Re: Few decent largemouth
 

Godrew same in a few lakes I'm fishing. Crappy have held up fairly well but perch populations have declined significantly. What perch there are are jumbos but quantity has taken a big hit. Fish have either relocated within the system or something happened to the younger age class fish or spawn, not sure which. When I fish Hopatcong, and other bodies of water with yellow perch, I almost always see perch ribbons on fallen trees in coves in late March or early April and gravel beds with some amount of weed growth or brush in tight to the shoreline. In the lakes I've seen a drop off in, I see no ribbons which means either the perch are spawning deeper or for some reason not spawning at all which would be a concern. The big girls we've caught are loaded with eggs, what's happening to them we have no idea.

With today's temps and next week, hopefully increased water temps will get the crappie spawn in full gear and put bass in a pre spawn mode. Best of luck to you. Heading out now, hopefully report to follow.

Re: Few decent largemouth
 

the resurgence of late winter temps has everything confused. The water temps are colder than they were in mid march! had 47 on main lake and only 50 in the shallows of hopatcong last night. I find that the crappie bite dies off in mid-april which i attribute to them being pounded to death.

i do miss the banter that was here only a few years ago. made some really good friends through this site. I hate the social media apps but unfortunately it is a necessary evil if you are looking for questions to get answered or fishing reports.

like you said it looks like more seasonable temps are inbound. Things should really get going in the next week or so

Re: Few decent largemouth
 

Nice big bellied buckets! I fish river mostly and temps in Delaware have been holding in mid to upper 40’s and looks like it’s gonna push it over 50 this weekend into high gear although smallmouth bite has been good.

Re: Few decent largemouth
 

Lost more bass today than I landed which is very unusual fishing a keiteck. They usually inhale it. Think with today's wind and belly in the line plus water temps still needing to warm a few degrees, it definitely had an impact on landings. One of the better ones which didn't come undone. Nice healthy bass, any day if temp stay as forecast it should break wide open.

Re: Few decent largemouth
 

hey broad bill if you are asking about crappies on the cong then i will tell you this, the bite was insane in mid march then we had some cold nights and days as well, that seemed to turn things off a bit. it has been real spotty of late. I fished the KDC trout and pickerel contest on the 19th of april and marked a bunch of fish in 12 fow that were not baitfish, i assumed they were crappies but did not really target them as we were fishing for different fish at that time. the fish that are in shallow seem to be small males with some smaller females mixed in. the smaller coves had 12 to 14" fish back in march but april is not working well as of now but with warmer temps on the way i hope things will get back to what it was.. they have to spawn sometime i do not think they had the time to complete the spawning and i am hopeful that things are not over early this year. the fish that i did keep had mostly aquatic insects and not minnows in them that tells me that they are feeding in the weed beds that are available but they will switch to the herring when they get the chance.

Re: Few decent largemouth
 

Alex thanks for the report, pretty much exactly what we saw and I'm of the same opinion that the early action we also saw in March was too condensed to be the entire spawn. At least I hope that's not the case. Think the crazy weather we had pushed them back out and water temps have been consistently too cold for the main wave to move back in. If so, we should see that change this week.