Silver Lake was Good to Daddy on Father's Day

air temperature 65 degrees
water temperature 71 degrees
Fishing with a floating broken rapala and a 6 inch power worm on a Texas Rig.

I hit Silver Lake early with one of my fishing buddies Ty, who is a volunteer firefighter for Sussex Township.  It was an overcast morning that never warmed up.  We thought we were going to get rained on once or twice and the lake temperature was warmer than the air temperature.

I threw the Rapala for about 4 casts and still got some weeds.  I switched poles and on my second cast I got young largemouth.  There would be no putting the Texas rig down at this point.  Overall, the lake had a lot of vegetation and a lot of rocks.  My Eagle 360c depth finder was picking up a fairly rocky\sandy bottom as well as some big rocks in 6 to 9 feet of water.  Silver Lake never got any deeper than 10 feet but she was beautiful!  Although section (D) was very overgrown with small lily pads, I caught my second bass in section (D)!

I worked my way back to the other side and Section (C) was as sweet as I thought it would be.  In section (C) there is a rock about 15 feet from shore where there is another rock; this little bit of structure will most likely produce a fish every time, it really is that nice of a spot.

Ty finally hooked up a pickerel as we were heading back in and he gave the fish a nice sportsman release, although he did get his hands on it.  By the end of the day, all three of my largemouth bass were about the same size and there were two strikes that I missed.  I am sure there are some 5-pounders in Silver Lake, but I'll have to come back for them on another day.  However, I may have to bring a new worm as today's worm got beaten up.

Heading out on Silver Lake

I strongly believe on fishing day, the longer the line is in the water, more fish will be caught.  So to cut down on the time it takes me to change baits, I hit the water with two poles; each with a distinct setup and I will rarely vary from either two as I prefer to be casting instead of tying.

The floating broken Rapala (left)

From viewing the google map of Silver Lake, I suspect the lake will have lots of weeds. The floating broken rapala will  allow me to fish the surface, avoid most of the weeds and provide me with the best opportunity to cover as much of the new lake as possible.

The 6 inch power worm on a Texas rig (right)

Bar none, my favorite and most effective lure in my arsenal.  There is no circumstance in which I will throw this with no confidence.  I expected to find lots of big rocks and natural structure on Silver Lake and when I did, I want a setup that will kill it.

Planning Silver Lake

One of the advantages of having a kayak is I can get to some hard to reach places, which means I can fish lakes that receive little fishing pressure.  This week I am going after a small local lake (large pond?) called Silver Lake and there is no topography map available for Silver Lake.  However, given the technology available to us today, I was able to take this photo using Google maps.  Although it does not tell me what a good topography map would tell me, it still tells me quite a bit.

First, I can still see the whole lake.  I can see where the kayak launch is (A) and the small damn (B).  What I can also see from this image is where the vegetation is growing in the middle of the lake and more importantly, where it is not.  I can assume where the vegetation is not growing the water is a little deeper.  But overall, it would appear to be a very shallow lake.  Because the lake is so small, I am sure I will be able to fish the entire lake on Sunday morning, but I highlighted two areas that may be the most interesting to me.  (D) Would appear to have the most structure with some deeper water (no vegetation) right off the structure. (C) Has an upside down 'U' of vegetation that may be some underwater rocks which looks appealing.  But (C) also has a big rock away from the shore line which I will certainly give some extra attention.

I hope to arm myself with two weapons.  I am going to use a floating broken rapala (which has been a family favorite for 30 years) so I can cover lots of water surface quickly while avoiding what could be an abundance of underwater vegetation.  I will set up my second pole with what is now my favorite setup, a 7" plastic worm in a Texas rig.  This will allow me to fish specific targets such as an underwater rocks or submerged trees.

Thoughts?

Monksville Recap

June 10th, 2012

blue skies, 80 degrees
Water Temperature 72.5 degrees
used medium sized flatheads

My alarm went off at 4:00 AM and I must really love fishing because I pulled myself out of bed to head to the Monksville Reservoir.  On a recommendation, I checked out Frank's Tackle in Wanaque, NJ.  Frank's Tackle was clean, well stocked and organized ... a real nice tackle shop.  The gentlemen who came in the morning gave me a gloomy forecast for catching walleye in Monksville.  He recommended Greenwood Lake as a better prospect for catching walleye.  Nonetheless,  I headed out for Monksville and got my kayak in the water by t 6:00 AM.  It was beautiful ... and deep from the South Boat launch!  

