popular places to get skunked

[Chrisper4694]

i thought this would be a neat thing to talk about...hopefully it's not just me that experiences this haha

What lakes do you fish that everyone seems to love; they all have stories of awesome days catching tons of fish, huge fish. people will post pictures of giant fish being caught by all! popular places, not private lakes. and you just think...what the hell i fish there all the time and it's a barren wasteland... haha!

you know what i'm talking about right!?

for me the two that come to mind are bud and pompt lake. every dozen trips or so to bud i'll pick up 1 decent fish but i've never caught more than 2-3 fish there on any one trip and although i did lose a big pike next to my kayak once (long long ago) i've never caught a nice fish there. yet i keep hitting it every now and than probably in total over the years 10-12 times a year...which is a lot considering as far as i'm concerned, it may be a barren wasteland under there. pompt, i've gone to less but still many times and i have caught...diddly squat!

both these lakes are very popular and produce plenty of fish but for me personally, not... i just find it strange, maybe the lakes are in my head breaking me down mentally!

who else has lakes like that. popular big fish producing lakes that personally hate you and only you! ;)

[Skunk City]

I'll be the first to nominate MONKSVILLE. Countless trips, hundreds of hours targeting Walleye there and I can't get one. Yet my first time targeting Walleye on Greenwood, Swartswood and Delaware River I've managed to land at least one. Though I have had nice fish from Monksville including my PB Crappie, some very nice night time Smallies, decent Largemouth, and even a juvenile Muskie, that place still frustrates the crap out of me.

[Mikeps326]

I do amazing for bass pickerel and crappie in Monksville, my place would have to be spruce run, went there four times never even caught a sunny.

[ScowardNJ]

I'll second Spruce! We had reports of dudes mopping up brids over there and all we ever did was burn out trolling motors and lights. lol
We'll be back!

[The Birdman]

Echo Lake !

It happens like this every time:

http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag96/jsels/The8StagesofgettingSkunked_zps20917acc.jpg (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/jsels/media/The8StagesofgettingSkunked_zps20917acc.jpg.html)

[bassnblues]

Mine is in the salt. Tuckerton/Great bay.

My late BIL owned a boat together and kept in in Keyport for 10 years. One year, we decided to keep it in Tuckerton for a change of pace and to switch it up. After 8 trips we finally had a day catching small fluke. I now refer to in as Skunkerton.

[Chrisper4694]

I knew monks ills was going to be up here. That's actually the only place I can consistently catch walleye with a lure (open water only). Sometimes small but nailed a nice 24" two falls ago.

What were you targeting on spruce? That place has been good to me for stripers but won't give up any pike or carp to me.

Echo lake I'll be fishing this year so I'll let you know how that goes, nice comic btw hahaha

[GetANet]

HATE MONKSVILLE!!!!:mad:
LOVE SPRUCE!!!!! as if everybody didn't already know that!!!!:rolleyes:

Have a LOVE/HATE thing going with Hopatcong as well!!!:confused:

I fish Spruce weekly during the year and am quite surprised that all the hours I have on that lake that I have only caught three or four Pike as well!!!
Decent fish but nothing great!!! Hoping to eventually hook up with a Beast!!!

[Jigman13]

I knew monks ills was going to be up here. That's actually the only place I can consistently catch walleye with a lure (open water only). Sometimes small but nailed a nice 24" two falls ago.

What were you targeting on spruce? That place has been good to me for stripers but won't give up any pike or carp to me.

Echo lake I'll be fishing this year so I'll let you know how that goes, nice comic btw hahaha

Great pic, dude. Looks bigger than 24"!

[RyanMac14]

Popular place to get skunked? Im sure most on here can agree, this year it was any place you decide to fish with me :D record 10 straight skunked trips.

[GetANet]

New Season is upon you grasshopper!!!! Time to break the streak!!! I can't understand how you can fish ten times and skunk each time???
Let us help you!!!!

[lennysky]

Almost any place for which one is not prepared well for. In the past I targeted trout on Monksville and always managed to get some smaller fish early in the season. Almost always got skunked there in mid season even after marking a ton of fish on a graph. I think we can all be successful if we would be prepared to switch on a fly to whatever species which are active! How many of us would switch from musky fishing to sunnies? Not many, thus Skunksville prevailed over many of us

[WormFisherman]

Any Stocked river/stream on opening day. Have yet to catch a single stocked trout on opening day itself. After getting skunked the past few years I just switched to fishing for wilds.

[RyanMac14]

Lol GetaNet you guys have helped me which prevented the streak from getting to 11 and led to a couple straights trips with a catch. Looking forward to improving this year and actually learning some good technique as well as learning how to read lakes. I am sure you will be hearing from me a lot in a couple months, let's just hope its not because I am begging for help again as I build another streak lol :)

[briansnat]

I'd nominate Monksville but nobody I know catches anything there.

Pompton Lake is a possibility, but I only fished it twice and caught one small bass.

