Lake Mohawk - Sleepy Lagoon Shore Fishing Secrets

The word around the Lake (Mohawk) is the best fishing is in the southwestern end of the lake.  Since I have yet to register my kayak with the community yet, I have been reduced to shore fishing, so I have been doing a lot of fishing from Sleepy Lagoon, aka Beach #7.  It offers a nice "T" shaped dock as well as two pieces of shoreline.  On the left shoreline, there are some rocks off shore, two are visible above water. Here is the my recipe for success at Sleepy Lagoon.

Lure

I love the 4-inch watermelon\black fleck senko, rigged wacky-style with a size 1 hook.  For whatever reason, I have found an incredible amount of success withe lure.  And given the setup, it has cost me a lot of money as well.  One thing I have started to do is rig up the wacky-rig with a small black plastic O-ring.

Location #1

There is a drainage pipe exiting the small Lagoon and entering the Lake Mohawk.  About 4 to 10 feet out from this drainage pipe always yields a strike for me.  One tip to being successful here is not to to walk straight up to the water and start casting.  Try casting a good 4 to 5 feet behind the shoreline; you want to make sure the bass cannot see you!

Location #2

If you are standing on shore and facing the dock, there are two rocks jetting up above the surface to your left, which will usually hold a turtle or two sun-bathing.  Going in the direction further out into the lake, there are multiple other rocks, however submerged below the surface of the water.  After 3:00, if you walk along the shore of Beach #7 to the left and look back at the visible rocks, with the help of the sun, you will see these other submerged rocks.  Casting out in the direction of these submerged rocks always yield a strike, although I have never caught anything of significant size from here.

Location #3

The actual small lagoon.  Yes, there are bass in there and some may even be a pound or two.  I know, I have caught about 20 from the primary lake and released them in the lagoon.  At times you can sight fish for them here, or just try dropping the wacky-rig off the side of the floating yellow slide.  Be warned, the majority of the fish in this lagoon have already been caught by a 4-inch watermelon wacky-rig worm once, so don't be afraid to try something different here.

Location #4

If you walk out to the end of the "T" dock, make a right and walk to the end of the of the "T", try casting across the water to the opposite boat house.  This location yields (on average) the biggest fish of the three spots.  

1 pound, 4 ounce largemouth from Location #4 yesterday.

Location #?

There is one more location that consistently yields big bass, but I am going to leave this one a mystery.  I mean, it's not really fishing if you are not actively looking for better fishing holes, right?

I have had amazing success at Sleepy Lagoon so far this year.  I realized how successful I was last night, while sitting on my wife's computer, I could not help notice my thumb.  My thumb had developed a very rough and callous texture from lipping so many bass this week.

New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife - Walleye Stocking Program

For those of you who are just as interested in New Jersey Walleye as I, here is the stocking program over the past 5 years for the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife Page.

Walleye Stocking Program

The Bell - Gives up a 2-Pound Walleye

As I have searched the Delaware for walleye, I may have found my favorite walleye fishing hole.  The spot is just north of the Milford, PA bridge where a creek enters the Delaware.  There, I found a nice 25 foot hole in some backwater and hit the bottom with a lindy-rig, baited with a nightcrawler.  This hole has no significant landmarks (unlike Dingman's Bridge or the Milford Bridge) and the bend in the river is a long, bending arc; I thought it resembled the bottom of a large bell...and thus decided to name it "The Bell".

 The creek entering the Delaware River, now know as "The Bell"

I departed Saturday morning before sunrise and pushed off from shore about 6:30 AM.  I was armed with  a 3/8 once weighted bottom bouncer and a fire-tiger Colorado spoon Lindy rig...rigged up with a large nightcrawler.  I paddled the kayak around the mouth of the creek and there was a significant drop from 6 feet to 12 feet just downriver of the creek that was holding lots of fish and lots of big fish!  The current was a bit more swift, as my paddling did not result in much upriver headway.  Given the feedback of my fish finder, I was going to give this little spot a go.  After about three drifts over this spot (fish finder lighting up like a pinball machine each time), I got zero hook-ups.  That is the funny thing about a depth finder (fish finder), it tells you if fish are down there, but not what kind of fish they are.  Those big fish could have been carp, catfish, musky or God knows what else, so I moved on.  I paddled up-river along The Bell and eventually found a nice 20 to 25 foot hole.  Not shortly after, in about 16 feet of water, I got a hook-up!  I immediately know it was a walleye as the fish at the end of my line was holding steady to his position and shaking it's head - instead of going on a typical epic smallmouth run.  As I got him closer to the boat and off the bottom, he made a small run and took some line off.  My hopes were high for a possible 5-pounder!  I decided to let him fight a little more before bringing him next to the kayak and try the balancing act of holding a pole and a net within the confines of my kayak.  I saw a couple of nice flashes under the surface and my heart may have skipped a beat.  I pulled out the net, brought the walleye towards the kayak and scooped him! As I did, I saw him open his mouth to show his rows of teeth ... as he barely fit into my net.  My immediate thought was, 'this was a big fish'.  

I put the walleye on the stringer and chose not to measure him, thinking he easily cleared the 18 inch minimum. However, when I got to shore and measured him, I was shocked to see he was only 19.5 inches. After my initial thoughts of some disappointment, my next thought was, 'I may need a bigger net' when I come back to this spot!  

Two of my daughters (Dagney and Lillian) holding the fish.

My favorite photo technique, asking my 6-year old daughter to put her hand on the cutting board for perspective.  Almost looks 30 inches now, heh?

Andrew Martinsen's Top 10 Tips for Fishing for Walleye in the Delaware River

Andrew Martinsen's Top 10 Tips for Fishing for Walleye in the Delaware River

I cannot say I have had a lot of success for fishing for Walleye in the Delaware River, but this would be my personal tips for fishing for walleye in the Delaware.

1. Look for deeper water, away from the current.  Ideally, the backwater area needs a hole of about 20 feet or more.  However, I find the magical depth to be around 16 feet of water near the hole and little to no current.  Dingmans Bridge and the Milford Bridge pop to mind as good locations to fish for walleye.

2. Look for rocky or sandy bottoms, preferably near a tributary which is bringing in fresh water.

3. Down rig with a Lindy Rig or Little Joe worm harness.  Maybe I am in the minority, but I like the ones with two floats and a spinner.  I find the two floats keep the worm about 12 to 16 inches off the bottom.

4. Chartreuse and orange are popular colors; however my preference is the fire tiger color for spoons.

5. Fish slow.  If you think you are going to fast, you probably are.

6. Fish the early morning or late evening.  Apparently night time fishing is optimal, but I have had plenty of luck during the morning and twilight.