Lake at draw down

 

Lake Musconetcong Bass Fishing - November

This month, I was able to get out on the lake Nov. 16,20,21,22,25,26,and the 29th

I fished in a lot of wind, rain, and dense fog... Temperatures ranging fron 45-57. I had a slow start as the lake was still rising on the 18th, so I waited a couple days until the lake came up full.

My totals for the month were 56 bass, 8 perch, and 158 pickeral. The bass were from small ones only 11" up to 20.5" and 5lbs. Had a few around 3 and lots of 2 pounders.

The pickeral ran from 13" up to 27" and 5lbs. I had at least 40 that were near 4 lbs and a ton from 3-4lbs. Even the perch were large running around 12".

Even though I only caught 56 bass, I had to fight to get them with the pickeral beating the bass to the lures. But still to have your rod bent over for hours straight at a a time is still fun. I had at least 1 triple a day and 3 of the days had 3 doubles.

It's almost time to hang it up for the season. As long as it's not down in the 30's I will still try to get out. Just don't want to be cleaning out and winterizing the boat in the snow and ice.

Check out the slide shows on the association site...

Lake Musconetcong Bass Fishing

Hit the lake today after it finally is back to normal levels after the yearly draw down.It took a while, but during the mid afternoon period after say 2 pm, things finally started to get going. This time of the year, there is no hurry to get out there since the action starts during the peak warm period of the day, which is now around 2-5 pm.

I did manage to get 6 bass, 8 pickeral and 1 crappie, not bad for a day that was only rated a 5(out of 100). This time of year, the lunar cycle impacts are very low and the sun is low in the sky.

The largest and first bass came off a rock pile I put a white juice container on, back in May. This one was 3 lbs 9 ozs. and 18.5". I also caught 2 smaller bass on consecutive casts off the same rock pile. The rest came off the shoreline on crankbaits which you can see in the photos.

Had to leave early..boss calling for an hour of work down at Home Depot...but I'm going back on Saturday with less wind and give it another try...

Our Lake - Musconetcong Lake

Hopefully, I will be back on the lake for a couple more outings before it gets too cold. The lake is still low with the draw down, so we don't want to hit anything down there.

Last season I was out until the 17th and at least catching something. After that, the water was down to 41, air at 42 and nothing for a couple of trips. The latest I was out was December 12th back about 3 years, I only caught a couple but they were good ones and not until around noon.

For me, I'm usually the first one out on the lake, sometimes the day the ice clears. In fact, one year the lake still had a bit of ice on it...went to Patty's for a hair cut, the ice was gone. Went home, hooked up the boat and took off.

I have also fished the lake when it started to freeze over and cleared in the November period, where the lake still had ice on the banks.

You really need lots of layers of clothes or this is extremely uncomfortable and a coating of vasoline for facial protection. Starting early is a non-factor then as you really need the water to warm if it is sunny for anything to be active. Plus, too early and your line and rod guides get ice coated. A good line conditioning spray on the end of the rod will help that..

Lets hope for an early rise to the lake since we have some descent temperatures going on this week...

 

 

 

 

 

Bass Fishing in North Jersey

Bass Fishing in North Jersey

Lake Musconetcong Community Association

Want to thank the association for linking my old blog to this site...

I did not have too much to say on it recently, however now that it is here I'll have to re-activate some things from the lake aspect of fishing that could be of interest.

John

Bass Fishing

Bass Fishing News

Bass Fishing

Check out this lake trout caught while bass fishing up in Swartswood Lake

Bass Fishing Nw. NJ Lakes

Musconetcong Lake

Just spent 4 of the last 5 days fishing Lake Musconetcong...

First on Saturday the 14th was my first day out for the season. Water temps. around 43 with light winds....hazy skies, with filtered sun. High temps. were only around 50.

The whole time I was out I never even saw a fish, and that was from 11 to around 4 pm......

Sunday was again hazy sun and only 52. With the water only around 44, the wind forced me to leave sweaters and coat on for most of the day. I managed to catch 1 bass around 1 lb and 6 nice pickeral, At least 5 other boats on the lake with the same results...

Monday I gave it another try and got only 2 bass each around 14" and 1 pickeral. It was another cool day out there with the water still only around 45...

Tuesday I stopped at Cranberry Lake and zeroed out...only saw 1 bass...had one very large perch come up from 13', look at the lure and back down. and one pickeral did the same...

Wednesday I hit Musconetcong again. Nice day out there at 65...only problem was very windy and water only 46, so unless you were near sheltered coves, you could not appreciate the nice warm day...had to leave sweatshirts on the whole time..

I picked up 3 small bass all no larger than 15". At least I got something. We need about 10 degrees increase in water temp to really get things going...

Looks like some time next week till we see some warmer weather again....