Dow's Boat Rentals

“We saw a definite uptick in activity this past week on Lake Hopatcong,” stated Laurie Murphy at Dow’s Boat Rentals, Laurie said the nice weather put a better number of anglers on the water and the shop got reports of decent perch and crappie fishing around the bridges and in the shallows. Some anglers also got into the largemouth and smallmouth, on swimbaits, spinnerbaits and live shiners. A few anglers trolled some trout with some pickerel also being caught on spinners and small spoons. Laurie also said the lake will be receiving another 1,200 trout this week courtesy of the Knee Deep Fishing Club, the Hopatcong Foundation and Hopatcong Lake Commission. The fishing would really come into its own with warmer weather predicted for this coming week she said.

“If it wasn’t for the Saturday trout opener, you could call this past week the week that wasn’t,” said Laurie Murphy at Dow’s Boat Rentals. A few anglers got in some fishing time on Monday and picked up some crappies, perch and a few bass. After that Mother Nature threw a tantrum that lasted for three days and it wasn’t until Friday that a few anglers got back on the water. The stocking truck made the rounds and stocked the lake on Friday and a breezy Saturday kicked off the trout fishing which saw some decent fish trolled on spinners and spoons. The weather was so crazy that we even had some snow on Wednesday evening, she said. The shop does have rental boats in the water for the spring fishing, Laurie added.