fishing this year for me was decent id give it a 3.5/5. had lots of good days and bad days but in the end managed at least a thousand fish from all different species.
started off with bluegill/perch and crappie fishing in march and april. did lots of trout fishing on the south branch through april and may, caught about 25 brooks, browns and rainbows including a PB fat brookie at 17" 3 lbs. had good channel cat action in the spring too. caught lots of rockbass in april-may on ultralight, they are real fun. been using lures 100% of the time for LM bass this year and really started getting into it. nothing big but lots of 1-3 lbers once caught 9 in a day on senkos in a local pond not bad.
in summer i mainly did catfish and carp. caught my PB catfish, 27" from the D&R canal, also my PB carp 35" probably 20 lbs. did mainly night fishing and got hundreds of bullheads on chiken liver. bullheads were the #1 freshwater fish in terms of quantity. had tons of fish frys throughout july and august. caught my first big channel catfish on cutbait also. also got hundreds of bluegills on trout magnets, they all seem to congregate in the shallows of the canal. did some smallmouth fishing at neshanic station and managed only a few short ones around 8-11" and a ton of sunnies. caught a few more smallies off the lock at griggstown. still did lots of bass fishing in august and tried new spots like lake weamaconk? (the one in englishtown) prospertown lake and turkey swamp. caught some slab bluegills and perch at the squan reservoir. caught a few channels in the big d too. not to mention a new trout stream i discovered in summer and caught some spring stockies about to die from warm water so i caught all six of em in this one deep hole in the stream and took em home for dinner.
september was pretty much the same deal lots of bullheads, channels and bass but i was busy with college so i didnt get much time to fish. october i caught my first few bass on topwaters. found a new channel catfish spot that will be really productive in the spring im sure. i caught 4 channels within 10 minutes in water temps barley 60 degrees. no joke. a new record for me and i will NEVER tell any of u guys about it. it was cast, wait 30-60 seconds and hookup like nothing. trout fishing sucked in the fall thought only caught one 10" at the gorge, better luck next year. for the past month just been doing striper fishing from the surf. today i fished the same channel cat spot and not much action just 2 small ones and a bullhead in 2 hours so that marks the end of freshwater for the year. might try for trout a few more times at the KLG but thats it.
good luck next year, tight lines
-Nick
