Morning on Aeroflex

[MattK]

Hit up Aeroflex this morning for what I figured would be my annual skunking on the lake. Got to the lake around 630, and ran into another NJFisher launching his boat. Chatted for a few minutes and then went out on the lake.

Lost several fish in the first 2 hours on the lake, before finally pulling my first ever Landocked Salmon. Measured in right at 16 inches. Beautiful fish and a heck of a fight. Fished another hour for salmon with a few hits but only landed a pickerel.

Decided before I came in for the day to throw a small spinner on to see if any stocked bows were swimming around in the shallower water closer to the launch. First cast I landed a nice fat 18 inch largemouth. Released her and took a few more casts without any more luck so I called it a day.

And now for the important safety tip...Be very careful running across those plastic docks in bare feet. It may only have been 80 out at the time but that dock was scorching hot and I gave myself a rather nasty burn on the bottom of both my feet. Hurts like hell but I wont do it again.

[briansnat]

Nice morning of fishing! I've only fished Aeroflix once, from a canoe, and got a couple of bass. But I'm moving to Sparta soon so I suspect Aeroflex will become my go to lake once I find a place to keep my boat there.

[FASTEDDIE29]

Ouch! Sorry about the burns on your feet man. That really sucks! That’s a crappy price to pay for catching your first LL! Congrats on your first! Good looking fish!:D

[AndyS]

Glad to see Aeroflex holding it's own. A local tackle shop set up camp there for the summer so looks like no hanky panky if you know what I mean.
Very pretty lake albeit small. Great places in the Skylands of Sussex County NJ. Lake Illiff flows into it but hear very little from that lake. Look out for planes falling out of the sky also there. Nice clean fish !

[JDTuna]

Congrats on your first!

[Ken Lyons]

Illif looks private to me. I can’t see any public access

[go_fish]

Hi Matt, spoke to you in the parking lot at Areoflex this morning. I am glad you caught a nice salmon. I caught 2 smaller salmon and lost about 5, oh well. Was a nice day to be fishing!

[bocchijx]

Illif looks private to me. I can’t see any public access

If you drive about 1/4 mile past the Sheridan's Lodge bar and private beach club lot, there is a public access spot to Illif. It's a small pull off with a sign that says Town of Andover public access (or something similar). You park there and walk around gate and go straight for a minute.

I've been there but it's not my favorite place.

[akoop]

Those landlocked salmon sure are nice looking fish.

[briansnat]

I made my second trip to Aeroflex last weekend and was rewarded with my first LL. It wasn't very big, probably a recent stockie. But when I was getting ready to go out, some guys were coming off the lake and they had a 29" LL on a stringer. Nice fish.

[Chrisper4694]

I made my second trip to Aeroflex last weekend and was rewarded with my first LL. It wasn't very big, probably a recent stockie. But when I was getting ready to go out, some guys were coming off the lake and they had a 29" LL on a stringer. Nice fish.

you serious? 29"??? that's massive...pretty sure that would crush the current record that was just weighed in!

kind of wish we would all let fish that big go though :( plenty of super tasty avg sized fish swimming around in all species, but whatever to each his own i guess...kind of like shooting yourself in the foot though as Andy would say.

[briansnat]

you serious? 29"??? that's massive...pretty sure that would crush the current record that was just weighed in!

kind of wish we would all let fish that big go though :( plenty of super tasty avg sized fish swimming around in all species, but whatever to each his own i guess...kind of like shooting yourself in the foot though as Andy would say.

Yep it was huge. I was sort of surprised they kept it. They said they threw back another 8 smaller ones. I personally would have kept two smaller ones for the table and let the big guy go.

[Jigman13]

29" new state record that was JUST set. That fish was 25 & change inches 8+ lbs. A 29" is 10 lbs easy...

I wanna see pics of that mammoth

[briansnat]

29" new state record that was JUST set. That fish was 25 & change inches 8+ lbs. A 29" is 10 lbs easy...

I wanna see pics of that mammoth

I didn't personally measure it, but the guy who caught it said it was 29" and when he held it up for show, I had no reason to doubt him. It certainly looked like it could be that long.