For now….fish on!   Steve

Sat 2/25:  Ramsey Outdoors, Cabin Fever Days, Roxbury, NJ

Sat 3/31 – Sun 4/1:  NJ Trout Hatchery Open House, Pequest, NJ

Please note that I’ll be starting up the northern pike fishing trips in about 3 weeks and Delaware River American shad trips in about 7 weeks from now.  I also have picked up a plethora of new muskie lures over this winter that I absolutely cannot wait to start throwing and trolling with for those big toothy critters!!!!!

As usual, please be sure to book your American shad trip as early as possible since it is a very popular trip and the best slots do tend to fill up quickly.  If you can’t wait to get into American shad again, then view The Reel Deal “The Great American Shad Run” episodes on my Press tab that we shot last year!  I tend to look at them every so often when I am dying to get that “feel” again of a big female shad on super-light tackle! 

For now…. fish on!

Steve

With this part of the country experiencing the 6th wettest year on record (so far), it has been a very tough year to keep my Delaware River fishing trips on schedule.  Numerous bouts of very heavy rain throughout this year has quite often made the Delaware River a swollen dirty and very unsafe mess.  Hopefully soon that will settle down and we can be prowling the deeper holes for very aggressive football shaped smallies and walleyes. 

Another great place for walleye fishing is Swartswood Lake in Sussex County NJ.  Lots of folks feel that the next state record walleye will most likely come out of that lake.   When fishing Swartswood for walleyes we quite often end up picking up some really nice size largemouth too.

If muskie fishing is on your ‘hit list’ for this year then join me on an excursion this autumn to Furnace Lake in Oxford, NJ.  That little gem of a lake is simply chock full of nice size tiger and pure strain muskies!

Please contact me via my CONTACT page if you want to get out this autumn on any one of those types of trips!  

Of course, if you want to go on a trip for some other type of fish this fall, there are Fishin’ Fun Charters trips for trout, salmon, largemouth, and pickerel at many NJ freshwater lakes.

Fish on!
Steve

What I really like a lot about that lake too are the rather large bass that will hit the muskie lures, with these fish tending to come in the 5-7 pound class. It’s a nice mix for having one very fine trophy trip!

I also love getting out there on the Delaware River in summer for late day top water smallmouth bass action. That’s another great option for this time of the year, along with lakes for seeking open water trout, and going down even deeper for Lake Trout fishing.

Beginning on Sunday into Monday, when the water temps were hitting 70, the vast majority of the hits took place in tree shaded faster water from 5 PM-ish to dusk. I didn’t see any spawning activities on the surface near dusk.

Over the five days, I didn’t get a lot of hits off the surface on micro darts as I normally do in the “latter part” of the season. The surface action really didn’t start to happen for me with consistency until Monday evening. Before that, most fish were taken either near the middle of the water column or just off the bottom, and that’s not indicative of a latter season pattern to me. All fish seemed to still be ‘heading north’ too.

So. . . if you still want to get out there for American shad fishing this year, then you better hurry up!  Unfortunately, the ‘Great American Shad Run’ must ultimately come to an end each and every year.  Then the long wait for ‘next year’ sets in for anyone who considers themselves to be a ‘shad nut’ (like me).
 

The flow was starting to get a little slow by Sunday, so I’m looking forward to just a ‘little bit’ of rain these next couple of days.  I’m seeing some females that are looking very plump and ‘ripe’, and the bulk of the fish were taken in the top 25% of the water column.  With clear water and lower flows, I’m going with size 0 and sometimes size 1 flutters along with micro darts.  This year on the downriggers and flatlines I’m using 7′ ultralight baitcasting rods, and also found some 8.5′ 100% fiberglass rods that seem almost like “fly rods with spinning handles/guides” to me, and it’s been quite a blast using this stuff.  With these rods being so super soft I’m seeing less fish popping off the lines, and a heck of a lot more ‘fun factor’ too!
 

I’m receiving excellent reports from people ‘down south’ on the Delaware River about big catches and larger size fish this year, so I expect some great things for this year’s annual shad run in the northern areas of the Delaware River that I fish. I picked up four new 7′ ultralight rods for use on my downrigggers this year to add even more sport to an already exciting fish fighting opportunity.

I’ll be starting up those trips quite soon in the northern NJ parts of the river, and I hope to have you out there on a great American shad trip this year. Once you get to feel a strong American shad fresh from the ocean at the end of your line, you’ll probably end up becoming a certifiable “shad nut” too.

For now… fish on!

Regards,
Steve

As we try for pike, we have instead been hitting rather big smallmouth and largemouth bass pretty well… casting larger spinners towards flooded bushes, or while trolling minnow plugs with the intent of catching northern pike in waters up to 10′ deep, is instead resulting in picking up some really nice bass.   I have also seen numerous fish markings in the deeper holes of this lake.  Most likely what I’m seeing on the fish finder are hybrid stripers still holding down deep in their ‘wintering’  pattern. 

Also, looking ahead just a bit, I’ve picked up four very ‘whipy’ 7′ baitcasting rods for use on my downriggers for American shad.  I’ll be starting up those Delaware River American shad trips soon in April, and these things are going to be an absolute blast when fighting a very strong shad on the river.  I absolutely cannot wait to get out there and use those new rods for shad soon!

For now… fish on!

Steve

Hopefully, what surely feels now like an extended “winter” will actually end sometime in April, and we can say hello to spring once again. I’ll be picking up again with running my northern pike trips at Spruce Run once the last show is over. That’s a great spring trip! My Dad who came out with me and my brother a couple of weeks back on a northern pike trip. He’s getting older now, but he still had a great time landing some nice pike that day.

As always, please note that the choice dates for the Delaware River American shad fishing trips tend to fill up fast as we get closer to the start of that season. I hope to get you out on the water to hookup with a big roe shad this year (Big Al even after a few years gone by now still holds the ‘best shad pic’ award). I’ve been looking around for some 7′ foot ultralight action rods to replace the shorter ultralights I’ve been using for a while now, it should be even more of a blast to fight a big roe shad on something even longer and soft! Very nice!

There are lots of great trip options with Fishin’ Fun Charters for sure! I look forward very much to having you out with me on the water this coming season for a great fishing trip or two.

Regards,

Steve