The Bass College

As per Steve's suggestions and the idea to share info on what works in our area, I'll put up what I've found here. DISCLAIMER: I'm no pro, just have lots of time on my hands to fish and some good luck thus far in my shore fishing adventures. Here's a pic of the monser 23" caught on black/blue 3/8 oz jig w/ dk. grn craw in muddy water, May 9th in the morning drizzle after storm

Same muddy, back cove at night on May 16. 12lb. braid on spinning rod dressed with a 1/2 oz white/blk. chart spinner w/ textured Willow Blades. Measure in at 19", bad pic bc you know how hard it is to do by urself in the dark!

This one is May 18th, Round Valley Reservoir, had no takes for 4 hrs at dusk, threw same 3/8 oz. blk/blue jig w/ Plum Big Bite Craw trailer. What a fight this fish gave me on my new Abu Revo and 7' Rod! First big one I had on my new baitcaster. No scale, but taped out at 22"

Next day, same spot at Round Valley, but this time on the old spinning rod with 12 lb test, 4/0 Gammy EWG Hook, dressed with 5" Baby Bass colored KInami Dinger (Senko knockoff). Was bleeding quite heavily so I got her right back into the water without pulling out the tape, but held next to tackle box and estimate it at around 21" and revived her for a few mins before she swam off on her own power. Catch, Photo, and Release!

Here's a pic of her swimming off, you can see the blood trailing. Didn't look good, but she was chasing bluegill an hr later so I' hopeful she survived.

Pre-Spawn big girl, in clear, cold reservoir water in 3' of water. Caught April 18 on weightless Senko in Baby Bass pattern.

Those are all the 4lb and up (est) I got this season in the Hunterdon/Warren and Del. River area of NJ. I don't have access to a boat regularly, so I do most of my fishing from shore, which makesi t tougher, but overall makes you a more resourceful fisherman. Thanks to the kind and knowledgable ppl on this site, I've learned alot of diff techniques to call the cows in, as I like to say, and look forward every day to getting a line in the water. If anyone else from the area would be good enough to include their pics and tactics, what works and what didn't and in what conditions, it would benefit us all.

Thanks Glad we can help out in any way we can. good to have you here. good luck this year.

Glad to be here, thanks again. Waiting on a box of goodies from TW, even paid the extra $10 for next day, since I saved probably $40 by not driving around to all the crappy tackle shops andpaying thru the nose for inferior products..Hopefully they'll help me add some more pudgy girls to my wall of fame I got going on here!

Those are some good fish nice job!

Those are some good fish Gambs.

Very,Very Nice! Way to go!!

Thanks, Ray. You've got some nice Jersey Slobs too I see...And thanks Basser, next time lets not get skunked driving all over the county trying to find some good water!

Went to Amwell Lake today, was very active w/ lm's chasing baitfish and jumping. Caught a few dinks, and then had 1 COPPERHEAD!!! crawl between my legs, and then a bit later, pitched a craw into slop, and pulled out a 2 ft. COPPERHEAD!!! hooked with a 4/0 Gammy EWG. That was the scariest catch of my life, just cut the line and ran like hell. Snakes ruined an otherwise promising day out there. Being shot at is less scary than poisonous snakes on the end of your line and at your feet!!!

Fished RV the past 2 days, Friday on the North end and saw a bunch of fish bunched up under the docks, and got a few dinks. Without a boat it's alot ofwork to get to some decent cover in the rocky reservoir. Today I put in a few miles of humping thru the banks to get to some decent cover and points, and had a million small smallies and LM's go into a feeding frenzy on soft plastic worms, especially shakey head sytles. The wind was swirling around from the East again, so wasn't really that great conditions, gin clear even after all the rain last night. Tried Senkos straight and wacky, spinners, jig and pig, swim jigs, creatures, shakey heads, and top waters but got nothing of any consequence after 6 hrs of tough fishing. It's starting to get very tedious around here this past 2 weeks, at most of the local spots also, and I'm starting to second guess my approaches and have been throwing anything and everything at them to try to get back into the big pigs I was laying into nearly every day just a month ago...

