September 21, 2026 - 10:33:08
We got the rundown on northern water from Nick over at Bullet Hole Annex. He too said the Passaic River is giving up northerns, smallies, catfish and panfish and this should continue well into October thanks to the high water conditions. Normally the river is low in October, but that doesn’t look like the case this fall. He also mentioned while some of the reservoirs have made the change to the fall mode, some like Greenwood and Monksville are right on the edge, and if we get the cool weather that is predicted they too will turn on to the fall bite.
September 21, 2026 - 10:32:46
Over at Bullet Hole Annex Nick gave us an optimistic outlook on the October fishing. He said with all the baitfish around in northern waters, and the variety of fish that are still around, October should be one of the best months of this crazy season. Local stripers are starting to stir in our northern waters and blues, accompanied by bonito, albies and Spanish mackerel have given anglers good fishing this year so you can expect to see them on the menu in October. A 10-fish bag limit on sea bass will make bottom fishing very attractive especially if we have good sea conditions. A lot of anglers are looking for some good tuna and mahi fishing in the tenth month and here too you need good seas to get to them, he said.
September 14, 2026 - 10:18:52
Another person that told us it was a good week of fishing was Nick over at Bullet Hole Annex. He said that with most peoples’ vacations over and the kids back to school, the light fishing pressure combined with the decent weather we had most of this past week gave serious fisherman a shot at some good fishing. Nick told us bass and crappie fishing was good in most of the smaller lakes and ponds throughout the northern portion of the state. Larger waters like Greenwood, Splitrock, Hopatcong, and Swartswood fished well for largemouth, smallmouth and crappies, along with hybrids walleyes and catfish. He too mentioned good fishing in the Passaic in both the non-tidal section for bass, northerns and panfish and it the tidal section for stripers, cats and perch.
September 14, 2026 - 10:18:31
“Looks like the fluke are on the move,” said Nick over at Bullet Hole Annex. He told us reports coming into his place have been a lot fewer since the holiday and some of the anglers are switching over to other fish. “We are seeing a lot more anglers picking up bluefish tackle for the blues, bonito and Spanish mackerel that are being caught along inshore and mid-range waters,” he said. He too told us about the weakfish which also bent some rods and said bottom fishing was filling coolers with ling, some triggers, croakers and porgy.
