First Spruce Run Pike....

[buzzbaiter]

...and it was a dandy: a solid 30" caught on 4lb test and a 1/16th oz spinner. Helluva battle on UL gear. It damn near took all my line(I only spool on about 70 yds). Otherwise a pleasant 3 hrs of fishing. Lots of panfish and few little bass. Res is too high for my liking though. Needs to be about 3 feet lower. I prefer wading the shallows and right now many spots are just too deep to get by.

Also found a large fish floating in the shallows. I'm guessing Hybrid Bass and a decent sized one.

[AndyS]

Nice Pike, bet it was a blast on the UL !!

[Eskimo]

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Nice pike.

I saw a guy wading last night in the shallows between the pier and the next parking lot. Was that you?


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[buzzbaiter]

Nope. Went today between 9 and noon. I normally avoid that place on weekends
'cause of all the boat traffic but I wanted to scout it out to see water levels and whether the weeds were up yet.

[kcritch]

That must have been crazy on 4lb test.....Nice job on that for sure. Congrats on the first!

[XXlyakattacker]

Nice fish. I was out doing the same thing in the yak. Only caught one nice bass and a bunch of little guys. Did run into a school of little wipers that were savage.They were hitting my lures dangling of the side of the yak. Almost lost a pole. Also lost 2 wipers after dark.

[Mikeps326]

I don't get it!! You guys all do well on spruce run but when I go there I get skunked 3 times last yr I'm scarred to even take the ride there lol but I have to redeem myself one day on that lake!!

[buzzbaiter]

To be honest, its not a great place. Plenty of panfish to be sure but gamefish are hard to come by but this is not unlike most large, popular waters. In all honesty who out there ever gets their limit of bass (or any other gamefish for that matter) at such places? Not many. Its like if you get one or two keeper-size you've had a great day. This is why I toss around small lures hoping for anything. I'd rather catch 50 sunnies & perch than 1 bass anytime!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Great catch on the 4lb test. The Pike are in a frenzy this time of year. Nice mixed bag as well. :D

[acaravaglia]

Nice catch! I hear u on the boat traffic. Some idiots flipped a rental boat while messing around. I think their 9.9 sank to the bottom.

[Eskimo]

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Some idiots flipped a rental boat while messing around. I think their 9.9 sank to the bottom.


Ha! That's funny! I wish Spruce Run would do away with that ghetto boat rental. All those people do is annoy me.

Last Saturday afternoon, there were a pair of rental boats chasing each other around, doing fighter-plane maneuvers out on the water. The waves they were making were making me sea sick.

I find those pontoon boats really annoying, too. What's more annoying than seeing the same boat full of idiots motor past you and again and again.


To be honest, its not a great place.


I have to disagree with you on that. It's not an easy place to fish - it's a tough place to fish, for sure. But I think it's a good reservoir.

It's very heavily fished due to its proximity to population centers and easy access from Route 78. I swear, some evenings that boat ramp looks like a parade going backwards with all the boats launching. I have never seen the pier unoccupied from April until October.

But the waters are fertile and the state keeps it well stocked. I never fail to catch Channel Catfish there in the summer, even if I'm not fishing for them.

People who really know what they're doing, (I'm not one of them) do well there with Hybrid Stripers and Bass.

I'll post another fishing report in a week or two. I've been working on something there I want to make a thread about.


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[jimmythegreek]

boat traffic off a 9.9 isnt that bad, come out w me on LH and see what the wake boarders do at 6am..........its unreal

[flatcreek]

Had 3 incidents with rental boats lately.
1. Was drift fishing some slip bobbers and a rental boat came close on the side of me, but not to close. It was a Man woman and child, the man was driving and switched with the woman. they then turned across about 15 ft beyond my bobbers and did a u turn and was coming straight at us and she was looking the other way. At about 15 or 20 ft away I was yelling and she looked up an turn across our lines. I gave them a piece of my mind and they motored off.
2. On another drift I spotted a canoe overturned with three people in the water way out toward the dam a long distance from us. That was two Saturdays ago, it was really blowing with white caps and not many boats way out with the rough water. They were in the water for what seemed a long time so I went to investigate and they were in trouble. We righted there boat and got them back in, but they couldn't paddle against the wind so we towed them. The rental guy met us when we were almost in, he did thank us and the kids were very thankful. Those kids had no business in a canoe on that lake on a nice day, they were clueless as to how to handle a canoe.
3. Late fri night about 1030 fishing over by the tower I spotted what I thought was a boat on the rocks, on closer investigation it was indeed a rental boat with an outboard on it but no people which worried me. We gathered it up and towed it back to the boat launch and reported it to the rangers. Who said " those rental people don't even know how to tie a boat up.

They really are a menace as I think they will just rent a boat or canoe to anyone no matter of there abilities or qaulifacations.

[bigfishy]

Anytime i've stopped in there while camping it seems to be college kids that work there.....They rent to anyone with the cash to do so....State run park with a waiver to sign means near zero liability , so why not rent to whoever.....I don't think its a cash cow by any means but there are a decent amount of park employees that all work for a paycheck....Its gotta come from somewhere and i'm sure boat rentals help out with that quite a bit.....While renting to anybody does run the risk of having complete Pee-ons out on the water with law and rule abiding boaters overall i think its a good thing that is a plus for the attraction and overall draw to the lake....

Gotta remember there are plenty of shore fisherman that without the boat rentals would never experience the lake by boat.....And then they get skunked and never come back..++++:D

Could be just me but i don't find it to be a problem, maybe cause prime time NEVER interferes with rental season...Early season when water temps are cool, ya wanna be out during the warmest part of the day= rentals have not yet opened for the season.....Mid to late spring/ early summer prime times are the but crack a dawn and late evening into night= boat rentals are not open....

The one thing i really miss is being able to pull up to the rental dock in ur boat , handing the kid ur bait bucket and getting shiners or herring for the day....The last few yrs they did this , it was only shiners but was a nice convenence...

Sorry bout the thread hyjack....Nice pike NJ

[flatcreek]

Sorry about the thread hyjack also, that is a nice mix of fish. SR always has something interesting to offer.
Bigfishy I agree, don't have a big problem with the boat rental, think its a good thing. Just wish they would be mindful of who they rent to, maybe give the boat renters some guidelines and require at least a boater saftey cert.