Shut out on Lake Hopatcong - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

lukenic · #1 03-14-2024, 08:18 AM

4 hours slinging shiners and fatheads for crappies and perch with only one bite and no fish all north of Brady Bridge.

The water was as murky as I ever saw it. Probably should have searched for clearer water.

Any updates about the crappie bite?

icebadger · #2 03-14-2024, 08:03 PM

the bite has been off for about 4 days now, that side of the lake has gotten cloudy from the rain run off. the wind also blew around a bunch of debris and stirred the water up. switch to darker jigs and extend the distance from your bobber to let the jig go deeper. the lake is full now and the warmer days will bring the temp up some, the shallow water will warm first and the coves that are sheltered from the wind will be your best bet. hopefully things will get better as we go into spring and the bigger fish move in to spawn. we had good fish in the shallows around the 11th of feb then cold temps froze the lakes shallow water again and the fishing has slowed down.

lukenic · #3 03-15-2024, 08:38 AM

Thanks. Never got blanked going for crappies, especially this time of year. We tried your suggestions with no success. Hope the water clears soon.

thmyorke1 · #4 03-15-2024, 09:54 AM

not hopatcong but even my local crappie spring spot only had largemouth bass around. maybe still early?.. i can post here whenever i do find them

nate01 · #5 03-15-2024, 10:04 AM

Was out on Saturday before and during the rains, 95% of the cove was dead but was able to find two schools of fish near docks on both jig / bobber and jerkbaits. Ended up catching around 20 along with a baby musky (thinking it may have been one of those recently stocked tigers but hard to tell because it’s around 13 inches). If you weren’t right on top of the crappies you weren’t getting bit.

jmurr711 · #6 03-15-2024, 10:33 AM

bites been off down south too, rebounded a bit yesterday but we had better action in february

icebadger · #7 03-16-2024, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nate01

Was out on Saturday before and during the rains, 95% of the cove was dead but was able to find two schools of fish near docks on both jig / bobber and jerkbaits. Ended up catching around 20 along with a baby musky (thinking it may have been one of those recently stocked tigers but hard to tell because it’s around 13 inches). If you weren’t right on top of the crappies you weren’t getting bit.

the crappies were in small areas and you could still get them but you had to find some sort of structure like brush or docks that had deeper water at the end of them. that musky is a cool catch