Indian Lake Little Ferry Report 5/19/19 - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

BergenBassin · #1 05-20-2019, 07:27 PM

Went out to Indian Lake Yesterday down in Little Ferry near RT 46. Was using a Texas rig senko Watermelon Red Flake on a 12 lb baitcaster I picked up from Dicks Sporting Goods, stayed for about 3 hours. Absolutely skunked, a father was fishing with his kids and informed me they stocked it with Trout earlier in the spring but last October there was a really bad fish kill that pretty much wiped out the pond, he said there was dead panfish and Bass/Carp on the entire shoreline. That Really sucks and it makes sense considering I didn't see no sunnies and bass near the shore like I did years ago, I really hope the NJDFW restock this lake as I fished here during my college days and always caught some LMBs, is there anyway to contact them about restocking places that had fish kills?

Also I am new to this online forum

I hope to share my outings with you all soon!

icebadger · #2 05-21-2019, 12:18 AM

welcome to the madness this is a great cite with a bunch of cool peps. if the FGAW were aware of the fish kill they might have to check the water to see what might have caused the fish kill before they re-stock the place.

BergenBassin · #3 05-21-2019, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by icebadger

welcome to the madness this is a great cite with a bunch of cool peps. if the FGAW were aware of the fish kill they might have to check the water to see what might have caused the fish kill before they re-stock the place.

Fish and Wildlife know about the fish kill apparently as it was noted in one of the field reports of 2018. Low Oxygen apparently was the culprit and over 200 dead fish were accounted for, biologists were on the scene taking samples.

logs22 · #4 05-21-2019, 03:54 PM

That fish kill last fall completely wiped out that pond/lake. I work nearby and would fish there during my lunch break. Last spring during spawn you could see tons of good size bass on the beds and I caught a number of fish in the 2.5-3.5 lb range. Then one day all the fish were gone. I was actually shocked to learn that they stocked the pond this year. I was just there a few days ago and the pond is still devoid of vegetation and baitfish. The only signs of life I saw were a few snapping turtles. Pretty sad, I believe just last summer I posted on this board about the robust fishery at Indian lake. Will now take years for it to be worth fishing. Hopefully once they determine the water can sustain bass they will stock it with some warm water fish.

BergenBassin · #5 05-22-2019, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by logs22

That fish kill last fall completely wiped out that pond/lake. I work nearby and would fish there during my lunch break. Last spring during spawn you could see tons of good size bass on the beds and I caught a number of fish in the 2.5-3.5 lb range. Then one day all the fish were gone. I was actually shocked to learn that they stocked the pond this year. I was just there a few days ago and the pond is still devoid of vegetation and baitfish. The only signs of life I saw were a few snapping turtles. Pretty sad, I believe just last summer I posted on this board about the robust fishery at Indian lake. Will now take years for it to be worth fishing. Hopefully once they determine the water can sustain bass they will stock it with some warm water fish.

It's a damn shame, but the Trout bite wasn't bad this year, once they turned on the fountains and the water cleared up stuff like power bait and spinners worked well, caught a nice rainbow there earlier this month on a white roostertail near the dock, also those darn cormorants got a lot of em. In the annual freshwater report they (Fish and Wildlife) concluded the pond fish kill was the result of lake turnover and low oxygen. But what amazes me is that trout were stocked and caught. Indian Lake wasn't actually a bad pond for bass, you would be able to get a few with some texas rigs and senkos. If I had the Big Bucks I'd hire a company to stock that place with all the old fish species again.

No river dwellers though like Carp and Eels just straight up bass and panfish. The Fishing would be amazing again ya know?

steve392 · #6 08-01-2019, 04:25 PM

Didn't realize there was a kill off. I remember that week in the fall, it just stunk like dead fish. Never realized it was the entire lake.
Is there anything that can be done to try and repopulate the lake with carp, catfish, eels? I've been at the lake several times this year with my son and there is nothing swimming. The seaweed is the worse its been in years. The bottom around the dock has what looks almost like pine tree's growing from the ground under the water.

AndyS · #7 08-01-2019, 08:09 PM

Try to hit up the county Federated Sportmans meeting and e mail F&G. This is the chain of command we need to use to get things done, even if it is slow to happen.

https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/contactform.htm

steve392 · #8 08-09-2019, 05:55 PM

Email sent. It's getting so much worse, the planlife in the water that is. I've never seen so much whatever it is growing from the lake bottom all around the dock. You used to be able to see all the sunny/blue gill fish nests along the waters edge. Now it's just green sludge and plant growth. Hell even the lilly pads that used to be along the shoreline are all gone.

BergenBassin · #9 08-13-2019, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve392

Email sent. It's getting so much worse, the planlife in the water that is. I've never seen so much whatever it is growing from the lake bottom all around the dock. You used to be able to see all the sunny/blue gill fish nests along the waters edge. Now it's just green sludge and plant growth. Hell even the lilly pads that used to be along the shoreline are all gone.

The lilly pads were gone way before the fish kill. Used to get bass under them. There's also a shopping cart underwater by the dock. Was there a few weeks ago. There's a few bluegill on beds and swimming around but all of the carp/bass and cats are definitely dead and gone. The state needs to come in and drudge it to fix the plants and restock it with the native fish species, more bass this time since it was becoming an offshoot of the hackensack river before the fish kill. If I want to catch crabs and eel I can go behind the shoprite or pepboys in hackensack.

steve392 · #10 08-14-2019, 07:16 PM

I know the lilly pads have been gone for a while. I raised the issue with the lake quality years ago. I've sent complaints about the shopping cart along the dock along with all the traffic cones in the lake near the dock and along lakeview ave. It took over a month for them to remove that tree that collapsed into the lake from the pathway.

Who else can be contacted to try and get things moving in the right direction?