It’s the quintessential “hiding in plain sight’ venue.
Situated along the heavily traveled Route 46 westbound in Morris County, a mere 3 miles or so from the equally tire-worn Route 80, the 376-acre Budd Lake provides prime angling opportunities, most notably for trophy northern pike. And there’s a lot in between, including largemouth and smallmouth bass, chain pickerel, white catfish, channel catfish, yellow and white perch, crappies, bullheads, sunfish, white suckers and golden shiners.
“Budd Lake offers good fishing for a variety of species,” said Scott Collenberg from NJ’s Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries, adding “While the northern pike is the main story, it’s also a good lake for bass, chain pickerel, catfish and panfish.”
The spring-fed Budd is the Garden State’s largest natural lake (read: no dam) and is the headwaters of the famed South Branch of the Raritan River, perhaps New Jersey’s most productive trout stream. It’s a fertile water body with a slightly turbid complexion, subsurface milfoil weed beds, scattered rock structures, and patches of lily pads along the black cedar swamp that extends along the entire northern shoreline.
This one of the few lakes in New Jersey with unlimited horsepower. There is a small marina with ramp located on Manor House Road, the first right at the light after passing Budd on Route 46. There is also approximately a half-mile of shoreline access along Route 46 west. Here a kayak or canoe can be dropped after negotiating the tricky rip rap footing. There is parking available along the shoulder up to almost the area bordering the beach area. No parking is allowed from there.
Budd remains one of the state’s most popular ice fishing venues. While not of the magnitude of the nearby Lake Hopatcong or Spruce Run Reservoir, it certainly has a place along the likes of Lake Musconetcong, Cranberry Lake and Furnace Lake, to name a few. The primary forage is golden shiners (we’ve caught them over 10 inches when jigging crappies through the ice), sunfish, white and yellow perch, and white suckers. Lots of calorie options. As for a headliner, it’s Northern pike, plain and simple.
The stocking of pike began in the early 80s after a successful pilot program with tiger muskies, and to say the species has thrived would be about right. In fact, Budd is the primary venue for the bureau’s early spring trap netting to catch gravid females and males for stripping and fertilizing duties at the Hackettstown State Fish Hatchery. This past February, an excess of 700,000 eggs were fertilized, with a 60% hatching success rate. “Budd’s pike are in great shape,” said hatchery superintendent Craig Lemon explaining how the bureau has been trap netting at Budd since 1996. “There are some really big pike in there, and the population as a whole is healthy,” Lemon added. In fact the largest male caught in a trap net to date measured 38.6 inches and weighed 14.8 pounds; it’s 39.5 inches and 22.5 pounds for the female.
Largemouth outnumber its smallie kin in Budd, with the latter found primarily around the rocks and also moving along the rip rap along the Route 46 bank side access. Largemouth are found throughout the lake, and, as with the pike, are fond of the weed and lily pad northern shoreline that can only reachable by boat. Largemouth will top around the 5-pound mark, with smallies around 3 to 4 pounds. No doubt there are heftier specimens of both residing within.
In the shadow of its bigger pike cousin, Budd pickerel, while not as numerous, nonetheless attain very respectable lengths. We’ve seen them to 30 inches taken through the ice. Budd is also one of, if not the best stillwaters for white catfish. Distinguished from the channel cat by its white lower barbels, lack of any spots and only a moderately forked tail, the white gets pretty hefty here, with fish to 3-plus pounds not uncommon. Channel catfish exist in fair numbers and reach double digit weights. Crappies and yellow perch are especially popular with the shoreline set, with fish reaching a foot or more in length.
