Brinkmans bait and tackle fishing report:
Friday, April 13, 2012
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Going to try this again on a nice sunny busy day. Sorry I have not been able to finish the report the past couple weeks but business always comes first. I was able to get out several different times and had quite a mix report. On Tuesday I got out early with Helen and found a dead battery. So I took it to the mechanic and had it checked out to find a bad battery. So 179 dollars later we were on the river. And with the 40 mile and hour wind blowing I should have stayed home. But we hit a few of the regular spots and fished bloodworms, clams, herring and bunker. We only caught 2 catfish and 3 white perch. We were getting beat up so bad I had to get Helen off the river. But after the tide changed I headed back out myself. Here I went to one of my best spots and just could not hold anchor so I went up several hundred yards and the anchored hooked up right away. So I figured this was the spot and hell yes it was. First cast with clams I landed a 41 inch striper about mid 30 pound range. This fish was a monster fat fish. In the next couple hours I landed a big fat 36 inch bass, another 33 inch bass, a 7 1/2 pound catfish and one small slot fish striper. After that I fished for 2 more hours without a single hit. On Wednesday I hit the golf course early letting the tide get right where I wanted it. I was on the river at the perfect tide as the day before, wind going with the tide and fresh bait. The problem was not fish. I fished for about an hour without a single hit. Then I picked Steve up at the boat ramp which put two more rods in the water. 2 more hours later we had a few small hits but no fish. So I headed up to the Rancocas and fished the inside part of the sand bar. In an hour we caught 5 stripers all small but one slot fish. I watched 6 other boats and did not see a single fish caught. Not sure what happened but what a change. Will be back out next week.
Over all the stripers reports are great all up and down the river. I don't want to spend too much time telling you the same thing. Best baits this week has been clams, bunker, ocean herring and bloodworms. The bigger fish are coming on the clams and bunker heads. The most fish are being caught with the bloodworms. 40 inch fish this year seem to common. I know of a 42 inch fish caught off Princeton Avenue on Wednesday, Monday night a customer picked up a 40 inch and a 49 inch fish off the shoreline. He would not tell me where these fish were caught but did tell me they were caught on bunker heads. The picture of the 49 inch fish looked to be a 50 pound fish. This fish was a monster. Jim picked up a mid 40 inch fish at the Rancocas on Sunday with several other 30 inch fish. He caught all these fish with bloodworms. Anthony's friends caught 4 fish 30 to 38 inches on Tuesday night at the Rancocas again on bloodworms. Off the beach below the Tacony there were lots of fish 28 to 44 inches caught with bloodworms, herring and clams. Here they have been doing good both off the beach and out front in boats. Station Avenue there was a 42 inch fish caught on Monday with several other 20 to 30 inch fish mixed in. Since Monday it has been slow up there. At Camer Drive again several bigger stripers have been caught with bloodworms and clams. Here I know of a 38, 36 and 33 inch fish caught this past week at night. At the Neshaminy State Park there are a few guys just crushing stripers and catfish. These guys have been fishing clams and bloodworms and have caught stripers up to 36 inches with lots of slot fish and catfish up to 4 pounds. These guys are saying the perch are moving in big time. Now up at the Neshaminy Marina there are lots of stripers but most all are small. And here again the perch are tearing up the baits. One customer just told me he had one keeper in the past week with lots of 10 to 15 inch fish mixed in. Trenton has slowed up with the low water. I think most of the bigger bass have moved down to the Turnpike bridge to buoy 80. These guys have been doing best with bloodworms, herring and live perch. Most of the stripers up here have been mid 20 inch fish up to 36 inches. No real monsters yet. At Petty's Island several guys have been doing great with bloodworms on fish 24 to 38 inches. These guys have been doing best at the turn of the tides. The airport has been also pretty good with slot fish but I have not heard of many big fish here. I know this spot is closed but I did have a few guys up fishing here catching a few stripers before getting chased. At the Burlington Bristol Bridge a few 30 to 36 inch fish were caught on bloodworms. But these guys only got a shot time of fishing before the cops sent them on their way. Well you kind of get the drift on how good the striper fishing is in the Delaware. Looks like a much warmer weekend with less winds which should make the fish that much better.
The trout fishing has still been great in the Pennypack and it was restocked again on Thursday. But before the stocking most everyone is catching a limit up to 10 fish per man. These guys have been doing best with power baits, wax worms, meal worms, earthworms, salted minnows, spinners, trout magnets and Berkley trout worms. Some of the best spots have been Welsh Road, Rhawn Street, Roosevelt Boulevard, Woodward Avenue, Veree Road, Krewstown Road and Pine Road. And several guys have been still doing great above at Lemur Park. Now this week we seen a few real nice Palomino trout. One fish was 2 1/2 pounds and the other was 4.3 pounds. Both fish were caught on bait in the Pennypack. The rest of the trout have been real nice 12 to 15 inch fat fish. The Wissahickon Creek has also been real good for numbers but the size of the fish have been smaller. Core Creek has even been good this past week with trout. I had several different guys tell me they caught 2 to 5 fish each trip out. They did best with power baits, wax worms, meal worms and corn. ANd in this lake they have still been doing great with crappies, white perch and largemouth bass. These fish have been hitting minnows, nightcrawlers, meal worms, wax worms and small jigs. Levittown Lake has been fair for trout with most guys catching a limit in several hours of fishing. Here they have been doing best with power baits, wax worms and small minnows. One fisherman back from the canal had a good day on Monday catching 4 rainbows, 1 carp and a largemouth bass. He picked up the trout and carp with corn and the bass on a spinner bait. The last report came from the Neshaminy Creek at Tyler State Park. This fisherman picked up 2 trout in 2 trips but has been doing great with rock bass, smallmouth bass and bluegills.
