Smallmounth Searching for Recommendations

[douger67]

Looking to spend a late afternoon on the kayak fishing for SMB. Have never landed one in NJ. Never really fished for them either! Want to stay away from SRL and Hopatcong as I will be going Sat late afternoon into dusk. Round Valley, Merrill? Never fished either. Any other suggestions? Thanks for the help.

[bigfishy]

The Delaware river is the only place you need to fish and you'll be into smb!!

[ALS Mako]

Second for the delaware,the raritan is also an option

[rwp2101]

What they said, the Delaware. Fish late afternoon to the dark. Find a sport shop around the section you're closest to and call them to see what lures in what color they've been hitting lately (small swimbaits, 4" wacky rigged senkos, small whopper ploppers although I prefer to stick with single hooked baits from the kayak on the river for numerous reasons). Also ask them about water conditions because if there's a storm and it's high and really moving it can be tough to fish. They can also tell you if can launch from a spot and paddle upriver and then fish your way back. With two people in two cars you can do a proper float by dropping one vehicle off at the takeout. This "full float" is not recommended though if you're doing it late afternoon into evening because being unfamiliar with the water you may not reach your destination before nightfall depending on the distance of your float and you don't want to be in a yak in any type of current at night looking for a takeout.

Assuming you take the safe route, or it's just you, then you need to paddle upstream and then fish your way back which if it were me I'd wear wading boots and bring a small stakeout pole and a rope. This way you can thoroughly fish the better areas you find by getting out in spots. You tie the stakeout pole to the front of the yak with a section of rope and on the other side of that rope you tie a carabiner which you can clip to your belt or a loop you tied on your belt. The pole holds the yak in place most of the time while you're wading but when it fails you are the backup. It's annoying if you don't have the stakeout pole because the yak pulling on you in the current gets old.