Merrill Creek

[briansnat]

I only fished Merrill once, on a very hot summer day. But the deep reservoirs like Merrill and Round Valley are difficult for me. I spent most of my life fishing
typical NJ lakes with shallows, weed beds, stumps, down trees and sudden drop-offs from 5 to 15 or 20 feet. Places like Merrill and Round Valley, and even Monksville where the bass seem to hold in deeper water throw me for a loop. My go to lures like an unweighted Senko or T-rigged plastics with light weights don't work.

Someone here suggested that I was fishing for bass too shallow in Round Valley and that is something I will keep in mind the next time I go for bass there. I'm thinking heavier jigs like 1 oz and drop shots and Carolina rigs with 1 oz weights may be the ticket.

Merrill is even stranger to me. It's like a huge bowl and drops of precipitously right at the shore. It's very deep even a few feet from shore. The edge of the standing timber was 40 feet deep. Again I think the key is heavier jigs, Carolina rigs with heavy sinkers and heavy sinkers on drop shots. Something I will try next time I'm looking for bass there.

For trout I'm now armed with two trolling rods with lead core and planing boards. It definitely gets the baits down because I hung up on the bottom in 60 feet of water at Merrill. And now I have a downrigger (thanks to a present from my wife). That should help for lakers.