~*~ Spruce Run 06-20-2015 ~*~

[FASTEDDIE29]

There used to be some rather large Perch in that place. Wonder if anyone has caught any recently! You da man Andre!

[Chrisper4694]

Sounds like a good day that's what rain gear is for. Though nightmares coming from huge fish lost! I'm about to eat and go avenge my last Muskie hunt. I hope I don't have to post another 'almost got em' report!

[Andrushkin33]

Chris,

You'll get them. There got to be one hungry enough to strike and why not today.

Eddy,

I am sure they out there. I don't use fishfinders since well, I more of a try and error kind of guy. Turns out my nose for fish still works since every spot I picked out we landed at least one. From all spots I think we only skunked at two so good day all around.

One spot we picked was loaded with pretty much everything. Pike, Perch, Catfish, Bass and Carp were all round us.

Spots for the pikeathon were marked so you will have some competition coming your way.

Fish on

Andre

[Eskimo]

.

Originally Posted by FASTEDDIE29

There used to be some rather large Perch in that place. Wonder if anyone has caught any recently! You da man Andre!

There used to be a lot of really big Yellow Perch. People were anticipating the state record to fall from one of the perch from that lake.

But then the big perch just stopped appearing. There are still Yellow Perch in the lake, just not the big schools of humpback jumbos perch there used to be. They're mostly small-medium sized and skinny.

I'm not a fisheries biologist, but if I had to guess what changed I would blame:

a) White perch - I've noticed their population creeping up every year. Maybe the yellows just aren't competing well with the whites.

b) High fishing pressure. Spruce Run is fished hard, every day, all year long. It's suburban location along Route 78 and accessible shoreline guarantee it will receive a lot of anglers and not just the locals. I've noticed people driving all the way from New York to fish there. They're not novice city-folk learning to fish, but slavic-speaking, hard-core anglers who came to New Jersey to fill their freezers!

If it weren't for the constant efforts of the Fish & Wildlife Services to keep it stocked, that fishery would probably have been reduced to sunnies and carp a long time ago.

I suspect the Yellow Perch just aren't living long enough to become jumbos.


.

[Andrushkin33]

Eskimo,

To our surprise not a single white perch was landed even though couple of days before I hit a large school of them.

As far as yellow perch goes. Perch was located in 4 different locations with only one of them being an easy shore access. 3 other spots would require you a very nice hike through the woods.

As far as Slavic speaking fisherman go, trust me hiking through the woods is the last thing on their mind. They would go for an easy shore access and stay at one spot throughout the day.

But I agree place is fished heavily.

Andre

[Eskimo]

Originally Posted by Andrushkin33

Eskimo,

To our surprise not a single white perch was landed even though couple of days before I hit a large school of them.

As far as yellow perch goes. Perch was located in 4 different locations with only one of them being an easy shore access. 3 other spots would require you a very nice hike through the woods.

As far as Slavic speaking fisherman go, trust me hiking through the woods is the last thing on their mind. They would go for an easy shore access and stay at one spot throughout the day.

But I agree place is fished heavily.

Andre

Never underestimate a determined bucketeer. At another lake, I saw a group of those guys on mountain bikes with their buckets strapped to their backs!

Yeah, white perch can be hit-or-miss. I guess because they school and you're either on the school or you're not.

I think it was two years ago where I stumbled onto a school of them spawning in a cove. They absolutely swarmed my kayak like piranha. While I was unhooking one fish, the other fish would see the lure dangling over the side of the boat and hook themselves on it. Absolute chaos!


.