First Bass 2017 and then Skunked on the SB

[logs22]

I did a lot of fishing this weekend as I am sure many of you guys did as well taking advantage of the summer-like temps. Friday night managed to catch my first bass of the year and a decent one at that at Nomahegan Park in Cranford. Unfortunately no pics as I was taking dog for a walk and forgot to bring my phone. It was also almost 10 pm in late Feb. so I wasn't really expecting to catch anything although as soon as I realized I had fogotten my phone I figured that would be the night I catch a bass and sure enough it was. Fish was caught on a black jig with a zoom speed craw trailer dragged super slow along the bottom.

Sat. I spent the entire day on the South Branch starting just upstream of the confluence and working my way through Neshanic and then on towards Flemington. I was targeting trout and smallies and my second cast in Neshanic area I was casting a tiny CD Rapala when I hooked into something big. As the fish tore out drag and jumped I realized it was neither a smallmouth or a trout but a good sized LMB (possibly a PB). I got him within about 5 feet and was wading up to my knees and that is when it happened, my 4 lb test snapped and the big one got away. To say i was disappointed would be an understatement. To make matters worse I didn't get another bite all day.

Sunday I hit up a local Union County spot where i had good luck pre-spawn last year in early March. The wind was howling and it was getting cold around sunset but i managed to snag a small dink on a craw colored squarebill crank. Of course this time I remember to bring my phone.

All in all a great weekend, hope everyone else go to enjoy the nice weather.

[AndyS]

You know what question I am going to ask. You are my eyes and ears out there ! Bait fish or bugs on the SB ? Clean or dirty ? (add this info into your posts for me :) )Thanx for the report ! Won't forget that LMB for a while !

[logs22]

You know what question I am going to ask. You are my eyes and ears out there ! Bait fish or bugs on the SB ? Clean or dirty ? (add this info into your posts for me :) )Thanx for the report ! Won't forget that LMB for a while !

I didn't see many baitfish, there were some swarms of bugs on the surface in some of the backwater areas, they looked like small beetles of some sort (sorry I am not a bug/fly expert). I was surprised to see how many carp there were in the Stretch of river flowing through the South Branch reserve in Neshanic Station. The sun was shining bright and the water clarity was very good so as I walked along a small bluff on the river edge I saw many large carp cruising up and down the river. The river overall looked very clean, I didn't see any tires or really any litter at all.

[AndyS]

I'm no bug expert either but I think those big white ones like I see fishing the Upper Delaware river are a good sign. Loads of big carp in the SB at Neshanic.