Swartswood, Day 2

My wife allowed me to go out a second time last weekend and I headed out late Sunday afternoon.  I started paddling out around 5:00 PM and had most of my action before 7:30.  This time I decided to fish with some medium size minnows on my lindy rigs.  The water temperature was still very high, teetering around 84 degrees.  I went back to my same spot but this time elected to slowly paddle up and down the bank and I tried to stay in about 15 to 20 feet of water.  It didn't take me long and I hooked up with a 22 inch pickerel.  It was an amazing fight and a lot of fun!  He hit my minnow in about 16 feet of water and when he hit it, it felt like a big log at the end of my line.  That is, until he started moving.

It was no more than 20 minutes later and I hooked up with another big fish.  This one was significantly bigger and he just played around with me, letting me pull up from the depths until he got within 5 feet of the kayak.  At which time he would take off and we repeated this dance another five times for over 6 minutes.  I never got to see him, but whatever he was he had some teeth because he bit through my lindy rig liter right above the hook.  I don't believe there are any northerns or musky in Swartswood Lake, so it was either a bigger pickerel or a large walleye.  I want to say it was a bigger pickerel based on how he initially struck my lindy rig and how strong he was when he went on his runs; there was not a lot of head shaking on his side of the line.

Swartswood Results

My first trip out was early Saturday morning and I started paddling out around 4:15 AM.  I left the boat ramp in Swartswood State Park (by the beach) and headed straight out and made a right to fish the rocky drop off.  There is nothing but rocks here and some significant drop-offs along this 200 to 300 yards of coast line.  I exclusively fished a lindy rig worm harness with a a full night crawler.  I found some structure in about 12 foot of water holding fish but did not get any bites until the sun came up.  When the sun did come up, all I was catching was giant sunfish.  I began drifting in 15 foot of water and covering more ground, but I was militant in my effort and around 9:30 I finally landed my first walleye in the State of New Jersey.

He was 16 inches, a nice catch but too small by New Jersey State regulations, so I let him go for another day.  It has been a long time since I felt this satisfied in catching a fish, these walleye are really elusive.

Plotting Out Swartswood Lake

This week I am heading to Swartswood Lake.  I have heard it is the #1 walleye lake in the area.  I got my 13' Wilderness all decked out, I have my Eagle 360c depth finder and I have my Lindy Rigger Extreme all prepared.  I found the following map of Swartswood Lake at New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife. My plan is to launch by 5:00 and attack the area labed "RO" just up lake of the State Park's swimming beach on the East side of the lake.  If I am having no luck there and I am seeing nothing on the depth finder, I'll paddle over to the jetty at Nelden's Brook, although I suspect this would be a much better spot in early spring and pre-spawn.

I am also very thankful for my father and step-mother who are always so good to me on my birthday.  This year they got a full outfit of lindy rigs and a Lindy Rigger extreme.  They obviously know what they are doing as they live in South Dakota and both being retired, fish 4 days out of the week.

The Fishing Kayak

I purchased my kayak last fall and really have made minimal enhancements.  The only thing I have added is the control box to store my motorcycle battery and attach my Eagle 360c fish finder to the lid of the control box.  The box is nothing more than a gray utility box you can buy at Home Depot.  I painted mine black.  I also attached two strips of velcro to the kayak and bottom of the control box so the control box is both detachable and secure.  I also got a Scotty arm extender so I can put the transducer down when I would like or put it up if I am padeling through some thick lily pads.

Got my Big'un at Silver Lake

Had another great day at Silver Lake.  Fished exclusively with my 8-inch power worm on a Texas Rig.  I caught 3 largemouth and 2 perch, the biggest was an 18-inch, 2 3/4 pound largemouth, photo taken below with my daughter Dagney.

I have definitely found at least 3 spots I really like at Silver Lake.  One of the spots has yielded me the above 18 inch largemouth and two smaller ones..  I also think Silver Lake has a nice population of perch and I will have to return at some point to catch me a few of these fine eating fish.  The first perch I caught today was pretty impressive, but I had doubts I would catch another perch and released him.  Moments later I caught another and decided to start keeping them.  I was impressed the perch would go after my 8-inch worm.