Passaic River Pike - Somerset County

[NJMountainMan]

Hello-

I figured I would introduce myself to this forum, I have been lurking here for the past year and have learned alot about fishing for species other than bass. I have gotten everything from shad in the raritan (released) and large trout in the raritan to muskies up in furnace lake.

I see a bunch of posts about fishing the Passaic for pike and I want to say they are not only up near Paterson but throughout the entire river. I have been getting them down here in Warren (Somerset County) since April. I believe these would have migrated up from Chatham. I caught a small guy while getting lunch today, and I got larger ones up to 30" back on opening day in April. I also saw smaller ones (4-6") along the banks of the Passaic river as well today.

What kind of bait do you guys use for pike? I have been getting them on cheapo wal-mart $2 dollar lures.

Anyway, I look forward to talking about fishing with you guys.

Lil Pike from 11/9


Pike from April

[AndyS]

WELCOME to the site. All good folks here willing to exchange tons of info, some of it comes in the form of Private Messages see keep an eye out.
Nice pike BTW !

[Skunk City]

Interesting stuff!!! Sounds like your section of river has been getting some love from F&W.

[FASTEDDIE29]

From the Great Swamp all the way to the tidal waters is where the Pike roam. Good catches man, and welcome to the site! There's plenty of info on here regarding Passaic Pike. Do a search and you will find what your looking for. TIGHT LINEZ!!!

[MikeNJ]

Welcome and nice catches! I know a lot of guys like to use shiners as bait to catch pike.

[Doug Vitale]

There is also a good pickerel population in the Passaic in that area. I caught plenty of them (all small) around the Valley Road (Rt. 512) bridge.

Over the years I've had many productive days of trout fishing in the Passaic upstream from Warren. Photos from my last outing can be found here:

http://www.njfishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59245

[NorthJerzyG]

Nice fish! And, Welcome!!!

[NJMountainMan]

I went out early in the AM in a different spot this morning and got a couple of more pike. The third cast in I threw it unknowingly on top of a very large fish. Later on I saw a large one go after my lure and it looked like a gator. Hopefully I can land this monster. I got bunch of hits and landed two. The bass were hitting the large lures as well and I got a couple of decent size fish.. One pike was about 24" and I would say the other one was probably 30". It made my pole bend like a twig. I slipped into the water at one point because of the muddy banks and called it a day.

Larger Pike



Smaller Pike

[Eskimo]

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Welcome to the site NJMountain Man. Those are some great catches. It's really great to see people doing well on that section of river. As a kid in the 1980's, I fished that area a lot for carp and bullheads.

I now live where the Dead River meets the Passaic River in Basking Ridge, but I never see any pike. I just assumed the dams in Millburn and Chatham kept the pike from migrating up to those Northern reaches of the river. But then, I almost never kayak that portion of the river because fallen trees and low water force the paddler to portage too often. (Slogging through mud while you drag a kayak through pricker bushes is not much fun).

I know there are a few pike out there, though. Every spring, I see pictures on my Facebook page where trout anglers throwing small inline spinners are surprised to catch big pike.



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Way to find em .....they are all over the river....good job!!!