The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

With the annual dead period between open water and ice upon us, I figured this would be a good way to get the forum going again. Feel free to share your best pictures, stories, personal bests, progress, etc. of 2014. Maybe Andy can even sticky it for the time being :p.

With that being said, here are the highlights of my year.

-opened 2014 with a kickass ice season. LOTS of big Pickerel, including two personal bests in one day at 25.5" and 26". New PB Channel Cat, also through the ice at 26".

-killer Herring spawn with some crazy nights on the Big Lake. Many multi-Walleye/Hybrid trips.

-great summer in the kayak exploring new sections of river away from the beaten path. 36", 37", 38", 39" and new PB 40" Pike, all from the yak.

-the fat lady has not yet sung on open water fishing this year, but have had a so-so fall. Crazy winds every weekend have not made it easy, but still managed some quality fish. Stayed local and targeted seasonal migrants mixed with with trips to the big lakes and the Big D.

Thanks to all my buddies for making it fun, putting me on fish and teaching me. ScowardNJ, FastEddie, MikeyTopaz, GWLtoOneida, Jigman13, GetANet, DuckorBleed, BassPilot, Bling306, JimmytheGreek, Marcin, Tom, Barry and whoever else I forgot, let's get 'em in 2015.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...pstaamasgr.jpg

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Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Wow... Great post and photos. You had some 2014!!

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

It's been a wonderful year of fishing so far. Here are some of my highlights. All NJ fish except the top one.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...71f45faafcf7f8
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...e6&oe=54FFBBB5
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...98&oe=550A11D7
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...2e&oe=5506F5CA
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...45&oe=54FE22FD
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...0503253ab71afd
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...cec96f8aebb150
https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...a8&oe=5511743A
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...75&oe=551AE813
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...bf07dbf0b9558f

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

[URL=http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/Mikeytopaz/media/Mobile%20Uploads/10387465_835097586518045_8177357626826756776_n_zps gwx2svzs.jpg.html]http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...psgwx2svzs.jpg[/URL[URL=http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/Mikeytopaz/media/Mobile%20Uploads/10306257_825332157494588_8418428015946225848_n_zps yuz1z3fq.jpg.html]http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...psyuz1z3fq.jpg[/URL[URL=http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/Mikeytopaz/media/Mobile%20Uploads/10487182_888110871216716_4590451630270505674_n_zps l4kc2xxv.jpg.html]http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...psl4kc2xxv.jpg[/URL[URL=http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/Mikeytopaz/media/Mobile%20Uploads/10675748_928169113877558_6721019193982265180_n_zps nx983oia.jpg.html]http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...psnx983oia.jpg[/URL[URL=http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/Mikeytopaz/media/Mobile%20Uploads/10468343_890049204356216_3250311039929559328_n_zps lnquqiir.jpg.html]http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...pslnquqiir.jpg[/URL[URL=http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/Mikeytopaz/media/Mobile%20Uploads/1797488_777709642256840_1665556825_n_zpslxpdqopw.j pg.html]http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...pslxpdqopw.jpg[/URLhttp://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...pskqpxsllh.jpghttp://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...psr8fwuwcn.jpg[URL=http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/Mikeytopaz/media/Mobile%20Uploads/1972309_780341235327014_451515358_n_zpsebwkshlj.jp g.html]http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...psebwkshlj.jpg[/URLhttp://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...pshs7n4fsd.jpg

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

WOW!!!!:eek:Some real NJ beasts all over the place! Great fish guys! i gotta say I guess it was a slow year for me. Boat problems and one too many extra curricular activities kept me away from the water for too long. Got int some fish this fall, nothing to brag about. It's not over yet that's for sure. There's fish to catch in our great little state 365 days a year. TIGHT LINEZ!!!:D

Banner start to the year ice fishing, some nice fat LM.
http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...psdd912166.jpg
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http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...ps44b6d340.jpg
http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...psbbd44b21.jpg