My nemesis is Round Valley. I've put many hours of fishing in there over the past few years and have one trout, a few bass LT 12 inches and a few dozen rock bass to show for it.

[phil]

Milton lake last year was my nemesis I had a few really bad skunks fishing frogs and spinnerbaits in the summer when conditions should have been perfect.

I went there with my wife once late in the fall with bobbers and worms and got SKUNKED;) couldn't have planned it any better LOL

[baetis]

I'll fess up, I've fished the Passaic 4 times and haven't gotten a thing yet.

[briansnat]

I'll fess up, I've fished the Passaic 4 times and haven't gotten a thing yet.

Fished it from shore twice. One I don't count because I was there barely a half hour. The other I was there about an hour and a half had a number of violent strikes on a spinnerbait, but no hookups. Also had a very large bass (4+ lbs) take a crankbait, but it jumped and spit the hook. My one extended day of fishing there out of my canoe, I caught my first pike ever (30") on one of my first casts, then nothing the rest of the day. I see promise there.

[Chrisper4694]

it's just crazy how you see a place someone gets owned on and you think well i do well there and i'm not doing anything special haha and visa versa, it has to be a mental thing hahaha.

if you don't know rvr, troll it, it's the best way to learn it.

pass river can be awesome, change spots, stick with the lures people say work, i always see the same stuff, anything flashy.

am i really the only one that gets beat up on budd? no one else mentioned it!

[gwl2oneida]

Skunksville is by far the worst most discouraging body of water I've ever fished. Carpet bombed with tip ups, silently paddled in a ft of water on north end. I just don't even see anything. I know of one angler on this board who has successfully figured out the walleyes after countless hours and many lost lures. Commendable but way too involved for my liking.

[bunker dunker]

skunksville for sure!!!!!that place just wears me thin.

[Lard Almighty]

Manasquan River. I hear of people regularly catching big trout there, but I've never caught anything bigger than 10 inches after numerous trips. I've just about given up on that muddy ditch!

[acaravaglia]

Monks the skunks for sure. Ill never fish there again (unless there is a M&G there with booze and good company. It will be really just to hang out and BS.

[Eskimo]

I fish Spruce weekly during the year and am quite surprised that all the hours I have on that lake that I have only caught three or four Pike as well!!!


And the strange thing is Fish & Game stocks A LOT of pike in that reservoir, but relatively few of them grow to a size where they can be caught on a hook.

This is the pike stocking for Spruce Run in 2013:
Spruce Run Reservoir 67,050
Spruce Run Reservoir 4,884
Spruce Run Reservoir 1,839

Now this is the stocking for the Passaic River in 2013:
Passaic River 37,650

That's a big difference - yet the Passaic River is a thriving Pike fishery and Spruce Run barely has any pike at all. What is up with that?
http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/pdf/2014/htown_stocking_np13.pdf

As for getting skunked, I usually get skunked at Round Valley Reservoir.
Over the course of my lifetime, I've had two amazing days fishing from the shore where the trout were like hungry puppies eagerly pouncing on every piece of powerbait I cast to them. I've had a few other days where I landed a trout or two. But the vast majority of the time I fish there I just get skunked.



.

[phil]

And the strange thing is Fish & Game stocks A LOT of pike in that reservoir, but relatively few of them grow to a size where they can be caught on a hook.

This is the pike stocking for Spruce Run in 2013:
Spruce Run Reservoir 67,050
Spruce Run Reservoir 4,884
Spruce Run Reservoir 1,839

Now this is the stocking for the Passaic River in 2013:
Passaic River 37,650

That's a big difference - yet the Passaic River is a thriving Pike fishery and Spruce Run barely has any pike at all. What is up with that?
http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/pdf/2014/htown_stocking_np13.pdf

As for getting skunked, I usually get skunked at Round Valley Reservoir.
Over the course of my lifetime, I've had two amazing days fishing from the shore where the trout were like hungry puppies eagerly pouncing on every piece of powerbait I cast to them. I've had a few other days where I landed a trout or two. But the vast majority of the time I fish there I just get skunked.



.


like farrington, until I see a pike come out of there with my own eyes ill never believe they are in there :confused:

[Andrushkin33]

Ahhh the place that gets you nothing my draws you time after time.

Well to me that would be .... don't hate me now .... but it is Hopatcong.

Yes I said it. That darn lake. Rarely I been productive there and still go time after time. Don't know why but it always been no good to me.

What I noticed though everytime I go somewhere to target a specific fish that's when I get the least results. Everytime go just to fish results were absolutely the best. The less I care about what I will catch the more productive that body of water turns out to be.

Side note. It did take me 3 months to catch my first bass in Farrington since my teens this summer. Never caught another one after that but man for 3 months I was after that elusive bass. Now if I can only pull out a pike or trout from there my list for all the species for that lake will be crossed of. You hear that fish .... I am coming for you.

