Northern NJ Catfishing from the Banks

[River Renegade]

Round valley, spruce run, Monksville reservoir all got kitties in there.

[AirborneNick94]

Originally Posted by River Renegade

Round valley, spruce run, Monksville reservoir all got kitties in there.

Thanks! I've been told monksville can be good but it's also very hit or miss.

[River Renegade]

Originally Posted by AirborneNick94

Thanks! I've been told monksville can be good but it's also very hit or miss.

You're welcome anytime. If you're ever in the monks area give it a try you never know!

[briansnat]

I think you will be hard pressed to find a lake or river in NJ without a healthy population of catfish. In addition to the previously mentioned spots, also consider Scarlet Oak Pond in Mahwah, Verona Park Lake in Verona (go figure, what are the chances of that?), Pompton/Potash Lakes, Pompton River, Barbours Pond (Woodland Park), Green Turtle Pond in Hewitt, Furnace Lake in Oxford. If you are planning on keeping a few for the table, you will need to pay a little more attention to where you catch them. I don't think I'd eat anything out of the Passaic, unless it was caught well upstream.

I've had good luck with chicken livers (if I can get them to stay on the hook), night crawlers and have done really well with hot dogs of all things. Always use Kosher dogs because you don't want to lose out on a giant channel cat because it was the wrong religion.

[NJSquatch]

Originally Posted by briansnat

I've had good luck with chicken livers (if I can get them to stay on the hook), night crawlers and have done really well with hot dogs of all things. Always use Kosher dogs because you don't want to lose out on a giant channel cat because it was the wrong religion.

X2 on the hot dogs. They always get me bites

[Eskimo]

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From the garbage I see on the shoreline, I would guess chicken livers are the most popular bait.

Anecdotally, I think catfishing has been slow this past spring. I usually catch Channel catfish as by-catch when I'm bass fishing in lakes where catfish are stocked, but I've hardly caught any so far this year.

Perhaps the water is still cool and the fishing will pick up as the summer progresses.


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[AirborneNick94]

Originally Posted by Eskimo

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From the garbage I see on the shoreline, I would guess chicken livers are the most popular bait.

Anecdotally, I think catfishing has been slow this past spring. I usually catch Channel catfish as by-catch when I'm bass fishing in lakes where catfish are stocked, but I've hardly caught any so far this year.

Perhaps the water is still cool and the fishing will pick up as the summer progresses.


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I always pack my garbage out with me. And yeah, maybe it's the weather up here, we were killing them in multiple lakes in NC a few weeks ago and the weather was warmer there.

[AirborneNick94]

Originally Posted by NJSquatch

X2 on the hot dogs. They always get me bites

I've never tried dogs, I'll give em a shot. How big of a piece do you usually go with?

[NJSquatch]

Originally Posted by AirborneNick94

I've never tried dogs, I'll give em a shot. How big of a piece do you usually go with?

i usually go no bigger than a half inch but obviously match to your hook size.

also try throwing out a chum pot full of stinky stuff

[AirborneNick94]

Originally Posted by briansnat

I think you will be hard pressed to find a lake or river in NJ without a healthy population of catfish. In addition to the previously mentioned spots, also consider Scarlet Oak Pond in Mahwah, Verona Park Lake in Verona (go figure, what are the chances of that?), Pompton/Potash Lakes, Pompton River, Barbours Pond (Woodland Park), Green Turtle Pond in Hewitt, Furnace Lake in Oxford. If you are planning on keeping a few for the table, you will need to pay a little more attention to where you catch them. I don't think I'd eat anything out of the Passaic, unless it was caught well upstream.

I've had good luck with chicken livers (if I can get them to stay on the hook), night crawlers and have done really well with hot dogs of all things. Always use Kosher dogs because you don't want to lose out on a giant channel cat because it was the wrong religion.

Thanks! I'll check some of those out. I've actually hit Barbours twice already and had no luck at all.