New Jersey & Delaware Bay - New Jersey & Delaware Bay Freshwater Fishing Reports

We got several reports when we spoke with Nick over at Bullet Hole Annex. At the top of the list was a report of Oakridge and a couple other reservoirs seeing their waters drop from the recent hot weather. Nick also said the recent rains have put a little water in the Passaic which is still very low, but producing smallies, largemouth, catfish and northerns. Local small lakes and ponds are seeing some good catfishing and occasional catches of bass early and late in the day.

I checked with Laurie Murphy over at Dow’s Boat Rentals on Lake Hopatcong and she told me the lake continues to see very light angler participation. Laurie said this past weekend’s hybrid contest saw stripers to 6 pounds weighed in. Early and late day bass fishing has been decent on swimbaits fished along the weedlines and topwater baits and creature baits fished in the open water pockets in the vegetation. Hybrids, a few walleyes and catfish are making up the dark hour bite on the lake and some perch, crappies and panfish are being caught right around dark on small jigs tipped with plasticbaits or minnows and fished under floats. Top fish weighed in at Dow’s this past week was a 13-3/4-pound channel cat.

“Reports coming in on the freshwater fishing this past week were scarce, not because the fishing was not decent but because most people did not want to mess with the super hot weather,” said Larry over at Fairfield Fishing Tackle. The Passaic was fishing well with most anglers fishing early and late in the day and fishing out of kayaks with catfish, smallies, northerns and perch supplying some fishing. The only other report he had was of some smallmouth and largemouth action in some of the big reservoirs in the northern part of the state. Monksville, Round valley and the Newark Water Shed waters were at the top of the list, he said.

Over at Old School Outdoors in Ewing John Bullock had some reports for us. John told us catfish and stripers have been hitting live eels in the lower tidal river. A recent catfish contest saw a 27.2-pound flathead catfish take the top spot. Anglers continue to catch smallies in the eddies and largemouth and crappies in the local lakes and ponds.

A call to Don over at Ramsey Outdoors in Succasunna got us word of a lot of catfishing going on. Not only is the younger set drowning worms and stinkbaits for the cats in local lakes and ponds, some anglers are casting Jitterbugs and other surface lures after dark for them with good results. Don also mentioned some decent rock bass and panfishing fishing in some of the local streams. We also checked in with the folks at the Ramsey store and they told us smallmouth and largemouth fishing in some of the local lakes and reservoirs has been very good after dark and in the early morning before the sun comes up. In addition they mentioned some decent panfishing, also in local ponds and lakes.

We got several reports from Tom P over at Creekside Outfitters. He said the surface bite on Spro Poppers had been good in Ocean Acres for anglers fishing out of Kayaks. Fishing worms under floats has also been scoring some bass there as well. Brookville Lake has also been producing some bass and Wells Mills has been good for bass and crappies on killies.

Despite the recent hot weather anglers fishing lakes and ponds along the central coast found some decent fishing. I spoke with Kevin over at Hook House Bait and Tackle and he said he got decent reports on the bass and crappie fishing at Manasquan Reservoir, Lake Riviera, Prospertown Lake and the Assunpink lakes. If you are looking for panfish the College Pond and some of the smaller ponds have been giving up decent numbers of panfish and catfish, we were told.

The big three, bass, pickerel and crappies supplied some fishing in the lakes and ponds along the middle coast this past week according to Amanda over at Jersey Hooker Outfitters. She said most of the bass fishing has been early and late in the day and has slowed down as waters heated up. Pickerel fishing also saw the same scenario but if you find some spring fed water some killies will put you into the chainsides. Crappie fishing has been decent in the evening at Lake Carasaljo, Lake Shenandoah and in the morning at Manasquan Reservoir.

The only report Justin over at Allen’s Dock had for us was word of some perch being caught in the upper Mullica River and some stripers and perch being caught in the tidal portion of the river. He also mentioned some bass and pickerel being caught from local campground lakes and ponds on killies fished early and late in the day.

We got a pair of reports when we spoke with Brian Brooks over at Empire Fishing Tackle. Brian said he continued to get reports from the upper Mullica River of stripers, perch and catfish being caught. In addition he mentioned some good bass and crappie fishing in Pemberton Lake early and late in the day. He also said some of the tidal streams have some good perch fishing with some stripers mixed in on the outgoing water.

Catfish continue to be the main source of action over at Ponderlodge Lake, said sources over at Hands Too Bait and Tackle in Cape May. Anglers fishing cut baits and worms, especially in the evening are pulling some nice channel cats from the lake. In addition they told us the shop is still getting reports of bass and panfish action in most of the campground lakes and ponds.

We spoke with Diane over at Dave’s Sporting Goods in Doylestown and she told us it was a quiet week this past week with very few anglers fishing. A few anglers waded the Delaware and picked up a few smallies and catfish. Outside of that the shop had no reports from any of the local lakes and ponds, she said.

A call to Steve over at Smith Bait and Tackle in Leipsic got us a report of good fishing but few anglers fishing. Steve said perch bite has been good in the tidal streams and the snakehead fishing has been good in Garrisons, Massey Mill and Silver Lake. “Now if only Mother Nature would turn down the thermostat,” Steve said.