Brinkmans bait and tackle report: 5-11-12
Only had one day off this week and that day Helen had to work. So it was me and the dog hitting the river on Wednesday. I was on the river about 9 in a misty drizzle. Had a great dropping tide and all kinds of fresh baits. The weather cleared and the river looked like a sheet of glass. Even had the perfect change through the low tide. Again not much to talk about. I landed 11 stripers 4 to 15 inches. 4 catfish all about 2 pounds. 25 to 50 white perch and a few monster eels. And again not for a lake of trying. I was in my favorite 4 spots and even hit several spots I heard customers talk about. Just for me no fish. I may give it one more week out here and start heading up river for smallmouth bass. Now my report should not discourage you from heading out. There are still lots of stripers being caught. And with all these stripers there have been lots of slot fish and bigger fish landed. Down around the airport the fishing has been the best. Everyone I talk to that is fishing these waters are catching plenty of fish 15 to 40 inches. Most of these fish are being caught off the banks at the UPS building, Fort Mifland and National Park. Most all these fish are being caught with bloodworms with a the bigger fish with clams and bunker. I even heard the wardens had a field day on Saturday and Sunday with guys keeping too many fish, small fish and even some fish 38 to 43 inches. It is about time they crack down. Now Paul is down below fishing and said he is catching plenty of fish but most of them are 15 to just a slot fish. He has been using bloodworms and clams. His main problem is the amount of perch. But some of these fish have been a pound or a bit bigger. Up at the Tacony a customer caught 4 slots on Sunday with one 38 inch fish. He caught all these fish with bunker. One fisherman out front of Maggie's caught a few slot fish this past week with a few up to 29 inches. He has been doing best with bunker but has also caught fish with clams. Out front of the Rancocas there are all the stripers you can catch. Problem is most of the fish are under 12 inches. I was there and worked a sabiki rig for about 10 minutes. With the 11 fish I caught on bait I landed another 10 stripers and 15 white perch with the sabiki rig. All these fish were super little. With bloodworms up there customers have been catching 25 to 50 fish. Most of these fish have been 8 to 15 inches. Up river in by the red buoy a nice 31 inch fish was caught on a chunk of herring. This customer also caught a bunch of smaller fish and lots of catfish. Dave hit the turnpike bridge on Saturday catching a few decent stripers and lots of catfish with clams and bunker. They went up to Trenton on Sunday and plugged for stripers all day and only had one single hit. Up at Trenton there are a few guys working black Bombers, poppers and shad bodies all night long and real early in the mornings catching a few fish 24 to 33 inches. But over all it has been extremely slow up there. One fisherman around the Burlington Bristol Bridge picked up a 36, 24 and a 12 inch striper on Saturday all caught with bunker. He also had several decent catfish. What he has been doing is getting dropped off and walking away from the bridge. He has fished here allot and has not been chased. The guys parking are the ones getting nailed real quick. Little Al will be having his monthly tournament this coming Sunday. Last month they caught a few nice stripers and lots of catfish. This is at the Frankford Arsenal. Up at the art museum they have still been doing great with stripers 15 to 30 inches with plugs, poppers and shad bodies. They are also still catching a few shad with darts and spoons. The walleye fishing here has dropped off the past couple weeks. A couple guys this morning told me that a few decent stripers have been caught up off Camer Drive. These fish were caught with fresh bunker. I heard on fish was in the mid to upper 30 inch class. Station has been slow but they are still catching a few smaller fish with bunker, clams and bloodworms. The Pennypack has still been very good for trout. The best fishing is still way up the creek at Lemur Park. These guys have been catching 3 to 10 fish a day with meal worms, wax worms, power baits and spinners. Here they are catching a few really nice fish 17 to 24 inches. Down at Pine Road a customer picked up a nice 21 inch palomino trout over the weekend. He caught this fish with a Panther Martin. He also had 9 other trout and a bunch of rock bass and bluegills. Down at the Boulevard several guys are still doing quite well with trout and have even caught a few nice carp below the dam. The carp were caught with corn and the trout have been hitting wax worms, earthworms and power baits. Down at Rhawn Street several guys have been doing great with wax worms, salted minnows, trout magnets and Berkley trout worms. Pete fished right behind Judge catching a limit of 13 to 15 inch trout on Monday with meal worms. He also caught a bunch of bluegills mixed in. Levittown