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4769cd9e.jpg
http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9723ebe7.jpg
http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...ps665d8a4c.jpg
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http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...pse54d91e3.jpg
Overall I guess it was a good year with a variety of species caught. Biggest Pike for me this year was caught with Rob during the PIKE-A-THON. Loads of Pike between 30-36 inches for me this year. I'm not sure where that pic is. Other nice catches are, couple of 20 inch Smallies, bunch of 5lb LM through the ice, Buncha nice Walleye over 24 inches, the biggest being 26 inches, weight unknown. Biggest Hybrid of the year was 25.5 inches. Surprise catch of the year had to be the damn Carp on a spinnerbait, what treat it was chasing this beast up and down the muddy banks. GOOD TIMES! Biggest Flathead of the year went 15lbs 9ozs or so, seemed to be a slow year for them. That's all I got fellaz. TIGHT LINEZ!!!:D

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

While I didnt have any monster catches this season, I have a ton of great memories. Monster musky hunt with skunk city, ice with duck or bleed and the pines lake crew, fluke with scoward also my first eyeball almost landed. Salmon river fly fishing with mikey topaz n crew. The best memories of this summer were with you Njf'ers. Bring on ice 2015.

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

I'd share but I can't figure out how to put the montage pics on here. Nice fish though guys!

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Download the "Photo Grid" app, it's free and very easy to make them.

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

.


Amazing pics gents.

I don't have any jaw-dropping pics, but I have a few favorites from this summer.

The bass is twenty inches long and according to the length-weight charts is damn-near five pounds.

The pickerel is over twenty-four inches long. Not much by pike standards, but it's the biggest chain pickerel I ever caught.

What is amazing to me is both of these fish were caught in the same tiny heavily-fished pond located in a park. These bass are so heavily fished, at least one bass a day will barf up somebody else's plastic worm after you catch it.

Despite the fishing pressure, this pond manages to reliably produce good-sized bass. I believe it's due to pure serendipity that the minority of bass fishermen that kill bass just haven't discovered this pond....yet.
Just more evidence that any fertile pond is capable of producing trophy sized fish if some people can restrain their greed long enough to put the bass back in the water instead of on a stringer.


.

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Good group of guys and grey fisherman on here good job all

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3...pswubz3gpq.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3...pscktvjjbg.jpg

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Oh yea skunk what a great photo app

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

2014 was a great year!

The year started off being reintroduced to hard water fishing after too long of a time.
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...102591EB61.jpg

In early spring The Mugger came along which quickly lead to a walleye addiction and also put an end to the notorious skunking at Monksville.
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...6544109fca.jpg

Had a solid spring striper run and an epic fall run in the ocean and on the Hack. Summer salt was typical catching the usual NJ inshore suspects. Got my fist trigger.
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...B5CFC0EB4A.jpg

And 3 PB's within a 7 day time frame was something to remember also.
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...b8f050f4b4.jpg

Thanks to the whole NJFishing crew. The Ice, The Mugger, the eye's, and the Monksville conquest would of never happened if wasn't for the maniacs in this group!

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Great lookin pics all around fellaz!!! Felt like it was a lil slow catching, but def can't complain with a lot of crazy & cool memories.

So mainly targeting pike, here's a few landed this year. The skinny one was kind of a pb because I caught it with my bare hands! No bait, no hooks, no net! Even though my actual pb is 18lbs,(not 2014), it was great to experience.
Also are some largemouth that seemed hearty but still not close to my pb @7lbs.
I've been fishing for 3 years now & though they aren't close to pics produced, some are like fishing milestones for me,lol.! But still great to hook into a new type of fish, whatever it might be. So here's my only 2 walleyes & best 2 stripers so far. Def will be seeking more next year.
Tight linez fellaz, lets see dem pics!!!

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/...psb2b551e2.jpg

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2990cad6.jpg

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9621c012.jpg

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Ahhh so goes by another year...