Andre

[Chrisper4694]

Hopatcong... I can see it from my house but like getanet... I have a love hate! Mostly not even because of the fishing but because I have just an electric motor Jon boat and there are only 3 free launches I know of plus you just can't fish there daytime in summer!

Besides that I'll fish there a few times and catch next to nothing thinking, wow I used to do better from the dock with no boat! But then you run into absolute monsters! Huge fish in there! Yet so much different habitat you really need to know what you're doing to get any kind of consistency there. I don't know the lake well enough and I won't learn it from my little Jon boat so maybe when I get a real boat haha.

Here's some old school monsters from the cong though that I've ran into luckily enough

[Chrisper4694]

Won't let me post more than 1 pic... Idk

[Jigman13]

Dayyyyum! How big were those eyes dude?

[HerringKing]

Lake Mercer

[Chrisper4694]

28" and 28.5"... Now to get one through the damn ice!

[kcritch]

The only places I get Skunked regularly are...
Round Valley
Spruce Run
Raritan River - But only the South Branch the North Branch and the main stem.
Little Swarts
Big Swarts
Oxford Furnace
Cranberry Lake
Carnegie Lake
D&R Canal - But only between the Raritan and the Delaware Rivers
Merrill Creek
The Delaware River - Only the part that borders NJ
Lake Hopatcong
Manasquan Reservoir
Bedminster Pond
Colonial Lake
Farrington
Mercer
Assunpink
Stony Brook Lake
Aeroflex
Lake Musconetcong
and for salt just the Atlantic Ocean.

And I aint lyin'!!!!:mad:

[Shameless14]

Manasquan reservoir. Watched videos, read articles, catch fish on other lakes ON THE SAME DAY but I can never buy a bite on that lake to save my ass. Also, I've caught dozens of hybrids out of there but none larger than 15 inches :confused: Its super frustrating as I live only 30 mins away. oh well must just be me. :rolleyes:

[Cshadis92]

Musconetcong river. Of that ENTIRE river, I have caught no more than 4 fish, all from bloomsbury. God that river is pretty to look at but so bad for me to fish. Haha

[MaCe1]

Manasquan Reservoir, I've kayaked there a bunch of times and have yet to catch a fish. Next is Split Rock Reservoir, I finally caught a small bass after 7-8 trips. I don't do well in the deeper waters.

[Chrisper4694]

split rock has been decent to me as well as monksville, considering i had to learn both solo with no tips other than what i could scrounge up randomly online.

my best advice would be to hit those lakes during a season where you'd expect the target fish to be more predictable. so I'd hit split rock in the spring and target the weeds growing in the shallows maybe for example and have a good chance of hooking a largemouth (even if your optimal target is sm bass) just to get some confidence for the lake.

I'd say keep it simple and just try to catch something, anything, to start.

i'll try to heed my own advice for budd lake...but damnit if there is any structure in there, i can't find it...the damn place is like a barren waste bowl of nothing!!!.....sorry haha

[jmurr711]

like farrington, until I see a pike come out of there with my own eyes ill never believe they are in there :confused:

would be my nominee as I really do not do much freshwater fishing but i used to go there as a kid & caught 2 pike no bigger than a good sized pickerel in like 20 trips usualy saved the skunk by catching a bluegill on something

[EJS]

It's never where I fish, it's actually who I fish with. I have a friend who I fish with from time to time, no matter where I fish, if he is there... Skunked!

[jimcnj]

Headgates-3 times. Caught one sunfish. Saw a snake. Will return.

[CPR1]

Skunksville, Dead Sea, whatever you want to call it. I have vowed never to go back to the Ville. Second is Pompton Lake. I go there every spring to run my first boat trip because it is iced out pretty early. I have made many trips and can never get bit. Anyone have any success on Pompton in the very early season? I know the guys do well catching panfish from the bridge. I have joined in and caught lots of crappies and perch. Just can't get the bass or pike to bite early there.

[Skunk City]

Skunksville, Dead Sea, whatever you want to call it. I have vowed never to go back to the Ville. Second is Pompton Lake. I go there every spring to run my first boat trip because it is iced out pretty early. I have made many trips and can never get bit. Anyone have any success on Pompton in the very early season? I know the guys do well catching panfish from the bridge. I have joined in and caught lots of crappies and perch. Just can't get the bass or pike to bite early there.

I've done very well Crappie fishing after ice out there, bobber and jig combo.

[Anthony]

Echo Lake !

It happens like this every time:

http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag96/jsels/The8StagesofgettingSkunked_zps20917acc.jpg (http://s1300.photobucket.com/user/jsels/media/The8StagesofgettingSkunked_zps20917acc.jpg.html)

I have an echo lake story...way back when I used to musky fish..i was fishing on a Saturday and making cast after cast over a big weed flat, I had follow after follow but no fish. I went back on Sunday and with no follows but caught one nice musky.

Also, Echo was the 1st time I caught a musky doing a figure 8 at the boat...that was cool.