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Posted

I'm gonna get out to Hopatcong on Friday with a friend. We're gonna rent a rowboat at a place in the Great Cove. I've fished this lake before with more failure than success. Anybody have any good tips or better locations to fish on the lake? Also if anyone's fished it recently, what's the water temps like? Any help would be appreciated!

Posted

Always find the grass. This time of year though the warmest water will be in the canals in between Lake Hopatcong and Lake Shawnee. You have to go past Brady's bridge and then to the right to get there. It is really shallow but it is probably 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the lake. I have done well in there in the spring. In about 2-3 weeks when spawn is in full swing Hopatcong will be the land of giants!

 

I'm not exactly sure on the water temperature currently, but if it is between 45-50 degrees you can do really well with a jerkbait on the outside of the grass areas where the water is a bit deeper.

Posted

I haven't gotten up to Hopatcong yet this season, but due to the weather this season, its been a tough bite all over Jersey, making it realy difficult to find a pattern. You definitely want to look for the warmer water, which is going to be near shallow, grassy areas.

 

I've been fishing lakes in the Ocean/Monmouth/Mercer county areas searching for grass flats in 3'-6' of water, growing near shoreline gravel. When you find a grassy area, seeing as how you're going to be on a rowboat,  you're gonna wanna cover as much water as possible with your lure. Start tossing jerkbaits, lipless cranks, shallow diving cranks with tight wobbles, and even topwater lures like spooks or sammys. Once you locate an area with active fish, start dissecting it with a dropshot, shakeyhead, or wacky rigged worm. Go with softer, natural patterns and colors on the hard plastics (pearl shad, baby bass, perch, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and gold shiner). As for the soft plastics, (baby bass, watermelon, red shad, junebug, black, white) basically nothing too wild. Thats just MHO, hope it helps, Good Luck!!

Posted

Thanks a lot guys, I'll definitely give that all a try! Also with this rain we've been having, I'm thinking worms could work?

Posted

Thanks a lot guys, I'll definitely give that all a try! Also with this rain we've been having, I'm thinking worms could work?

 

After a good rain storm like this, if you can find any areas where there is a lot of runoff coming into the lake you can probably catch a bunch on almost anything you throw. That would be where I would start. I'm sure there are fish engorging themselves on whatever food is being pushed into the lake at those spots. I'm sure a worm could work, but me being me, I would start throwing a spinnerbait in those areas first just to see if they're hitting it. I'd jerk it around too to make the blades flare out in any current there might be.

Posted

If I'm reading this correctly, we are still in the bass pre spawn up here? Maybe that's why I haven't really been catching anything... and fishing from the banks don't help either.

Posted

Always find the grass. This time of year though the warmest water will be in the canals in between Lake Hopatcong and Lake Shawnee. You have to go past Brady's bridge and then to the right to get there. It is really shallow but it is probably 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the lake. I have done well in there in the spring. In about 2-3 weeks when spawn is in full swing Hopatcong will be the land of giants!

 

I'm not exactly sure on the water temperature currently, but if it is between 45-50 degrees you can do really well with a jerkbait on the outside of the grass areas where the water is a bit deeper.

Went went back there and it looked VERY promising. Unfortunately we couldnt get anything to bite anything! So after 6 hours of cranks, jerks, live bait and soft plastics, we finally hooked in to some pickerel by the boat dock where we started. The water was very muddy, the air and water were freezing, and the wind made the main lake drop offs unfishable for a rowboat cause of the rough water. Definitely needs to warm up a bit there!

Posted

Probably too late as it's mid day Friday, but fish suspending jerkbaits slowly and let it sit for a couple of seconds between jerks over the grass this time of year.

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