Officially this year my fishing started in July .... before that I rarely got out having taking a very very long rest. I think last time I was out fishing was back in 98.

Anyways ...since I am too lazy to organize all the pictures I have here is a quick run down of what the year had in store for me.

Finally managed to get the bass out of Farrington ...finally ...last time I caught one there was back in 97 so its been a long way coming.

2 PB chain pickerels also from Farrington 26 and 27 inches.

First salmon, trout and steel courtesy of the Pulaski and Olcott runs

First hybrid courtesy of the Spruce run and some insight from folks here.

Pretty much the whole time fishing was a first after first and surprise after surprise ....

Big big thanks to everyone here. I am yet to meet most of you crazy lunatics but it just a matter of time.

I guess two best stories of the season were discovering a small channel by my house in summer that was loaded with carp. And when I say loaded ...it was loaded. Were pulling them out on average one every 5 minutes on a very secret bait that I know no one ever used before and will call me a liar ....LoL ...at least that's what my friends did until I show them the spot and how its done ....

Second best story was courtesy of some lake in Monticello. Got there on Friday night and left 4 lines overnight. Not on reels mind you just tied them up to the pier. Next morning 3 lines had some catfish on them and 4th one was snapped. Took my friends boat out and spend all morning on the lake without so much of a bite. Finally when I decided to wrap it up ...I got the hit I been waiting for ..... After a brief struggle managed to land a golden carp ...about 9lbs. On a lure... Wtf I thought to myself ....how that even happened... Went to remove it and saw that lure caught against a small tree branch and not the fish... Around the tree branch a line was wrapped around and that was the line that had a fish on ...Better yet after looking at that line t turned out it was the same one that I left overnight and was snapped.... That's right fish ....you cannot get away from me no matter how you try ...

Overall ....looking toward some ice fishing with you all

Tight Lines

Andre

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

frosted mini wheats by any chance?

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Michigan cricket!!!!!!!! Oooooooops, shouldn't have said that. Now everyone will know the secret bait.......................:)

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

~*~ LoL ~*~

All valid and good ideas but not quite.... Actually it was mulberries...

I know I know I wouldn't belive it either but those sucker would not take anything but those mulberries ... They come out from Raritan to spawn and all I have around this canal is mulberries trees ... I saw them feeding on them when berries dropped in water so I tried it out and man it worked like magic .... Both on carp and catfish .... I doubt it would work in other areas though. If I find the videos ill post it to prove it but for now just take my word on this.

Andre

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

All great pics guys. Shows whats possible in our little state. Keep em coming!

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

I had many great experiences this year, most of which I was fortunate enough to catch on video. Just a few of my favorites:

On May 12, I fished the Raritan in hopes of hooking a big smallmouth. I did just that, but was also surprised when a 13-lb carp tried to make off with my grub.

On May 31, I went to a lake I never fished before and knew noting about, with a lure I had never used before, and proceeded to hammer largemouths one after the other.

On June 14, My dad and I fished Lake Otsego in Cooperstown, and in a rare occurrence, dear old Dad wiped the floor with me at my own game.

On June 28 and 29, I fished two Connecticut lakes with the Bassmaster Classic runner-up. Probably the closest I will ever get to fishing the Classic myself.

Of course I also went on my annual float trips on the Delaware, with each trip yielding excellent fish and good times. Plus a few walleye fillets as a bonus.

I won't post links to each individual video, you can check them all out at my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOG...XYidJay9irG9Zw

Here's hoping that 2015 yields even more great memories out on the water! :)

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

I am blessed to have great spots to fish in and once again it was a very good year.

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Very nice Anthony!

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

GREAT JOB all!!! Real nice fish. I had a decent year myself. Didn't get out as much as I would've liked but I guess that's life!! Still, got to fish some new places, caught a bunch of fish, fished with some new people's, and had some good times!! Here's a few of the better ones...

