Suprise lake

[Wilson]

I work 5 minutes from there in Berk. Hts. You should of stopped by for lunch. We had turtle soup on the menu

[FASTEDDIE29]

Good day to be out! I used to fish there all the time, medium shiners under bobbers. Big Crappie, Pickeral and LM used to roam that lake. This is goin back 10-15 years. I wonder if them Slab Crappie are still there!!!

[danyeo]

Originally Posted by FASTEDDIE29

Good day to be out! I used to fish there all the time, medium shiners under bobbers. Big Crappie, Pickeral and LM used to roam that lake. This is goin back 10-15 years. I wonder if them Slab Crappie are still there!!!

Bumping an old thread, but I fish here from time to time since I'm close to it. I've caught some bass and pickeral here but nothing big. I've fished the bottom but never caught anything but I assume there's Bullheads in here but I haven't seen any Carp so not sure if they're in there.

Almost everything I caught in here was on a small Hula Popper, worms, or a weedless Daredevil for the pickeral. Well, I think I only caught 2 Pickeral over the past few years. It gets weedy pretty bad and you have to watch out for horse crap on the trails.

[Billfish715]

That lake was drained a number of years back to remove the pads and their incredible roots. There was some dredging done as well. When Route 78 was extended through the reservation back in the 70's, the lake became incredibly silted because of the construction and subsequent erosion. As for the fishing, the lake was given a generous stocking of panfish, especially crappies and bass, by a local donor. It's a good place to use a fly rod and small flies and poppers for the abundant bluegills, if you like that stuff. Unfortunately, the pads are starting to take over again and that limits accessibility. For you youngsters out there, at one time there was boating there too.

[Billfish715]

http://ucnj.org/trails-map/photo-pages/9/index.htm
The lake also attracted many,many swimmers. Check out the pictures and the brief history.

[tycomps]

grew up in new providence, lake surprise used to be known for pickerel. wish they had put fountains in and stocked it after the dredging project. fishing was always best at the dam end.

[Eskimo]

Originally Posted by tycomps

grew up in new providence, lake surprise used to be known for pickerel. wish they had put fountains in and stocked it after the dredging project. fishing was always best at the dam end.

Me too. Surprise Lake was an important piece of my childhood fishing.

It's very fertile water that still produces fish despite the extremely high fishing pressure. The bass rarely get a chance to grow very large because many of the 'urban anglers' never release a fish big enough to cut a fillet from.

That being said, I have seen a couple of very old, wise bass swimming around in there in the spring.