Northern NJ Catfishing from the Banks

[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 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.

[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?

[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.

[MudCat08]

Try out Spruce Run Reservoir in the summer months. should be starting up soon with the herring spawn, and will be best after all the catfish finished spawning.

Good baits there are simple chicken livers and nitecrawlers. Go at night anytime from 8pm until 3am or even later.

Spruce is a good spot to catch a catfish for the table, much cleaner than Ramapo, Passaic, or Hackensack rivers (which all also hold catfish).

I'd use the same setup you've been using, good luck out there, and post some photos once you start hooking them!

[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

[SaltLife1980]

Hot dogs have caught me some real nice cat fish in budd lake last year. We were BBQin at my friends house right across from the lake and had a few extra so used em and they produced

[AirborneNick94]

Originally Posted by 23cardinal

Always cleaned up with a bottom rig, catfish nuggets or liver. Try the boat launch up in lake muscenetcong. And if u don't catch there u could try the Passaic junction by two bridges road in Wayne/llincoln park

Just took a ride over to two bridges to scope it out, within two minutes saw what looked like a monster cat skulking around under the bridge, definitly going to try and hit it tomorrow night. Thanks again for the tip!

[JDTuna]

I like live or cut bait.

[23cardinal]

Originally Posted by AirborneNick94

Just took a ride over to two bridges to scope it out, within two minutes saw what looked like a monster cat skulking around under the bridge, definitly going to try and hit it tomorrow night. Thanks again for the tip!

Bring something top water. Mighta been a pike. Any time

Thank you for your service and tight lines