Taking the Electric Kayak on to Swartswood

Friday, I finally took my electric kayak out on Swartswood Lake, looking for walleye.  I still have some kinks I have to work out with my electric kayak, as she would not run once I got her to the boat launch.  After some tweaking (loose connection inside my plastic tube), I finally got out on the water, and it was nice.  She shot through the water like a torpedo and while heading across the lake, I could sit back, relax and set up my lines.  I cannot tell you what a convenience an electric kayak is.

Once I started fishing, I found the West side of Swartswood just booming with structure.  There is a point on the west side in which it gets very shallow, with a pair of rocks jetting up about 40 yards off shore and a weed line.  As trolled my down-rigger down the drop off, that is where I caught my 16 3/4 inch smallie below.

I ended up on the south side of the lake around 8:30 and decided to head home, north, across the open part of the lake and into the wind.  This is where it got a little hairy for me.  With my 12-volt deep cell battery in the bow of my boat, the nose still cut through the wake, but the water would splash into my kayak.   With so much additional weight in the kayak (battery, trolling motor and myself), I did not dare pull the the scupper plug.  Again, having a trolling motor and being hands free, I was able to bail water on the trip home.

Pretty sure the next time I will finally catch that elusive walleye.

November Walleye Fishing on the Delaware

November 16^th, 2013

Water Temperature was 41.5 to 42 degrees

Water Clarity was 16 feet

I hit the Delaware River Saturday (2013-11-16) evening from 3:30 PM to about 7:00 PM.  There really is something beautiful about the Delaware River in the fall; the fall foliage, the low seasonal gage level of the river and the clarity at which her water flows.  In 16 feet of water, I could see my jig bouncing off the bottom; hopping and skipping over the dark colored shale.

One of the more challenging aspects of fishing in November is trying to figure out the walleye pattern for the fall turnover.  The old adage is true, I am here to say, “What works in the summer, does not work in the fall.”  For late summer, my go to tactic is the bottom bouncer with a fire-tiger Colorado spoon and a worm harness.  I struck out in late September.  This weekend I was going to try something new; an orange & yellow 3/8 once jig tipped with a shiner.

It was a slow evening.  The walleye would not cooperate.  I did get a hookup after dusk though and there was no doubt it was a walleye.  The light hit, the constant head shaking and the slow rise from the depth of the river.  Call it intuition, call it experience, but during the retrieve I never felt like I really got a good hook-set.  Sure enough, before I saw the fish at the surface, he spit the bit.  I don’t think it was a big fish and most likely was under 18 inches, but it sure would have been nice to see him.

In the end, a bad day fishing beats a good day of work.

Delaware River Was High and Muddy

I was entertaining guest this weekend, so I could only get out for a few hours on Sunday.  The fall afternoon was wonderful and I was hoping to snag some smallies on a 4-inch wacky rig.  I fished from about 2:00 to 3:30 and didn't even get a bite.  The water was high and muddy and the there were lots of leafs in the water. The Gage Height at Port Jervis, NY was about 5.3 feet.

I did get to try my neoprene waiters and they are a great addition to my arsenal of fishing.    I got a pair of Field and Stream (with no boot) waders and some accessory boots which go on over top the wader socks.  I figured I could still use the accessory boots in the Summer without wearing the waders.  There are some locations I fish on the Delaware that are just sooo rocky and potentially dangerous.  But even in the winter, these waders should keep me warm in the winter months, should I choose to fish the winter months.

I hear a lot groaning and moaning when the Delaware is high and dirty and my voice can now be added to the list.  I am still hoping for a few more good weekends to catch some more walleyes, as I think the bite will be good up to late November.

Fall Smallmouth Fishing on the Delaware

This is what Fall smallmouth fishing is all about on the Delaware river!  I found a lot of success Friday evening as well as Sunday morning, both times throwing a dark natural color (watermelon or pumpkin seed) 4 inch senko, rigged wacky style.  I search out fast moving current, preferably in the 4+ feet of water range and throw the wacky rig straight out (not up current), or maybe 10 degrees up current and just let it drift down river.  I caught 7 smallies south of Dingmans Bridge Friday evening, but none of them were larger than 13 inches.  The Delaware current seemed much weaker on Sunday morning when I went out, so I headed north of Dingmans Bridge searching out some faster current.  I caught another 6 smallies, 3 of which were about 13-inches or bigger (pictured below).  

Delaware River Update:

Friday Evening - Water was clear and low, current was moderate (for late Summer, early Fall).  The green algae which has been a bother for the past few weeks has resided at Dingmans Bridge.  I received little if no algae on my cast..

Sunday Morning - Water was clear and extremely low.  Current was exceptionally weak.  Could not fish my wacky rig South of the Bridge as there was not enough current (relatively speaking of course for the Delaware River).  Went north of the bridge and found a big rock in the middle of the river to anchor the kayak (with my feet, not a real anchor).  The smallmouth bite did not really start until late Morning (10:00 AM) when the sun finally broke.

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.

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.