Lake Hopatcong Catch

[Bruce Litton]

My son and I caught walleyes and hybrids on the only herring available, small, 2 1/2 to 3 inches. Matt's walleye was 23 inches, my largest hybrid 23 inches. Matt got a nice smallmouth and crappie; we caught some perch and panfish besides. Lake Hopatcong's been slow this past week, but we usually do well on windy days such as yesterday. We saw only two boats until later in the morning when we moved out of the wind. Then we saw plenty. I wonder what they caught. Typically, I will fish in the wind. Even though we set live herring on the bottom edge of a drop-off 35 feet down, fish sense turbulence above, and who knows, maybe it turns them on in the fall, as wind is so typical this season, and fish are feeding. Tried bladebaits during our last hour and a half, but nothing, although my plan going into the day was to use the Binskys and Cicadas a lot more. We stayed on the fish. The bite was not fast and furious, but we caught some nice ones.