Where should I go bass fishing in NJ?

[NJAngler]

Delaware Lake is also considered a trophy larmouth bass lake and is a fairly small pond. its not too deep either so you can use sinking line and strip a streamer off the bottom

One of the most heavily fished 20 acre "lakes" in our state. Why? Because its a "Lunker Bass Lake" The worst thing any body of water can have done to it is be lumped into a "special" category. all it does is attract anglers(which is the point no matter what the NJDFGW tells you. its not about conservation and I will argue with anybody - professional biologist or weekend angler - that its not) and diminish the fishing quality. By quality I don't mean numbers of fish found in the lake but enjoying the lake w/o 10 boats paddling 20' from you try to fish. there are ways to manage a fishery properly but setting aside a select few as "special" is not one of them. All encompassing rules such as a statewide 15" bass limit or 2 fish per day is what you do. If its done for conservation reasons, why not apply it to ALL lakes? Thats where their argument about conservation doesn't wash. The bottom line is certain - often our best - places get sacrificed for $$$.

[PRDM]

[All encompassing rules such as a statewide 15" bass limit or 2 fish per day is what you do. If its done for conservation reasons, why not apply it to ALL lakes? .

Question to folks here, does anyone here really eat Largemouth or Smallmouth Bass? I would think these are mostly catch & release?

[NJAngler]

polls show few take them home; my eyes and historical records say differently.

theres a reason why some streams see 10 anglers a month and others see 10 anglers a day and it has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with being "special".

[Ryan R]

[All encompassing rules such as a statewide 15" bass limit or 2 fish per day is what you do. If its done for conservation reasons, why not apply it to ALL lakes? .

Question to folks here, does anyone here really eat Largemouth or Smallmouth Bass? I would think these are mostly catch & release?

For the most part, yes I think most are C&R'd. But I think there are enough numnuts around that have to take any trophy bass caught down to the local bait and tackle shop to have it weighed and measured to get their name/picture in the shop or paper's weekly fishing report. Then it ends up in the garden or sometimes on the wall. The quality of the bass at that lake established themselves before it became a trophy lake, Mark's right in that once it was put in the program it got real popular, so to me that is why the stricter regs are needed for any of these special regs programs- to protect what was established before everybody and his brother found out and started going there.

[NJAngler]

I understand that a good spot will get outted sooner or later. However, if given a choice, I'd rather take my chances w/o the regs then with them. The problem with DL is that in trying to maintain an existing fishery, they sacrificed its anonymity. Don't get me wrong its not a bad lake but like any place heavily fished, the fish are well "schooled" and not easy to get. They would have been better off making the regs C&R from the start and then seeing how things went. A non-boat rule would have helped too since that benefits the bass as well. Only 1/6th of that lakes shoreline is fishable too so that would benefit bass also. I tend to think of things that will benefit the fish rather than benefit the angler. Perhaps state officials should try seeing that way too once in awhile. It certainly couldn't hurt to try.

[joepanella]

I have caught some nice size largemouth in pieces of water people drive by all the time. I have also seen some nice largemout in the Diamond Mill Pond when i was younger and saw a 10 year old kid catch one that made me look twice years back. I have no clue if they are still in their. I have seen good size bass come out of the park pond in Caldwell and it is tiny. I think most fly fisherman are going to feel more at home on smaller water anyway. My biggert largemout was caught on a small private pond in west milford on my 5wt and it was not the easiest fish i ever landed, but i caught several bass over 20 inches and the pond was more than a few acres.

[Twism86]

Diamond Mill??? Ive never caught a bass over 8'' there... Kinda scummy now a days.

[Denlon]

Question to folks here, does anyone here really eat Largemouth or Smallmouth Bass? I would think these are mostly catch & release?

Yeah...Just like big pickerel, occasionally I'll take a small mouth bass home to eat IF I get it out of a small, coldwater stream. If I'm up in Canada, I'll almost always keep a few to eat.
They seem to taste much better up there.
Denny

[joepanella]

Diamond Mill??? Ive never caught a bass over 8'' there... Kinda scummy now a days.

We are going back a ways, before i fly fished. But i saw some big bass in their. like i said i saw a kid catch one that was quite large on a plastic frog. I also used to see them in the corner behind the damn when i would wade out and fish for trout.

[The Royal Coachman]

For me personally, the Big D is just too big. I don't even know where to cast when I'm there.

I've been trying to learn how to fish the Big D these past few summers. It's a great way to get in some fishing when the trout are stressed. I live in Warren County and can just shoot up for a mornings fishing before the canoers make it difficult. That south wind comes up frequently in the summer making fishing harder in the afternoon. If you put some time in you'll find some spots easy to fish from shore or wet wading. Jeffk's advice is good. Reading it like a trout stream will help you find the bass as well. They like similar water.

[Denlon]

....I live in Warren County and can just shoot up for a mornings fishing before the canoers make it difficult.

RC-Try fishing sometime without the drugs...You may do better!

BTW- If you fish down in the Point Pleasant area, the tubers are worse than the canoers!

Denny

[NJAngler]

....I live in Warren County and can just shoot up for a mornings fishing before the canoers make it difficult.

Yep thats the way to go. i fish early on weekdays during the summer and the river is all mine. this is true of most places - streams, rivers, lakes, ponds - other than KLG which may as well have hot dog/beer vendors walking back and forth between dawn & dusk. hey, now there's a great idea!!!

[jim k]

The Delaware isn't really that hard. As with lakes, 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water. Forget the long flat bottom stretches without structure. You may find scattered fish here, but more likely catfish or the stray musky. You are looking for riffles, points of land that jut into the water and provide current breaks, large boulder strewn waters - in short, structure. For fly fishing you will definitely want to focus on riffles, but in particular riffles with rocky structures, rather than clean fast runs. Rocks give current breaks for bass, as well as provide better forage (crayfish, etc) for the bass to eat.

Fall fishing on the D can be very good, but can also be exceptionally difficult when the water gets gin clear. I fished it once this past fall in September on a bright sunny day where you could have read a newspaper sitting on the bottom in 12 feet of water. Good luck catching fish in that water! We were canoeing, and saw some dandy sized catfish between the BFB and Water Gap.

[Sheisty]

[All encompassing rules such as a statewide 15" bass limit or 2 fish per day is what you do. If its done for conservation reasons, why not apply it to ALL lakes? .

Question to folks here, does anyone here really eat Largemouth or Smallmouth Bass? I would think these are mostly catch & release?

Most folks i've encountered on shore don't really eat bass except for a few non-americans I come across. The funny thing is, when it comes to boats most of the folks I encounter eat bass. I had a smallie once and I wasn't a fan of it. Ever since I look at bass like carp. Great to fish for, terrible to eat.