Another spot that is closed but some nice bass were caught this week was Churchville Reservoir. These guys are still fishing off the road between the lakes doing well on 2 to 5 pound bass working spinner baits and rattle traps around the rocks. This is a fish at your own risk spot. Again another spot that is posted but lots of guys have been doing well at the shopping center lake. Here lots of crappies, perch, bluegills, largemouth bass and catfish are being caught with nightcrawlers, minnows, jigs, twister tails, spinners and top water lures. Nothing big but the action has been great. The lake behind club Nervinna has still been good for smaller bass with small spinner baits, plastic worms and spinners. Magnolia Lake has been just as good with the same lures for smaller largemouth bass. I had one fisherman get chased from Silver Lake the other day but before that he caught 3 carp with corn and pineapple boilies. The ranger that chased him told him this lake is off limits. Now that is the first time I heard that. Penn Warner has still been great for crappies, yellow perch, bass, pike and pickerel. Lots of guys are coming back with reports from boats and bank fishing. The bank guys have been doing best with minnows and Senko worms for the perch, crappies, pickerel and bass. The boat guys have been catching bass, pike and pickerel with spinner baits, rattle traps, plastic worms, crankbaits and buzz baits. They have been catching some bass up to 6 pounds this past week. One fisherman had a 25 pound pike and a 6 pound pickerel last week fishing Smithwick's Rouge minnows. He also caught lots of bass and several smaller pickerel. I even talked to one fisherman on Manor lake doing well with 2 to 4 pound walleyes. He has been working jig heads with live shiners to catch these fish. Fall's Township has still been a strange place. Jim has been up several times doing fair on smaller bass. He is working the shoreline with plastic worms, rattle traps, crankbaits and even live minnows. Most of the bass have been 10 inches up to 2 pounds. The best day he had was 8 fish but most mornings he is only catching 2 to 4 fish. Now several other guys have been out in boats and kayaks. These guys have been catching a few bass, pickerel and walleyes. Minnows, nightcrawlers, jigs, twister tails, plastic worms and spinner rigs have been working best. A few other guys have been fishing around the boat ramp with smaller minnows, meal worms and wax worms picking up a few bluegills, crappies and perch. Nothing of size and the numbers have been just fair. Down at FDR Park Ron is still crushing the smaller bass with minnows, shiners, 3 inch Senko worms and small poppers. He has had a couple days with 15 to 25 fish. Again the past couple weeks he has seen plenty of guys out looking for snakeheads with big crankbaits, spinner baits and surface lures but not a fish has been landed. His buddies have started picking up a few flat head catfish below the Art Museum Dam. Nothing big but some nice 12 to 15 pound fish with live and chunked sunfish. Above the dam they have been giving it their best efforts but nothing but 2 to 5 pound channel catfish have been caught. Below the dam they have also been doing great with American shad with darts and spoons. Most of these fish have been 3 to 5 pounds. Also they are catching some bigger stripers with crankbaits, top water poppers, shad bodies and large twister tails. They have also been doing great with walleyes fishing with minnows, shiners, shad bodies, twister tails and shallow crankbaits. I did see one picture of a 8 pound walleye taken on Sunday with a Vision Eel. This customer has been catching 4 to 10 fish every afternoon heading into dark. His favorite lure has been the Vision Eel, Storm shads and Tsunami poppers. Marsh Creek has still been very good for smallmouth bass, yellow perch and pickerel. These guys have been doing best with live minnows and drop shooting Senko worms. The first report from the Perkiomen Creek with these guys fishing right behind the prison doing great on some bigger smallmouth bass. Larry has been up 4 times the past couple weeks and has landed over 20 fish each trip. Most of the bass have been 12 to 14 inches but he has caught 9 fish between 17 and 20 inches. He said these bigger fish have been 3 to 5 pounds. He has been catching most of the fish with live minnows but has also done well with Senko worms, Fin-s fish and 6 inch rubber lizards. He said with these bigger baits it has kept the rock bass and bluegills off the hook. But he said if you want to catch a ton of fish the bluegills and rock bass are crushing smaller grubs. Up at Collegeville there have been a few guys out but these guys are only catching smaller fish. Using minnows they have been landing 10 to 25 fish a trip. But most of these fish are 8 to 11 inches. John got out for his first trip with his wife and had a great day. Between the two of them they landed 9 bass, 4 pickerel and a walleye. He did best with plastic lizards, plastic worms and jigs.
