Monksville actually has fish!

[briansnat]

Planned on doing Merrill Creek today, but after a late start I went to Monksville instead. I thought I've give lake trout a shot there. I know they've been stocked over the years but I never saw, or heard of someone who went there specifically to target lakers.

Made a bunch of drifts with a herring on a 3/4 oz slip sinker in 60 - 80 feet of water. The wind was brutal and I think the 3/4 oz wasn't enough to keep it on the bottom in that wind (it was the heaviest sinker I had).

After half a dozen passes I was getting cold and hit a cove and fished the herring. I actually caught a bass! It is probably the third fish I've caught there in the past several years.
Went out after that and made several more passes over the deeps with the herring but nada.

While taking out I ran into a guy taking out a cool looking little boat and went over to chat with him. It was a home made plywood job, maybe 3 x 6 feet with a milk crate for a seat. He mentioned that he was out at Round Valley this morning and abandoned the trip because of the wind and showed me a video of the waves breaking over the front of his tiny boat. Heck, I've been on Round Valley in my 14 footer and was kind of worried.

Then he showed me his catch of the day. A smallie from RV and a LM from Monksville. I have no idea that the legal size for bass is in NJ because I never keep bass, but these were really small, maybe 9 or 10 inches. I guess I met part of the "white bucket brigade" or they now becoming the "plywood boat brigade"?