Assunpink Creek 7/6

[pacrags]

Went to the creek where it meets 130, and trekked back to the spill way.

Wanted to fish above the spillway, where I had a rather large bass spit my lure back at me a few weeks ago, but the weeds are getting really thick so I climbed down onto the spill way and was surprised to catch a 14" LMB.

[AndyS]

I'd love to see from photos from down that way, I don't get below Rt 78 much, thanx.

[kmofom]

[AndyS]

I guess you can launch canoes and kayaks in there, it looks good.

[pacrags]

when i ever get a kayak I would love to get out above the spill way being tehre are not too many access points from shore, however its at least a 1/4 mile hike to the spillway and you have to get over the earthen dam.

Heres a google map view: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.2345.../data=!3m1!1e3

[Bruce Litton]

In the late 1970's, I fished the flats as Mercer County Lake began to fill. At the time, acres of shallows about two feet deep, and I waded, tossing topwaters, catching largemouths and pickerel. Back in those days, I fished a lot with J.B. Kasper, who I met at Baker's Basin Pond by the canal when I was 14. Since I fished all the time, he too, we started swapping knowledge. He has stories of good catches from Whitehead Pond in Trenton (Assunpink dammed), but by the time I knew him, that was pretty much all over, except for the carp. They used to stock the Assunpink only with brook trout, and some of these ran up the Little Shabakunk (confluence a little way upstream of the canal past the Basin, just below where the LS flows under canal). When I was 10, I fished Little Shabakunk obsessively, catching some of these trout a mile or more upstream of the Assunpink.

[zhitoman]

Is there any carp in Assunpink lake or Mercer lake?

[Bruce Litton]

Originally Posted by zhitoman

Is there any carp in Assunpink lake or Mercer lake?

I would bet there is in Mercer. Someone else might know. I never fished the lake after filling, but saw a dead carp when fishing the flats, so surely...But Assunpink Lake, used to fish that, further back in the creek system, I'm just not sure about carp there and would hope not.

[pacrags]

I caught a 20" carp on a trout magnet, casting to the same spot i caught a trout the prior cast on the other side of 130 from the spillway ... I don't think there are any other barriers in the creek before it feeds into Mercer Lake, so i would assume they are in there too.