Deal Lake Pike & Muskies??

[jtjr09]

After reading the article about the Passaic River pike, I started looking into the Deal Lake stockings. I see that they have put a good amount of pike, tiger muskies, and muskies in the lake in the last 6 years.

Has anyone targeted them in the lake? Any luck? Gonna take the boat out in the next couple of weeks and give it a try. I always take my kids there and we crappie and white perch fish, but never tried for the pike or muskies.

[cantcatchme]

Deal lake took on a lot of saltwater from what I heard. Apparently people saw some in the back of the lake after the storm that weren't doing to great. I have fished it a few times but mostly for crappie and large mouth.

[Jerseydix]

Deal definitely took a hit from Sandy. The lake always gets some saltwater I've even spotted Blue Claws swimming near the boat ramp. Not sure how bad the fishkill was. Been poking around there the last few weeks but havent seen much.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201..._restorin.html

[ChaosStarter]

Deal was pretty much ruined from what I've heard. It'll take them a while to get it back to even the sub-par fishing there was.

[dfish28]

They need to put some hybrids or other brackish type fish in there for it to do well... Musky and pike= turtle food

[darrenflynn]

Never targeted pike or muskies but will say that the bass/carp/crappie/perch/catfish fishing is far from sub par

[Lard Almighty]

Originally Posted by dfish28

They need to put some hybrids or other brackish type fish in there for it to do well... Musky and pike= turtle food

A couple years ago there was a massive fish kill in Deal Lake, mostly stripers and herring, which do well in brackish water. I believe lack of oxygen was the culprit.