Ramapo River Report 9/21/16

[MudCat08]

Went to the Ramapo today in search of smallmouths at around 6pm until it got dark at 7pm.
Would have liked to get there earlier but the bite was still very good right up until dark.
Got 6 smallmouths, one largemouth, one sunfish and two rock bass. I didnt even know rock bass were in the ramapo. One of them was a solid 9.5" fish; photo below.
All fish caught on curly tail grub in a natural color. Didnt even have time to try on different colors - they were biting well enough on what i had on.
Was really fun.

[icebadger]

really nice rocky, they love grubs. sounds like a nice mixed bag.

[23cardinal]

Nice day! I didn't know Ramapo had any bass either-of any kind. Only gone for trout- and this is right up the street!
Without blowing out ur spot- any advice on where to look?

[MudCat08]

When i try to find smallmouth there, I look for sections of the river with gravel and rock bottoms, especially areas around and under bridges.
You can find bass around the large highway bridges that cross the ramapo river.

Most of the bass i find are small 10-12" guys but further up river in the new york area i have found bigger fish from 15-16" around 2lbs.

[23cardinal]

Originally Posted by MudCat08

When i try to find smallmouth there, I look for sections of the river with gravel and rock bottoms, especially areas around and under bridges.
You can find bass around the large highway bridges that cross the ramapo river.

Most of the bass i find are small 10-12" guys but further up river in the new york area i have found bigger fish from 15-16" around 2lbs.

Plenty good for me- never did much small mouth fishing - time to learn- I have a backup "heavy" trout rod with 8braid I've been toying with going on them for. I like the river fishing as a change- lots of larrys this summer
Ty- sAw u posted this on a different thread I didn't get to till now and felt dumb for asking-

[Fred E. Goose]

I hear good things about it around Davis Sport Shop Was thinking about hitting it NY side on their free fishing day, but wound up down 7 lakes road checking out the lakes and deer. Anyone know if you need a NY license on the Ramapo around there, or is it considered border water where you can get away with just a NJ license?

[ScowardNJ]

Drop a senko in any pool on the Ramapo and you will find the smallies real quick. Switch to a spinner and yellow/white perch and fallfish will add to the action.

[MudCat08]

I would have a NY license to fish the NY side of the ramapo.

I usually use an ultralight setup when i go to the river 5ft ultralight rod with a tiny reel and 4lb mono. Those smallies fight so much! They jump all over the place too sometimes up to 2-3feet high.

I've been to the 7 Lakes area too. That bridge right on 7 lakes road that crosses the ramapo river marks some good area on the river for yellow perch. tons of them there.

There are some nice fallfish in that river! Never seen a white perch though.

[briansnat]

I've caught many dink smallies while trout fishing on the Po, but nothing over maybe 6" to 8". The river gets hit hard in the usual places in the spring and fall and I'm sure any decent sized smallies are taken by the bucket brigade.

I did a float trip on the Po a few years ago but it was purely recreational paddling, I didn't have my fishing gear with me, but I did notice many "bassy" looking spots that are out of the reach of waders and shore anglers and swore that I would float it again with my fishing gear, but have yet to do so.

Come summer I'm sure that as the trout fishing pressure ends, the bass may be better spread out in the river, but I have yet to try it.

[jventimi]

I hit the Ramapo pretty frequently because I'm in Eastern Bergen County. Smallies in all sorts of places but like briansat said, nothing above the 6-8" range. Seems like they all will go for a wooly bugger size 8, mosquito pattern, rapalas, mr. twister, all kinds of junk. I was wading upstream a couple of weeks ago with my rod tip down in the water; sure enough a smallie took the bugger. Thought I got hooked on something and one of those tenacious little smallies inhaled it.