Hey guys, I used to be real skittish at going anywhere since I am terrible with directions. But seeing as how I recently was given a GPS for my birthday I've really been able to check out some new spots. In fact today I checked out Rockaway River which is around an hour ride for me, and caught my first small mouth, the fish was only about 4inches in length, but still a small mouth! I went there to do some trout fishin, and didnt catch any  :-/. Though I lost count of how many nice sized trout jumped within 3 feet of me..the jerks just wouldn't bite though..

Anyway, back to the point. I'd like to check out a river/lake/pond that has a good small mouth population. I don't have a boat and will be bank fishing, I'd prefer a smaller acre pond/lake since this would make it easier to bank fish, but I suppose all will do. Know that I am strictly a catch and release guy, so don't get the wrong idea. Thanks for any info, I wanna stick a few good size small mouth, I hear they fight better then largemouth.

If you get the permit to fish it Canistear res. supposedly has some nice smallies.  Also they've been pulling nice ones out of the monksville fishing shelves in 20-30 ft of water.

As a matter of fact I just heard today that Canistear, Oak Ridge and Clinton Reservoirs are all killing the smallies right now.

Some of the places mentioned are decent places, if you have a boat.  The newark watersheds are nice places, fish there often.  The only place that really comes to mind for shorefishing is the roundvalley pond located next to the ramp for the main lake.  Its prob like 5 acres in size and is shorefishing only

Unless things have changed since I left New Jersey, some of the better waters for big smallies

were the Delaware River, Round Valley and Canistear (Pequannock).

For numbers of smallies, we did best in the South Branch of the Raritan River and Monksville Res (soon after it opened).

Roger

Anyone have a recommendation for a place to catch small mouth in so. Jersey.  I am in Gloucester county and fish from a kayak.

Thanks,

Pat

South of Monmouth Reservoir, which only supports 'stocked' smallies,

I'm not aware of any smallmouth fishery other than the Delaware River.

Roger