I made it out yesterday evening.  I wasn't enthused by the weather by any means- 82 degrees, bluebird sky, the day after a front- all of which said finesse day.  And 10 mph winds which makes finessing a whole lot tougher.  I fished the same conditions on my own mini Menderchuk last week and skunked, so I didn't want to do that again.  Instead I went to one of the bigger reservoirs that was part of the reason for moving to the boat from a kayak.  If nothing else, it has a couple arms where I could get out of the wind and with the direction of the wind it was blowing onto some of the banks I could fish with moving baits at least.

 

This lake used to have some great grass (milfoil primarily) but a couple summers of no rain followed by cold winters have eliminted every piece of aquatic vegetation in the lake aside from a couple patches of reeds (tuilles?) that I've never caught a fish on in 4 years.  It is a hard bottom lake though so the plan was to find off shore locations which I've previously marked and find either smallies or largemouth using them to ambush the copious amounts of baitfish in the lake.  I rigged up a wobble head, carolina rig, 14' crankbait, jerkbait, and a scrounger.  Show me a school and I can cover it...

 

After graphing around looking for a school for a while and striking out, I had two rock piles that I knew from when the water was 25' low and they were visible from a mile away (literally) in the parking lot.  One sits in 20' of water and tops out at 15', the other 12'/8'.  I started with the shallower one and mega live 2 immediately showed me fish on top of it.  I ran through the gamut of baitfish things on my deck to no avail, swapped around depths on the jerkbait.  nada.  I hadn't rigged a spinning rod for the day yet given the wind, but now was the time for a jighead minnow.  First cast across the rock pile and the front fish hit it- 13" crappie.  It wasn't set up like a school of crappie on FFS, but that's what was there so on to the next rock pile.

 

 

Pile #2 had a huge school of baitfish (shad or herring) up in the water column and if you watched you could see fish come off the bottom 15' to grab fish from the bottom of the school.  I thought for sure it would be smallies given the size and bottom orientation.  I finally managed to track one (did I mention the wind?) and he ate it on the fall.  I knew I had a good one when I set the hook and didn't turn it's head.  It took two minutes of back and forth before I finally got it to the surface to see it and then another minute after it made a drag peeling run back towards the bottom.  A quick net job and it was the first striper I've caught in 4 years.  22-23" and an exact 5# on the scale.  There were more around, but they were always moving and quickly.  With the wind, it was tough to track them let alone cast accurately and then get a bait down to them before they moved.  And, the water was dirty here so you had to be pretty much on them.  After ten or fifteen minutes I gave up on that and went looking for bass.

 

 

Rewind to last Friday.  I took friday off and went fishing with my dad on his home water since we were home in Pittsburgh for the weekend.  We've fished this lake before and caught a bunch of nice bass.  We caught a bunch of nice ones Friday too- 22 bass including 6 that were all 18-19" and 3 1/2 lb.  Alas, we both forgot our phones at home so no picture or trip report.  However, each time I fish with him I try to learn something that I didn't know before (or reinforce something I know but don't do).  Last Friday it was a combination of "listen to the fish" and "just put your head down and fish".  I've never caught bass on a buzzbait well after sunup before- it's always a low light deal for me.  And I never have faith fishing <2' of water in semi sparse cover when the sun is up.  My local lakes are typically clear- 5'+ visibility- so bass just don't sit in really shallow water with bright sun as they get picked off by eagles and ospreys here.  But nothing else was really working at that point so I listened to the fish and just kept throwing.  They kept eating it so that was that.

 

Last night was 'apply your learnings' night.  As I said, the lake has been low and all the aquatic vegetation long gone.  BUT with it being so low for so long there is plenty of submerged terresterial vegetation now that it's back up to almost full pool.  So i put my head down and just started casting.  What else do you throw in windy, sunny conditions with dirty water (1' visibility) and light, scattered 'shrubby' cover?  Spinnerbait of course.  It paid off well with a half dozen bass all caught in 2' of water or less, some hitting it as soon as it hit the water.  On top, I landed a 24" pike and a 4" perch.  At one point I was in the deepest part of a large cove with the trolling motor skeg burried in the mud and throwing into inches of water at the bank (and caught one there).  I think a swim jig would have also been a good choice, but the spinnerbait was just too much fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After running a few more banks that I'd never fished before, I needed to start heading back towards the ramp.  On the way i made a pit stop at another place where baitfish congregate and found another school of both bait and predators.  The first cast with a jighead minnow confirmed what I thought- more 13" crappies. 

 

 

All in for the night, 6 keeper bass, 2 big crappie, a nice northern, a big hybrid, and a perch that was so small it couldn't even get the hook in its mouth.  Not a bad evening at all.

 

 

Nice report. When all else fails the spinnerbait mops up.

1 minute ago, Jar11591 said:

Nice report. When all else fails the spinnerbait mops up.

 

I can't fish one effectly in a lot of the lakes here due to grass but this just worked out this time.  

That is an awesome report! Multi-species days are always awesome in my book!

10 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Nice report. When all else fails the spinnerbait mops up.

On 6/12/2025 at 8:41 PM, TnRiver46 said:

 

Not sure if you are calling him a liar or spinnerbaits get you really excited?  LOL

That is a BEAUTIFUL Pike photo!  I love how you ended the days photos. LOL! NICE

that kinda looks like a white bass to me.   but it has been a decade since eyeballing one up close for realz.  

 

awesome trip.  wish i was with you...so i could see a spinner bait really work. 

1 hour ago, Darth-Baiter said:

that kinda looks like a white bass to me.   but it has been a decade since eyeballing one up close for realz.  

 

awesome trip.  wish i was with you...so i could see a spinner bait really work. 

 

It's a hybrid striper- half white bass, half striper.  They are state stocked in that lake and a couple others around and don't reproduce.  we have full stripers on the ocean side.  I don't think we have white bass in NJ.  Maybe in the delaware?

 

Next trip to NYC area...