sunday smallies - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

acabtp · #1 08-13-2012, 10:42 AM

on saturday night i picked up two dozen herring at dow's and hit the big lake for a little while before being chased off by thunderstorms. my new bait holding tank was able to keep all my precious alewives alive overnight, so sunday morning I was ready to head out early. apparently not early enough though, as I was the tenth boat to launch when I arrived at the reservoir at 7 am. Water was already 77°.

I cruised around a bit and marked a few fish with the sonar, but nothing was really biting. Worked the drop offs around the edges with no luck, except for a few sunfish and some short smallies to 10". Around 10:30 I decided that it was time to go big or go home, so I headed out to the center around 40 FOW and double anchored. I set up two rods, one with a slip weight to get the herring down to whatever depth I want and another with just a hook for live lining. The drag on the weighted rod was barely tight enough to hold the sinker weight and the live line rod was open bail. Had a few fish come through as I was waiting but nothing took the bait. Around 11 I decided I was calling it a day and would start heading back in to the dock. The wind was blowing pretty towards the launch, so I put out my drift sock and set up a drift to see if I could connect with anything on the way in.

About ten minutes later, there's a nice ZZZZZZ from the weighted rod's drag. I grab the rod and palm the spool while I set the hook, then tighten the drag down and finally have a good fight on as I bring this decent smallmouth in.

A little while later, I noticed the rod tip of the deep rigged rod bouncing all over the place, so I picked it up. Nothing on yet, but the alewife was going nuts. On the sonar I could see that it was swimming so hard it dragged the one ounce weight from about 25' to 20' of water. I gave the rod a shake and the sinker pulled the bait back down into the depths, but the alewife was still going crazy... until my drag started peeling off like mad. Set the hook and it was game on. The fish went on a couple real nice long runs when I almost had it to the net, but eventually I was able to land it.

About 18", I think that's a PB for me

Kept at it and kept catching smallie after smallie on my way in. The live lined herring were cruising around just under the surface, so when they got hit, it was accompanied by a nice big satisfying topwater splash. Another highlight of the day was a double-header when I came through a school of bass and both rods hooked up at once (somehow landed them both)

Almost at the ramp had one last hookup with what turned out to be a 13" yellow perch! He was gill hooked and christened my boat with a shower of blood, so I guess between that and netting some big fish from it the restoration is finally done