I don't want to leave out the saltwater guys this week so lets see how far I get. The Delaware Bay has been one of the hot spots for stripers. Fishing up the bay in boat the guys have been using bunker heads and clams. Most everyone I talk to has gotten their limits of fish 25 to 45 pounds. There have been some monster 50 pound fish caught the past couple weeks. Guys off Reed's Beach and Fortescue have been doing great with clams and bloodworms. I had several reports of limits caught with some fish 30 to 38 inches. Here fishing with bloodworms they have also caught allot of throw backs and even some big ocean perch. Mike, Frank and Charlie were out of Fortescue on Monday bucking the wind coming home with 6 fish all over 30 pounds. They also had another 15 legal fish they had to throw back. Their biggest was 46 inches 37 pounds. Down the bay they are also doing well with bunker on fish up in the 30 pound range. Danny up the bay had several nice weakfish with bloodworms and small bucktails. He also picked up 4 throw back size flounder. Around Cape May there are lots of guys out looking for stripers but most are coming home empty. It seems most of the stripers down here are out at the rips. Now at the rips they have been doing great on stripers but nothing in the big size. Most of the fish I'm hearing about are 24 to 31 inches. These fish are hitting clams, bunker, eels and shad bodies. Now at Cape May and Wildwood off the jetties there are some nice blackfish being caught. These fish have been hitting crabs and clams. Off shore of Sea Isle Fred has been doing great on sea bass, a few ling and cod and coming home hits a few inshore wreaks for blackfish. Off the beach at Sea Isle a customer picked up his first striper 29 inches with a bunker head. He has been down 10 times for that one fish. One fisherman out of Barnegat had a great trip on stripers out 2 miles with snagged bunker, diamond jigs and Gator spoons. And coming back fishing the jetties at the inlet he is picking up plenty of blackfish. All up north off shore they have been crushing the stripers. Most of these guys have been using live and chunked bunker, diamond jigs, bunker spoons and umbrella rigs. These fish being caught have been 30 to 48 inches. Up in the Raitian Bay the guides have been doing great this year with live and chunked bunker, clams, crankbaits, poppers and metal. These boats have been catching 10 to 25 fish a trip and have had fish up to 45 inches. The beaches at Long Beach Island, Island State Park, Brick and Barnegat have been pretty good for stripers but the timing is everything. Some guys spend days not doing anything then for 4 hours everyone is killing the bass. Crankbaits, poppers, metal, shad bodies, clams, bloodworms and live eels have been working best.
Well again that is all I have time for. I hope everyone enjoys this great weekend coming up. Good luck and don't forget to let me know how you did.
Bill
FISHING REPORTS
4-12-Fishing with half a crawler drifting in the faster current to the left side of the main park area. Also got my limit plus 3 others on the same day. I'm forwarding another picture to show your exactly how big this thing was. I was surprised they stocked them this large. -Gabe Broggi
4-11-Went out incoming change most of out going water had 7 poles out one 5inch bass using clam ,bloods north of tacony surf ,the cove 4 poles all out going one 32 inch bloods, from surf happy fishing :Todd
4-11-Live report on the river 1st 15 min caught a 36" striper on blood worm. Wind gust to 15mph hope it's not the 1st fish syndrome!Paul
4-6-Repeat customer Dan brought his 12 year old son Jesse up from Orlando for his 12th birthday present and the young man absolutely loves to fish. These were the biggest fish he'd ever landed by himself and he did the whole job from start to finish without any adult intervention. All of his fish were nice fat Roes and I'm signing his Boy Scout forms to attest to his catch. For those of you not familiar with Scouting you earn merit badges for individual outdoor and civic accomplishments and this was for the fishing badge. He did it in style too. -Mickey
4-5-Hello Bill. On Monday 4/2 I left work to fish during my lunch hour with your bloodworms. I caught and released this 40", 33 lb. striper. p.s. I am in the very last****
picture on your website photo gallery with a 36" striper caught at Station Ave in 2005 Joe M.
4-4-Ok the cove was.on fire today ,40 incher and a 38 incher from surf that was reported i am sure others where caught as well i fished north of there and nothing just an fyi Todd
4-3-Today was the day I've been waiting for with these Shad, it busted wide open for us. Wes and Vic drove down from upstate NY for their first Shad trip ever, although they are experienced Striped Bass fisherman. We started off with Wes landing the biggest Shad I've ever seen, and obviously the biggest fish I've ever had in my boat. She weighed over 7 lbs. and I have the drags on the reels dialed in from a month of fishing. This fish pulled as if the reel was in freespool. I couldn't believe it when it hit the net.The pictures don't begin to do this fish justice. Sometimes this is a bad sign, catching a fish in the first 2 minutes but that wasn't the story tonight. As the sun started to set the fishing just got better and better and I kept raising the spoons higher into the water column and they just kept on coming. We fished right up until dark and they just kept burying the rods one after another. I had a slow trip on Sunday but this more than made up for it. I'm putting the Archangel in the water this week because there are Stripers and Bunker everywhere. Expect to see reports every day from here on out, 2012 is going to be a banner year. -Mickey