Lake has still been fair for trout but the bass and crappies are starting to hit much better. The trout have been biting on power bait, wax worms, meal worms and spoons. The bass have been caught with smaller spinner baits, spoons, plastic worms and nightcrawlers. The crappies have been hitting smaller minnows and spinners the best. Core Creek is back to summer time slow. One fisherman under the Woodbourne Bridge caught 2 decent trout and a few smaller bass early in the week. He caught all these fish with nightcrawlers. Anthony and Steve were up on Monday only catching a few bluegills and yellow perch. They were using spinners, jigs and minnows. In the spillway there are still a bunch of white perch being caught with small jigs, trout magnets, meal worms and small minnows. Fall's Township is picking up each week. Jim had another real good week with largemouth bass fishing plastic worms, small rattle traps and jigs. I have several other guys head up here fishing the shoreline with minnows and worms catching a few crappies, perch and bluegills. There are a few guys out looking for walleyes doing fair. These guys are out in boats or kayaks drifting minnows and nightcrawlers on spinner rigs. Most of these fish have been 15 to 21 inches. A few guys hitting the upper part of the Neshaminy have been doing great on smallmouth bass, rock bass and bluegills. Minnows have been working best here. The lower part of the Neshaminy there have been lots of catfish, carp and bass being caught. One fisherman right were the creek dumps into the river picked up 6 largemouth bass with plastic worms and jigs. He also caught a couple catfish on the lures. The carp have been hitting up around Hulmeville Road. These guys have been using corn, carp baits and boilies. At the Frankford Arsenal they have also caught a few bigger carp this past week. These fish were caught with corn, bagels and boilies. These fish were 20 to 25 pounds. The Perkiomen has also been real good for smaller bass, rock bass and bluegills. These guys have been doing best with minnows, small twister tails and spinners. Charlie fished both the Tohickon and the river this past week. In the creek he did well with smallmouth bass and bluegills throwing shallow crankbaits, Tiny Torpedo's and twister tails. In the river he fished white and chartreuse grubs to catch a few bass and a bunch of small stripers in the rapids below the Stockton bridge. Tom fished in the Lamberville section of the river doing great with smallmouth bass 12 to 15 inches and lots of stripers 14 to 21 inches. No walleyes this past week up in these waters. John had another real good morning at Noxamixion fishing with plastic worms and lizards. He boated 7 largemouth bass up to 19 inches. He did have one monster fish with a jig but never got to see it. He thinks it was a largemouth but was not sure. His buddies that have been doing good on stripers have switched to night fishing with alewives, big Zara Spooks, 5 3/4 and 7 inch Fin-s fish and bucktails. They caught a few fish 12 to 16 pounds this past week. Ron gave up on FDR park with only smaller bass and bluegills hitting now. He said working small minnows, meal worms and trout magnets will catch you all the 4 to 8 inch fish you can want to catch. Now he did head up the Schuylkill river this past week from Norristown down to Gladwyn. He caught lots of smallmouth bass with minnows, twister tails, Rapala's, Pin's minnows and spinners. He did not have any nice fish but said each trip he caught 8 to 20 bass 8 to 15 inches. Mixed in are lots of bluegills. His buddies have been fishing below the dam for catfish and have had some great success. They have been fishing chunked bluegills, bunker, nightcrawlers, herring and chicken livers. This past week they had channel catfish up to 7 pounds, white cats up to 5 pounds and flatheads up to 17 pounds. One fisherman out at Struble Lake in Delaware County had a great trip with crappies, bluegills and largemouth bass. He went out with minnows and worms only to catch fish with little tube lures and marabou jigs. He caught bass up to 3 pounds, crappies up to a pound and palm size bluegills. He said it took most of the night to fillet all the panfish. Another place some nice crappies were caught was Lake Galena. These guys caught these 13 to 15 inch crappies with shiners under a slip bobber. The fish were held up in 15 to 25 feet of water. Now I know I have mention Churchville the past couple week. One fisherman was fishing off the bridge and was told heavy fines will be given out if he was caught fishing there again. Before he got stopped he caught a few crappies and perch. But one other fisherman has still been catching some nice bass off the roadway with spinner baits and rattle traps. The lower part of the Delaware has picked up for largemouth bass. Steve told me that he is catching about 12 fish a trip with senko worms. He is fishing the back coves. Rick started to hit the main river with little success so he headed back into Dredge Harbor to boat 9 bass