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!