Passaic River Question

[pulltaug]

I mainly fish salt water - BUT the boat is not in the water yet SO I thought I'd give the Passaic a try for PIKE and SMALLIES....
I don't know the Passaic AT ALL. I hear stories...below the falls...above the falls...
So here are a couple of questons I have and am hoping SOMEONE can help. I am thinking of going Sunday to try it out.

1. Areas: I am not looking for spot burning or specifics. General areas, but not "above the falls" or "below the falls" ...Easy access spots where I can fish from shore with success....

2.Bait: Live? Lures? Where do I buy shiners?

3. Setup - I was going to use a seeker spin cast rod that I normally use for fluke. It is spooled with 20 lb braid. Steel leaders recommended for Pike?

Any info is helpful - I would like to catch fish...and am looking for straight up honest advice.

Thanks
PullTaug

[Skunk City]

Originally Posted by pulltaug

I mainly fish salt water - BUT the boat is not in the water yet SO I thought I'd give the Passaic a try for PIKE and SMALLIES....
I don't know the Passaic AT ALL. I hear stories...below the falls...above the falls...
So here are a couple of questons I have and am hoping SOMEONE can help. I am thinking of going Sunday to try it out.

1. Areas: I am not looking for spot burning or specifics. General areas, but not "above the falls" or "below the falls" ...Easy access spots where I can fish from shore with success....

2.Bait: Live? Lures? Where do I buy shiners?

3. Setup - I was going to use a seeker spin cast rod that I normally use for fluke. It is spooled with 20 lb braid. Steel leaders recommended for Pike?

Any info is helpful - I would like to catch fish...and am looking for straight up honest advice.

Thanks
PullTaug

The best tool I've found to find good fishing spots on the Passaic has been Google Maps and Bing Maps. The satellite view in both are very good, with Bing being a little better because it has Birdseye view, which lets you zoom in a little closer than Google.

That being said, I would check out the areas around Two Bridges Rd. and Fairfield Rd. in Wayne, as well as the areas near Rt. 46 and Bloomfield Ave. It's a HUGE river, so there may be spots you find that may be less pressured. I've found a few that were no more than a 5 minute walk off the road that provided secluded, low pressure fishing. I'd love to give you specific spots, but I've spent a lot of time researching and exploring to find spots that consistently produce for me. Like I said, it's a huge river thats just starting to "wake up" after the winter. You should be on some fish relatively quickly.

As for bait, the ticket now seems to be large shiners. The bigger, the better. Meltzers in Garfield, as well as Totowa Bait and Tackle in Paterson carry them. The water temps are still in the low 40's, so if you're using lures, a very slow presentation is needed. As for leader, I use either steel leader or 25lb+ flouro.

Hope this helped. Best of luck and remember to post photos and reports!

[flyboy1]

Skunk City said it pretty well. Believe it or not any spot in the Passaic can be hot and produce. I would suggest fish anywhere above the dundee falls and up.... If you have a car top yak or canoe, etc... I would suggest fishing dundee lake (above the dundee falls).... This area has produced monster pike for me.

For bait shiners work well but I personally dont like live lining because I like the challenge of trying to figure out how to entice fish with lures... If you use lures I would suggest silver spoons, bright colored jerk/stick baits...