those are some nice bass

NICE ONES , THATS HOW WE DO IT IN  JERSEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks guys. That IS how we do it in Dirty Jerzy!! lol I wish I had some more to share from the past week or two, but I've been sorting thru dinks and retying baits every 30 mins since I'm not getting any results. If anyone has any tips on what to throw for the rocky, sparse water in these conditions I'm all ears. My funds are low now, but I'm scouting out a boat of some sorts for the end of the year so I can put my ground pounding days behind me, helping me cover lots more areas and get to the offshore spots that you just can't walk, crawl, or wade to lol. Anybody have experience using the fishing-style kayaks? I'm leaning towards one of them........About the bleeding fish, I thought she was gut hooked too when I got her in, but she was hooked thru the upper corner of the jaw and was really wondering where she picked up that wound from. That's the second time I've had bleeders that were lip hooked this year. The first in the night time pic, was bleeding from the hook point in the mouth, again another rare sight. And the one trailing blood was bleeding out of the gill slits. Either she was gut hooked and ripped it out while setting and rehooked in the mouth, or she got stuck on some of the sharp rocks and timber when I brought her in. That particular spot is real nasty. I was worried that I'd killed her, but I revived her slowly and saw her an hr later chasing fish. She had a unique, almost orangey-brown color on her side that I noticed and am pretty sure it was her I saw cruising later on. Good luck to all the Jersey guys pulling em in in one of the highest pressured waters in the country.

Fished Spruce Run with my buddy and site member BasserNJ. It poured on us from 11-1230 and then cleared up, even had some sun for part of the day. We battled the wind getting blown all around by 30mph gusts, but he got us on some fish in isolated cover. We kept a positive attitude and stayed focused, even though at times it was tough to do. After 6 hrs of adjusting our approach, he had 5 LM's in the front of the boat, and I got my first two NJ Smallies in the back of the boat, (Only ever caught them in WI and Oregon) out of the same exact cover as one of his LM's. Lost two at the boat also. The water temps were up to 75 a few days ago, but after the rain it went down to 67-70 and we thought we were going to have a ruff time, but like I said he knows his stuff and got us catching. Caught on Senkos, jig n pigs, and the smally blasted a spinnerbait in 6' of water. The Strike Back lure really works great I found out, bc he did some aerial gymnastics and the hook stayed buried, double hooked thru the side of both jaws...REASON #457 THAT LIVE BAIT, SMALL HOOKS, AND ROOKIE ANGLERS SHOULD ONLY USE BARBLESS HOOKS - One of the LM's had 4lb mono sticking out of it's gut, trying to pass a hook it swallowed and broke off sometime ago. Sad to see a nice 3lb fish with a painful and probably fatal issue bc of human error. I know mistakes happen, but the more I fish the more I see the problems with inexperienced anglers. Another reason to take a kid fishing and show him the right way to do things.....Went on a long time again, but wanted to show that being relentless and smart in bad conditions can make being freezing and wet all worth it.

Here's the gut-hooked fish trailing the mono out it's gut.

Really decent!

Yeah I felt bad for that one with the line sticking out of its butt. Also remember that the big one i got that day only had one eye. I hope that wasn't a result of some angler mishandling her.

Had a buddy from the Marine Corps come out here to fish Thursday, so we went to Round Valley since it's close and can walk the banks fairly easy with some water shoes on. After the rain, we hit some good smallmouth on 4" Senkos,  the Xmas tree colored ones worked best it seemed. He had a blast bc it was his first time out for bass so hooking into a nice 3 lb smallmouth was a helluva time for him. I had a blast watching him pull it in. Later in the day in hte south end, he hooked into a lunker, we could see it with the water clarity at 30 ft or more, but since was a rookie he tried to horse it in and she jumped and spit the hook. With his blood up for more fish, we went back out this morning to afternoon. I was throwing a green bitsy bug 5/16 jig with blakc and blue paca craw on the back, when I saw this whale on about 30 feet from me,  so I set the hook and got to see every move this beautiful bass made while I carefully got her in thru the rocks, even running some drag out on my new Revo S. For those of you who aren't familiar with Round VAlley, it's not known for bass fishing bc it's a primarliy rocky, deep clear water resrevoir that has huge lake trout. So this made the catch all that more special for me, as it prob beat out my personal best from pre spawn this year.

23 1/4" length, wish I had my scale but left in truck of course!

Looks like she ate a softball here....Caught another 2 to 3lb also later on today from the same hole that rock bass were harassing me from. Was reeling in my green and blue flake YUM creature bait, T-rigged with a pegged tungsten 3/8th sinker, slowly across deeper ledge, and had it slam me like a ton of bricks. Surprised that it came out that far and was in teh same area as the annoying red eyed rock bass...All in all a great 2 days out in the sun with a good friend and some nice Jersey bass.