“About 5 miles west of Sammy’s place, past old Joe’s farm so full of grace, there’s a cabin in the pines on a lake which nobody knew.”
Growing up in Southern Ocean County, I spent a lot of time on a piece of private property down County Road 532 in Wells Mills, mostly deer hunting with dear family friends. Several times a year – particularly during the six-day shotgun season when not traipsing back and forth to our stands – we would gather around the fire at the Cedar View Lodge overlooking Wells Mills Lake, spinning yarns and singing songs.
In June of 2023 we returned to the property for the first time since 1979; that was the year the Conrad family sold the Wells Mills Property where their ancestors had commercially harvested cedar in the 19th and early 20th century, much of it headed to local boat builders like the late Sammy Hunt. It was the first time that the Hutchinson, Conrad, Gove, Wilson and Cavileer clans had all been together again on that lake, at that cabin, in 40 years, which we duly commemorated in song (the opening line in italics one that I wrote for the occasion).
Through the sale to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, this unique property at Wells Mills was precluded from any future development, and by 1991 Wells Mills County Park was established through efforts by the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust Program. Now managed by the Ocean County Department of Parks and Recreation, this once hidden gem of a cedar lake – which few knew even existed back in the 1970s – now holds the distinction of being the largest park in the entire Ocean County park system with more than 900 acres of pristine Pine Barrens flora and fauna.
As for the fish, I recall a little bobber fishing for bluegills many moons ago on the finger dock behind the Cedar View Lodge along the 34-acre lake. But for the most part, shoreline access is difficult here, which in turn makes it difficult to access the largemouth bass and pickerel that also make their home in Wells Mills Lake. Best bet for a tranquil and scenic day of fishing is by launching a canoe or kayak (non-motorized) from the Conrad-Oakley Boat Launch adjacent to the dock.
If you’re gearing up for a trip to Wells Mills, make sure to visit Creekside Outfitters on Route 9 in Waretown first (609-242-1812); it’s a short drive south from Wells Mills Road, CR532, and just around the corner from old “Sammy’s place” actually. According to Creekside staffer Tom P. some of the biggest largemouth of the lake will take live bait around the concrete spillway. “A live sunny hooked through the back on the dorsal fin, it’s lights out,” Tom advised, adding that big live killies on a cigar-shaped float will also work.
The lake sees a good amount of vegetation during the warmer summer months, but as things begin to cool and the weeds start to drop back in the fall, Tom P. says you can expect to find the bass coming up into the shallows towards the end of the day. “Four-inch Senkos in watermelon, baby bass and black glitter are autumn killers,” he told me, advising anglers to work around the weed openings in particular.
Of course, the cedar waters at Wells Mills Lake also offer old school pickerel action for those tossing spoons. “Johnson Silver Minnow in gold or firetiger with a trailer are deadly for the pickerel,” he added. Wells Mills Lake may not offer the very best of New Jersey’s freshwater opportunities, but for a peaceful paddle in a bucolic setting, try working small spoons or spinners in the back of the lake around the submerged cedar for a tug on the line and a step back in time.
For what it’s worth, our families are returning to the old cabin in the pines on Saturday, October 12, 2024, for a little piney celebration with music and song, not too dissimilar from Saturday nights down at George and Joe’s farm when I was just a boy. The following Saturday the 19th is New Jersey’s free fishing day when licenses to fish freshwater aren’t required; might be a good time to wet a line at a lake which nobody even knew about until roughly 30 years ago.
Some secrets, I guess, are just too good to keep.
