Exploring Monksville!

Jersey Bass

NJ Bass fishing

It was a beautiful day this past Sunday, May 7th 2011, and we got to enjoy a full day's shot at doing some serious angling!  After hooking up our trailer with half a sweet paint job by the tagger in the crew and doing some minor work to the teak and railings we were off to The Monks once again!

Better at handling the boat and trailer we were in the water by around 8:30am.  Not bad, but BEWARE- The North Ramp at Monksville Reservoir currently did not have a dock for public use.  Pretty beat!  As we arrive the dock is out of the water and sitting on the ramp, this made our launch a bit more complicated but we hope this will only be a temporary situation!

Once in the water, we chose to beeline it to the south side and do some trolling in the process.  We gave it a wack with some worms, swimbaits, crankbaits and spinners to no avail!

*We've found 2 things to be true when it comes to trolling- 1) Trolling a worm will screw up your line big time because it will twist it so bad you'll never get another decent cast out of it!  And you'll spend the next 2 hours bitching and moaning about your baitcaster! and 2) If your going to troll, do it with a separate pole with a specific set-up for trolling!

So after an hour-long troll to the south side, we pretty much worked our way back along the banks for the rest of the day.  It's some tough fishing out there 'cause we tried everything in the book from dropshot rigs in the deep sections to crappie jigs in the shallows (yeah Roost!) and here's what we came up with:

Paullie B. on a chartruse spinner:

Hey remember Paul, "it always looks bigger in little hands!" ;o)

Although his next was more presentable:

1.12lbs

 And Bri, using a Texas Rigged Senko:

And of-course yourstruly, still with nothing but bait on my hook!  But I don't stress...my lunker's coming!

Monksville Reservoir and a gear breakdown!

Jersey Bass
NJ Bass Fishing

In trying to get the hang of fishing...and blogging, there might be some delay due to a learning curve--on both!
So where were we...
Right! Season Opener 2011 at Monksville Reservoir (gettin' fancy, check out the link!)
After much #$@&ing around getting things ready, we finally arrive at the North ramp around 11:45am, in the water by 12:00.  Yeah I know, not exactly an early launch, but the point is that we had made it and ready for some angling we were! 
It was an overcast day with an outside temperature of around 46* F, and the water temp was unknown due to issues with the depth finder.  I'll give you a run down as best I can of the gear we are using:


Brian:

• Abu Garcia Orra SX Rod/Reel Combo- 6.5', medium action.
• 10lb XPS Excel mono-filament line.
• Fishing a 6" Yamamoto Senko- Smoke, black,blue, gold flake rigged Texas weightless on a Gamatsku 3/0 Red worm hook.

Paully B:

• Pflueger President reel on a 7' medium heavy action basspro pole.
• 15lb Braided/monofilament line.  TIP: The reel is started on mono to save on the expensive stuff!
• Fished a Shartruse Spinner, light blue rattle-trap, red shad 6" worm, 6" black/grey worm on  a 3/0 hook with a 1/4" bullet wt., and a blue rapala w/med depth lip.

Me(Rog):

• Pflueger criterion Rod/Reel Combo- 6.2:1 ratio, 6.5' medium action
• 10 lb Trilene mono-filament line.
• Fished a crawdad 2" basspro bomber, 3/8oz football jig-head with a purple trailer, 4" culprit red shad worm on a gamastku red 3/0 weighted hook.

As I mentioned, we were out here for about an hour before it started pouring, then we toughed it out for another 45 mins.

Cold, soaked thru and thru, and chilled to the bone only one of us was victorious!!

Way to go Bri, that was a nice smallmouth to kick off the season!

Season Opener 2011!!

      Yeah so let's see...We've been waiting anxiously day and night since our last trip out last season.  A season that happened to be our first on the water, with a boat, trying to turn ourselves into some serious anglers.   Greenwood Lake was our hub--we sweated it out all last summer and started getting the hang of it but trial and error was the name of the game--as we're learning ALL fishing is about!
      So we get the boat and trailer ready, learn how to overhaul, change hubs, lube fittings, grease new bearings, axles, spindles, ripped old boat cover, new cover, new prop, refinish old prop, new lights, wire harness, new hitch and installing the trolling motor--all the while getting psyched up watching bass videos on Youtube and  Dvd's...And you know what?  We picked the worst freaking rainy, nasty, windy, cold ass day to go out!!
      And after an hour and a half of sleep and 4 hours of reinstalling the trolller at the butt-crack of dawn, off we were to freeze in the name of catching our first bass of the season!