Quote:
Originally Posted by Billfish715
I saw in the hatchery summary of stocked fish that Lower Echo Lake received some channel catfish. If I remember correctly, there were other lakes in Union County that had been stocked with cats over the years. Is anyone catching any of the channel cats in Echo? I remember they were stocked several times in Echo over the years. .
Any and all of the Union County ponds need to be dredged periodically because of the accumulated sediment. The middle lake in Echo was dredged many years ago and seriously needs dredging again. The same can be said about Surprise, Lenape and other no name ponds. Without any attention, the local ponds in this area will just silt up and die.
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I also noticed that Lower Echo had received some Channel Cats and actually took advantage of the warm weather and rising lake levels to try and catch one of them last night. Of course the only part of the Lower lake free of ice is way up where upper lake feeds the middle lake, and then the open water hugged the far side of the middle lake up to the bridge. The middle lake side of the bridge was open water and the lower lake side was solid ice.
I tried my luck first up near the outlet for upper lake in a relatively deep section close to the current (which was strong from the rain) but protected by a small cove and a lay down/log jam. I also was dead sticking some power bait hoping for one of the last winter trout and had a third pole, my first baitcaster, that I was just messing around with and learning how to use. I didn't have any luck there but something BIG jumped so close to Me it scared the hell out of me. It was probably a carp, but I haven't seen that many carp in Echo so who knows.
Next tried my luck by the bridge using a bottom slip rig and casting under the bridge as well as near the rocks on either side. I was using a treble hook with Cats Blood bait on one rod, and a couple small dead shiners on a octopus hook on the other. Once again no luck. I have been trying the same setup to catch one of the channels in Nomahegan (also stocked) and also in some of the deep pools in the Rahway back in Nomahegan park. You guessed it, nada.
Anyone want to provide some tips? I had only caught catfish by accident until a few weeks ago when I realized during the cold weather months trout an catfish would be better targets than my usual quarry, the LMB. Regardless it's been fun to learn new techniques.
