similar and some what predicable so gotta put the time in and learn your area as much as you can. Don't try to fish the entire lake better off picking a few areas and continually work and learn them. Trust me it will pay off. Many of the guys here know what we're talking about and give great advice so you'll learn a tremendous amount of info from reading the threads and then it's up to you!!!! Good Luck tonight!
Break a rod!!!! LOL................................

[Jenger]

Alright guys, just got back.. happy to report, walleye were caught!!

We rowed down shore a bit and fished for awhile with no luck. After a couple hrs of nothing, we wrapped up and docked. We immpediately started fishing from the boathouse and after about 15, 20 mins my buddy caught the first walleye. We underestimated them, they are monsters! Didn't even fit in our net.

He caught the first one followed by me getting the 2nd, him getting the 3rd. I also had one that I was bringing in take off with my thunderstick in its mouth (weak knot)

They started hitting 12:45 - 1am , much closer to shore than I thought!! Thanks for all your tips guys, we had a blast!