.http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...IMAG0960_1.jpg.....

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...G/IMAG0161.jpg.......

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...G/IMAG0321.jpg......

.http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...G/IMAG0613.jpg.........

.http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...IMAG0181_1.jpg

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...G/IMAG2018.jpg........

.http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...G/IMAG1149.jpg........

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...IMAG1117_1.jpg........

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...IMAG0106_1.jpg........

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...IMAG0103_1.jpg

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...G/IMAG0303.jpg..........

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...G/IMAG0682.jpg........

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...IMAG0512_1.jpg.......

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/...TSHOT002_1.jpg

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/a...pse019bb6c.jpg

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/a...psdf12fe80.jpg

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/a...pscdc4801f.jpg

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd9854b4e.jpg

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/a...psc11506bb.jpg

Highlight of the year was this 8 foot 200+ pound sandtiger caught on a penn 8500 size reel from the beach.

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd9092651.jpg


Looking back at these pics I had an awesome year. I can't wait to see what this coming year has in store. Tight lines to everyone

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

2014 pics

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Been a good year on the raritan,mostly targeted Eye's bagging around 20 or so from 8'' to 26".One big bass at 20lbs and a beast of flathead.
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Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Here are some of mine. Gotta dig thru a few more folders to make another grid. Highlights:

-42.5" northern pike thru the ice
-27.5" late autumn river walleye
-26" late autumn river walleye
-22" inch Halloween hybrid
-6 lb lmb thru the ice
-6 lb lmb not thru the ice
-1st tiger trout

Gotta dig up some of my offshore pics, some of the fat kitty cats I got this year, and the big smallies netted on the GetANet!

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Helluva year pal, very impressive!

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Thanks dude. The pike and walleye were prob my tops... The pike, which u were there for, was like 25 lbs lol and that walleye had to be all of 9 lbs--it was ridiculousLy faaaat! And the pb smallie I got with dale in late spring. It was 21"... Fat as hell! We had a bunch of solid smallies this past spring.

Putting another grid together now...

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

One more collage...

-22lb golden tile during an offshore trip on my dads ride (my first time deep dropping)
-Step son's 1st trout on opening day
-Step son's 1st fluke on my dads ride out in Montauk... Fish was just under 5 lbs! And he did it all on his own!
-Not my pb smallie, but the color pattern was sick on that fish
-4.7 lb brown aboard the GetANet early June 2014

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Hope these files come through...

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Can't forget my biggest hybrid. & one for my son & a brother. That's some.

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

here we go. 2014 had a few firsts, first pike, carp, salmon, and laker. also got a pb crappie. enjoy :D

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ps186db079.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ps27bd67de.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j2...psf825adc3.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ps2061b89a.jpg
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Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Man Looks like you get around!!!! Sweet Pics Bro!!!!!!!
This past year was quite rewarding to myself as well but too lazy to dig and download the pics!
Gotta better things to do like maintaining my big bait livewell with a bunch of nice big goldens ready to be devoured this ice season!!!!:eek:

I caught my PB walleye early this year as well as my PB Smallie which nicknamed me "2014 CHAMPION" and last but not least my 1st and PB true strain and Tiger Musky's on Back to Back trips to wrap up the year!!!!

It's was a year filled with adventures and a few mishaps along the way.

All I can say is I know everyone can't spend as much time on the water as I do which I am so grateful for but You only get out what you put in! Don't be afraid to try to fish for something new or different. There is SO much info here available to you that really needs to be taken advantage of and I promise you that you will not be disappointed!

My advise is be a MULTI-SPECIES angler, learn the times when the bite is on for those fish and change accordingly as the season changes and you will be catching fish year round!!!! :D

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Not a big fish by some standards but this was my first pike. 25 inches on a light rod. In 2015 i hope to catch another first. Maybe a walleye or a musky.

Re: The "Best of 2014" thread.
 

Ya never forget the First!!!!!! :D:D:D