Who's Fishing Hopatcong?

[jimmythegreek]

theres no pattern at all to the fish in LH, there are so many variables its ridiculous. Between the boat traffic, the fishing pressure, and the abuncance of bait its a tuff nut to crack for the inexperienced. The draw for me is the predators that lurk, no other lake has every species avail to you in one place, plus the ability to run and gun and find fish, all my trophy fish come outta LH, plus im 5 min away. My advice is try to not overthink it, the fish tend to hang in certain areas, go check them all one by one til you see what you like. I have witnessed a dozen boats on a point a few weeks ago w 2 fish caught all morning, but they were there thick the week before there. Last year I spent 3 weekends in the early fall hammering wipers beyond belief, another member and I went thru dozens of herring on drop and hook fishing, nowhere near any structure or anything, just a large flat. That school sat there for 3 weeks in a row, with no bait nearby or for any reason. The bait runs in school classes, the open water holds the mature larger herring, the edges of deep water gets mix size, and the shallow weed edges hold the juveniles. Thats why theres no herring avail in NJ, they cant place their traps in deeper than 20fow and its not enuff to get the large adults in, the gamefish want a good meal if they are gonna make the effort to eat

[basspilot]

So Jimmy I've been thinking of the same thing. You think every species in LH has no pattern at all? That lake can be tough to fish at times especially with that weird thermocline.

[jimmythegreek]

The fish have 2 basic patterns, seasonal ones I mean. In spring they are mainly nocturnal feeding on spawning herring, thats nothing new and is a guarantee. 2nd is the late fall jig bite, they stick down deep in warmer water and bottom orient, u can have banner days once u find em. Other than that the only pattern I use is the point/main lake pattern, I run and gun and check my usual spots, fish are always around but they are not always the fish I want. I spent my first year trolling this year ALOT more than last, and I only downlined on fish that were worth the effort. I picked up fish in places I never knew would hold them, and all the big ones were 30+ even dead summer, usually suspended. One thing for sure, if its rainy, misty or about to rain and cloudy, the hybrids usually are chomping and will often boil up the herring. Trolling covers lots of water, and allows you to see things you often cruise right by, I found my best schools this year by actually going right over them and having multiple hookups, make a waypoint and go back and get em. Every species has its seasonal patterns, but with so many points, weedlines, and drops in the lake its not a place to think structure too much, think food

[Capt. Lou]

Originally Posted by basspilot

So Jimmy I've been thinking of the same thing. You think every species in LH has no pattern at all? That lake can be tough to fish at times especially with that weird thermocline.

Thermoclines R generally relogated to a summmer lk fishery ,most deep lakes below 50 paralell have thwm to some degree.
In simplest terms its nothing more than a vertical temp band that creates a horizontal band of water @ a particular temp.
Most that fish deep lakes , especially trollers utilize these layers of water to find a species of fish that prefers their particular temp range.
These ranges can bend but do not invert until this time of season. A hvy wind for any prolonged period will bend this water band ,simply push down on windward & push up on lee side.
So establishing temps in the thermo will allow u to follow holding water regardless. Bait generally gets pushed around as well ,so u may find more active fish on the windward lk side after a decent blow or prolonged winds out of a particular directionThis time of season the thermo disspates as cold nigts reduce surface temps. Cold water being heavier than warm now drops to lk depths thus ur warmer water is deeper for winter months & this is why u get ice on surface its colder. For a short while LK might unify top to bottom temp wise , this can be a tough period to zero in and catch consisitently.
Spring the reverse occurs as surface warms & the cycle begins.
So simply put until the Lk stblizes later this month if we have enough cold weather than u can locate fish as they school in deep water haunts .
Sometimes this will not happen until November. They will binge sometimes right before ice in!

[Bruce Litton]

10 'eyes--nice catch, even for four days, in my experience. My brother & nephew are supposed to go out Saturday a.m. If the nephew plays football...I wait until the 26th, at least I hope we go out that Sunday.