Recent bag & Musconetcong question - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

Esox Luciano · #1 09-01-2020, 10:21 AM

Have been hitting some different places lately and have had some ups & some downs, naturally. Explored some beat up spots in the northern armpit and though enviromentally threatened, was still able to find a few nice fish. 1st pic is a "blast-cap" bass I picked off while throwing lures near a brook of acid. Sucks this area is soo contaminated with carcinogens! Would be a great place to live had it not be.

Next is a "landfill" Larry and some "crappy" crappies! Another enviromentally f$#ked area that would also be a great place had it not been for the contamination and smells of water treatment in the breeze. Though it's flowing water, the bass looks like it's been effected by melanosis. I only see fish like this in polluted, stagnant water. Have fished here a few times but have only found pike till now.

Also, had one more shot at Point View on Sunday. Wind was rough and made it really choppy out there. Didn't see too much happening around me but was still able to keep switching up & stay connecting. Mostly Larries but broke the ice quick with a small Mollie. My shoulders were beat by the end of the day!

Finally, the question. Hit my boy up and found a promising looking spot on the Musconetcong River. Was out there with a plan to do bassin' all day with whatever by-catches that wanted to show. Broke the ice with my popper on a small pickeral and was picking away at small bass here & there. Nothing stupendous. Question: what are the chances of seeing any esox M on this river? The name can be decieving but was wondering how lucky is one to be considering most guys are out there trouting. Pm me please if you care to hide the help but I would definitely appreciate any feedback from avid area guys. Thanks!

Chrisper4694 · #2 09-01-2020, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Esox Luciano

Have been hitting some different places lately and have had some ups & some downs, naturally. Explored some beat up spots in the northern armpit and though enviromentally threatened, was still able to find a few nice fish. 1st pic is a "blast-cap" bass I picked off while throwing lures near a brook of acid. Sucks this area is soo contaminated with carcinogens! Would be a great place to live had it not be.

Next is a "landfill" Larry and some "crappy" crappies! Another enviromentally f$#ked area that would also be a great place had it not been for the contamination and smells of water treatment in the breeze. Though it's flowing water, the bass looks like it's been effected by melanosis. I only see fish like this in polluted, stagnant water. Have fished here a few times but have only found pike till now.

Also, had one more shot at Point View on Sunday. Wind was rough and made it really choppy out there. Didn't see too much happening around me but was still able to keep switching up & stay connecting. Mostly Larries but broke the ice quick with a small Mollie. My shoulders were beat by the end of the day!

Finally, the question. Hit my boy up and found a promising looking spot on the Musconetcong River. Was out there with a plan to do bassin' all day with whatever by-catches that wanted to show. Broke the ice with my popper on a small pickeral and was picking away at small bass here & there. Nothing stupendous. Question: what are the chances of seeing any esox M on this river? The name can be decieving but was wondering how lucky is one to be considering most guys are out there trouting. Pm me please if you care to hide the help but I would definitely appreciate any feedback from avid area guys. Thanks!

obviously it's not impossible...anything in lake hopatcong can theoretically be in lake musconetcong and the musconetcong river. I've never actually heard of one being caught in the river though, but yeah it's def possible and likely there are at least a few in there at any given time.... def not going to be a high chance area though.

I have heard of walleye and hybrid stripers caught in the river up by the lakes though and they get in from hopatcong all the way past the musconetcong lake into the river.

You could also have anything from the delaware river come back into the parts where it dumps in.

If you want to go musky fishing, jump in the boat with me once the water temps cool down in a week or so.

FASTEDDIE29 · #3 09-01-2020, 01:19 PM

Good looking mixed bag from all over the place. Some solid fish!

I’ve seen them in certain stretches on the river. The deeper, slower stretches usually hold them. Buddy of mine hooked one on a fly rod last November. It was pretty big and he didn’t land it. He was only using a 2lb. test tippet. You can see them basking in the sun sometimes. I’ve seen everything in the Musky except for Sturgeon. But hey, they might be there somewhere too.

thmyorke1 · #4 09-01-2020, 02:08 PM

Great larrys!

fishing the big trout waters of NJ for non-trout is exciting to me. I tried way lower musconetcong one summer, accidentally ran into a nice rainbow, 1 dink striper, and some dink smbs between my dad and I.

JDTuna · #5 09-01-2020, 02:51 PM

Awesome man! Exploring pays off. Its a shame some places are so polluted.

HBird11 · #6 09-01-2020, 06:45 PM

They stocked 53 Tiger Musky’s in Musconetcong lake a couple years ago

Sako1 · #7 09-01-2020, 10:56 PM

I have spent a lot of time on the river throughout the years spin fishing and have never seen one caught. Best bet is obviously at each end of the river.

Dave

Esox Luciano · #8 09-02-2020, 05:11 AM

Thanks guys. I figured it would be a gamble & all luck to find one but just figured I'd ask. Thanks for the feedback.

Billfish715 · #9 09-02-2020, 11:27 AM

A long time ago ( at least 20 yrs.) I saw a large “ ‘ski “ in a deep run on the Musconetcong in the Butler Park section. It was just lying in the run facing upstream waiting for a trout to swim by. This run was not far from one of the trout stocking points. I could see the fish clearly from the high bank above the run. Many attempts to tease the fish into striking a variety of trout sized spinners and plugs only caused the fish to temporarily relocate and then move back.

It could not have swum upstream to get there from the Delaware because of the dams in the lower.section. It had to swim down from either of the two major lakes way, way upstream. Needless to say, the trout fishing in that stretch was far from good in terms of numbers. I wonder why.

I’ve also seen a musky or two below the dam in the center of Clinton on the South Branch. All of these fish are escapees from waters that were stocked with them. One good thing about the toothy critters in the Passaic is the saltwater barrier that will keep them from swimming off.

Has anyone seen or heard of any muskies in the Pequest? It’s unlikely but not improbable that some might have escaped from Oxford Furnace or Mountain Lake.

HBird11 · #10 09-02-2020, 08:08 PM

I have caught 2 Musky’s in the Pequest but they were both only about 30 yards from the Delaware River and when the water was high. I’ve never heard of anyone catching any anywhere else in the Pequest. It’s highly unlikely that a musky would make it to the river from Mountain or Oxford Furnace Lake, they are quite a distance away and both have a small shallow outlet stream that turns into a big swamp before it gets to the Pequest. Obviously it’s not impossible for it to happen but in my opinion improbable.