London Fog on the RR 8-29-14

[Jigman13]

Hit the RR last night on a solo mission. Bucket of small sunnies, check. Plug box, check. Head lamp and lantern, check. Bug spray, check. Off I went. Got on the river around 11 PMish. Set my bait rod with a small gill and launched her out to the depths. Wedged the rod good and tight (giggity), loosened the drag, and added an audible enhancement tool in the event of a strike, then picked my plug of choice--my Hopatcong assassin from earlier in the year sufficed.

3rd cast with the plug rod and BAM! I'm on. Get it to my feet--nice lil 18" walleye. Quick pic and release, check the line and hooks. All good so I continue casting. Maybe 10-15 mins later I hear a frantic ringing. I look over and my bait rod is doubled over and the drag is singing! Sweet! I grabbed the rod, opened the bail, tightened the drag, reeled down and set the hook--I'm in. The fish starts flying downstream. After a 10 minute tussle I land her--the biggest channel cat I've ever caught. It was between 28-30"! Few crappy pics (the plug box is 14" as a reference), a bit of revival, and off she swam! Sweet! Reset with another gill and launch her down.

Start casting the plug again and nailed another walleye about 15-20 mins later. Similar size as the 1st, give or take an inch. I then moved to the other side of my bait rod and work a slower side of the area I've been fishing and the plug gets popped 10 ft from me--small bronze! Nice... trifecta in the dark. Quick pic and release. Hit a bit of a lull after that which lasted about an hour or so. Started casting upstream again and shortly after got my last walleye of the night. Again, cookie cutter ~18" fish. Three keeper eyes on the RR at night sounds good to me!

Nearing 3 AM, I switched the bait rod to a chunk vs a live gill. I got stripped of my bait once and put another chunk on but it wasnt touched. I switch from a black/silver plug to a blue/silver plug and start casting to the slower water where I caught the 1st smallie... 2nd cast BAMMMM! Hooked up--solid fish! Ripping drag and doing aerials, then darts at my feet and almost beaches itself only to turn right back around and go ape sh*t again! Get the fish near shore and lip her--a solid 19-20" smallie! Snapped some pics, revived her and off she swam. Waited it out with bait and plugs for about another 20 mins before calling a quits.

Not too shabby... 3 walleyes, 2 SMBs and a big ass channel cat. Here's some fish porn. Some are blurry, some are clean. But its ALL good! Hope you're all out there this wknd tearing it up!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Sick catch! All quality fish from the river. Giant Channel, sweet Bronze and some very nice river Eyes to cap off an excellent mixed bag. AWESOME catch dude!!!

[jimcnj]

Fun night! I wish I could stay up past 9!

[AndyS]

Great stuff !!! Been banging away up here on the lower South Branch all week.

[Jigman13]

Thanks guys. Was def a pretty steady evening. Had the opp to get out and put some time in and luckily it paid off.

That's a helluva haul Andy. Can't wait to see what the river is like in 5 yrs when it's virtually tire free!

[bulletbob]

This time of year especially, night fishing is where its at.. You'll catch small stuff during the day, and never realize whats really down there.. Lakes rivers, streams..makes no difference... Very few guys would think you could go to the Raritan and catch walleyes and SMB like that.. They are there, but most guys just don't fish at night any more...bob