4th Quarter Turn Around Nets 4 Smallmouth

Sunday I got to go fishing and being October, I was 100% focused on walleye.  I arrived at the Delaware River abotu 6:41, about 30 minutes before sunrise.  I was able to soak in the brisk morning air and appreciate the beauty of the river.  Being October, my hopes were high!  I found a couple spots that seemed to hold schools of fish towards the bottom; one at 22 feet and another at 28 feet.  I fished the entire length of the backwater with my Little Joe Fire-Tiger worm harness and did not catch anything.  I probably fished for the walleye for 150 minutes.  

I was trolling back to shore when I decided, "Well, since I am here, I should try and fish the other side for smallmouth."  My back-up pole was already outfitted for the senko, so I beached the kayak and made a cast.   I was probably a good 15 to 25 feet upriver from an inlet hooked a 12-inch smallmouth on my first cast.  I walked down the entire shoreline without another bite. Again, I was contemplating releasing my 12-inch smallmouth and heading home.  I made a second cast into the same area upriver of the inlet and hooked up with a 13-inch small mouth.  A couple more cast and I had landed a 15-inch and 16-inch smallmouth.

Trip Tip:

This is my second consecutive Fall fishing for smallmouth in the Delaware River and I have started to put together a couple pieces of knowledge; 1) The bite is best with a low gauge level, that means under 3.0 at Port Jervis, NY Station [Link is always to the right] 2) The bite picks up late morning to early afternoon. If you are fishing during the NFL pregame shows, then you are probably catching fish.

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.

Heading Out to the Delaware River This Weekend

This weekend I am taking two good friends out to the Delaware River for some sallies.  The first thing when fishing the Delaware is to check the Gage Height at USGS Station, Port Jervis, NY.  What I am looking for is a Gage Level at or around 3.5 or lower.  For future reference, this link can be found on the right side of my blog under "Weather and River Conditions".  

I should also mention this Saturday is the opening of bass season in New Jersey, so I could not be more excited!  Our plan will be to fish a couple shore points with Wacky Rigged 5-inch Senkos.  One of those spots will be Dingman's Ferry on the PA side as well as the New Jersey side.

I am putting the over\under for keeper bass at 7 for this weekend.

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.