June 08, 2026 - 11:15:44
“While water levels are starting to drop in the Passaic River the fishing is still holding up,” said Joe over at Fairfield Fishing Tackle. With the water getting low in the river a lot of anglers are walking the bank and casting swimming plugs and swimbaits. Joe also mentioned good smallmouth fishing in Splitrock Reservoir, decent walleye and hybrid fishing in the evening at Lake Hopatcong and good bass fishing in Merrill Creek and Areoflex. With the hot weather coming this week looks like water levels will continue to fall, he said.
June 08, 2026 - 11:15:36
Over at Fairfield Fishing Tackle Joe echoed some of our other reports when he said the winds over the weekend were no friend to fishermen along the northern coast this past week. Likewise the late week arrival of the 90-degree weather after some cool weather early in the week also was a switch. The reports he got on the striped bass told of some big bass still being caught in the ocean about a mile or more off the beaches just down from Sandy Hook. Cold waters from the ocean on the incoming tide made the fluke fishing a one tide sport in most areas. Lastly bottom fishing was dominated by short sea bass and a fair number of keepers and ling along with plenty of throwback tautog which are out of season. Joe did say he sold a lot of Avas and other bottom bouncing gear this past week.
June 01, 2026 - 10:33:55
Joe at Fairfield Fishing Tackle told us while the recent rains perked up local water levels in lakes and streams, it was nowhere near enough to break the drought. He too said the upper Passaic also got a boost from the rains but here too it won’t last long if we do get more rain. The shop also got good reports of the bass and walleye fishing in Greenwood Lake and light angler participation in Lake Hopatcong but good dark hour fishing for walleyes and hybrids, decent fishing foe crappies, perch and panfish around the bridges and pilings and bulkheads and some good largemouth action on spinnerbaits, topwater plugs and swimbaits just off the spawning areas. He ended his report by saying reports of good oass fishing also came from Merrill Creek Reservoir, Areoflex and Monksville.
June 01, 2026 - 10:33:47
A call to Joe over at Fairfield Fishing Tackle got us another report of a slow start to the week along the northern coast. He told us poor conditions in the back bay because of off color water flooding in from the Raritan River stalled out the fishing until the later part of the week when things began to clear up. The waters had cleaned by the time we spoke with him and the fishing was slowly rebounding. Fluke fishing was good in the Shrewsbury, Navesink and Shark rivers. The sea bass fishing on the wrecks and snags had also picked up and some big striped bass were being caught at the Shrewsbury Rocks on eels and metal lip plugs. Joe said he too thinks Sunday’s full moon will see the fluke moving into northern waters in bigger numbers now that the water temps are starting to come up.