I first headed towards target area (A), but I ended up on the on the other side of the rounded point (slightly uplake from target area (A).  It was a nice solid bottom and I found some structure in 7 and 14 foot of water.  I bounced the bottom with a lindy rig and a flathead minnow and had a hookup right away.  The fish (did not get a good visual) jumped out of the water and shook the hook out.  I changed back to a bobber and minnow and eventually drifted to the other side of the rounded point and into target area (A).  There were more weeds and vegetation in target area (A), but there were so many big and medium size rocks, that I definitely want to come back here again.  I got halfway past the rounded point in the direction of the inlet when I hooked up this giant 6 pound rock bass!  It was actually much, much smaller but my bodaciously awesome photography skillz made it look so much bigger!

As I went into the inlet, I kept seeing these large abandoned spawning nest up on the shore.  I tried to take a   picture (below), but they are hard to see in the the top of the photograph.  They look like giant dark circles.  They were not abandoned that long ago.  The day was getting slow and I only had about 5 minnows left, so I wanted to check out target area (B) just for a bit.

Area (B) would be an ideal walleye location.  The drop off is significant from shore and having viewed the slope above the shoreline led me to believe there were lots more rocks below the shore line. Immediately, my Eagle 360c fish finder told me there were a school of fish hugging the bottom around 25 feet.  I think these could have been walleye so I setup up my second rod with a lindy rig (again).  It didn't take me long to get snagged on the bottom and it took even less time for me to break my pole.  Let me be honest, this was only a $20.00 pole from Wal-Mart, so I was not surprised.  I decided to fish the shoreline again and saw a couple of low-cut tree stumps.  It did not take me long to realize those trees were chopped down and the rest of the trees were the structure I was seeing at 25 feet of water ... and most likely what I was getting snagged on.  I did catch another rock bass, but then called it a day at 10:30.

Planning Monksville Reservoir

This Sunday morning I am going to head out to Monksville Reservoir to see if I can catch my old nemesis, the walleye. 

I brooded over the topography map during the week and eventually decided my top target area will be (A). I feel the accessibility to the deep water as well as the shallow area will serve me well.  My second priority will be (B).  Based on the topography map, it would appear it is a steep shore line with possible a possible rocky drop.  Again, this location is accessible to deep water.  When I first looked at the map, I thought the hill would be (C) my first target.  But the more I think about it, I now believe 30 feet will be too deep to hold any sort of bait fish for the walleye.  But I'll check it out anyway for no other reason to test out my depth finder.


Any thoughts?

Lake Aeroflex

June 3rd, 2012
blue skies, 80 degrees
Water Temperature 72 degrees
used medium sized flatheads (these were much bigger than I expected)

This was my first fishing trip in New Jersey and my first fishing trip with my new kayak, a 13 foot wilderness sit-on fishing kayak.  I was super excited to try Lake Aeroflex with having just set up my new Eagle 360c Fish Finder and a side mount for my transducer. 

My first objective was to find the saddle running across the middle of the Lake Aeroflex and fish it.  For those of you not familiar with the lake, the lake has a gradual drop to about 40 feet when leaving the boat ramp.  The lake then slops back up to about 3 to 5 feet of water (for about 10 yards) before dropping off to 90 feet of water.  For those without a depth finder, it is apparent where the saddle is because you can visibly see the bottom at times and there is quite a bit of weed growth coming up from the bottom.  I first fished the weed line in about 10 feet of water and then when into the weeds.  I fished in the direction of the Northeast shore first.  I didn't catch anything nor did I see much activity on my Eagle 360c.

My second objective was to fish the 'old house' on the Northeast shore.  There are some old concrete steps coming down from the 'old house' as well as a concrete platform.  There is an immediate drop off from shore, possibly 30 to 40 feet straight down.  Heading north and immediately after the concrete steps (on shore) the bottom rose up to about 25 feet and there was a big school of fish towards to the bottom.  I tried fishing off the bottom but never caught anything.

My third objective was to paddle the full length of the saddle and then fish the southwest shoreline.  I hardly saw any arches on my Eagle 360c covering the saddle, much to my surprise.  The biggest influence in deciding to fish the Northwest shoreline was wind, which is a big force in a kayak.  The southwest shoreline still has a dramatic drop but not as dramatic as the Northeast shoreline.  I was in about 20 to 25 feet of water casting to the shoreline.  I had my only strike under an overhanging tree and it was a good one.  My first reaction upon setting the hook was, "I might have too much fish for my boat".  Whatever it was, it gave me a good, strong, deep first run.  I eventually got him towards the surface and it most definitely was a good size largemouth bass.  He made another deep run and this time the drag started letting out line.  Another much larger boat began to creep in behind me and my first thought was "They probably think I have too much fish for my boat."  After the largemouth tired a bit more, I got a better glimpse of the fish as he rested near the surface and looked me in the eye.  I guess the fish must have been about 16 or 18 inches.  He made one final run and wouldn't you know it, the hook came out of his mouth.  I really could have used a net this day, so I will have to figure out where I am going to store a net on my kayak.

I continue to fish the southwest shoreline, heading in the eastern direction (away from the saddle and boat ramp) but I had no more bites.