up to 15 inches. He caught most of these fish with slider worms and slider bass grubs. On the main river he only caught a few smaller stripers with rattle traps and top water lures. Down in the Susquehanna flats there are some good reports of stripers with top water lures, shallow crankbaits, rattle traps, shad bodies and Fin-s Fish. These guys have been catching allot of fish 24 to 35 inches. I was hoping for more saltwater reports this week with the opening of flounder season. Up north they have still been crushing the stripers. I had one customer give me about 10 pounds of fillets that he caught on Tuesday. He caught most of these fish with big spoons and diamond jigs. He said over all the fishing was slow that day but to catch you limit is not hard even when the bite is off. Several other guys were out on the Mohawk catching stripers up to 30 pounds. These guys and all the guys on this boat were using 5 to 9 ounce silver spoons. We just got a fresh stock of these big spoons back in. Now there were a few guys our of Breele for flounder but all these guys said the fishing was real slow so they headed north and chunked bunker for limits of stripers. Out of Tom's River one fisherman had his first limit of flounder in over 10 years. Now he said most of these fish were just 18 to 19 1/2 inches. He caught most of the fish with bucktails and spearing. This same customer has been catching 12 to 25 keeper crabs each trip out. For these he has been baiting eels on hand lines. Fred had one great weekend. He was out both Saturday and Sunday for flounder, sea bass, blackfish and even caught several keeper stripers. Saturday they spent the morning fishing the back bay and right out front for fluke. They boated 8 keepers and also had 19 throw backs. These fish were caught with squid, minnows, spearing and bucktails. Fishing off shore in the afternoon they boated sea bass up to 3 pounds and blackfish up to 4 pounds. Most of these fish were caught on crabs and clams. Sunday they only spent a couple hours flounder fishing putting 6 keepers in the cooler. The biggest here was 6 pounds. He they hit a school of bunker so they got out the snag hooks and caught bait to land 9 stripers up to 32 pounds. Not a bad weekend. Out of Atlantic City several guys were out fluke fishing. These guys caught lots of keepers but also had tons of throw backs. Here again squid, minnows and bucktails were the hot baits. In the back there are some smaller kingfish starting to show up. I heard Brigantine there have been several nice kingfish caught off the beach. These guys have been using bloodworms and Fish Bites. The Cape May rips have still been pretty good for smaller stripers. Most of these fish have been 24 to 30 inches and have been hitting clams, bunker, eels and metal the best. Now the drum fish have shown up in the Delaware and Barnegat Bays. In the Delaware Bay I had one fish weighted in at 95 pounds on Monday. These guys said there were several other big fish on the same trip. One other fisherman told me a party boat landed 9 drum up to 65 pounds. Most all these fish are caught with clams. Off Cape May point one fisherman landed 2 throw back flounder and 1 throw back striper on Saturday. He was fishing with clams and squid. He did see one nice flounder 21 inches 4 1/2 pounds caught off Sunset beach late Sunday. Up the Delaware Bay for stripers has still been quite slow. Now they are catching a few big fish here and there but nothing to write home about. And the two hot beaches have been just dead. Now up off Long Beach Island there was a good bite for bluefish a couple late afternoons. These fish were on bunker, mullet and spoons. Russ was out of Brick and had a couple real good days on legal and throw back stripers. He has been doing best with clams and Deadly Dicks fished on a teaser rig. Island State Park has been another place for some good blues and stripers. Here it has been hit or miss on how close to the beach the fish are. Again mullet, bunker, clams and metal have been working best. One customer just back from the shore said there was a great bite on stripers off Cape May this morning with clams and sandworms. These fish were 22 to 30 inches. Most guys came home with limits of these fish. South Jersey has still been real good for pickerel, bass, crappies, white and yellow perch and bluegills. Union Lake was great for John both days on the weekend. He has been running up the main creek using smaller twister tails and live minnows catching some real nice yellow perch. Mixed in are 8 to 12 inch pickerel and a bunch of smaller bass. The main lake has been real good for pickerel but the bass are starting to move up to spawn and the bite is slow. Now Rich did catch a few big bass this past week. He said working 7 inch Culprit worms, 5 inch Senko worms and spinner baits landed him 3 bass 5 to 7 pounds. He also caught a bunch of smaller bass and pickerel. This was on Lake Lenape. Spruce Run has been good for smallies, crappies and perch with live minnows, Senko worms and spinners. A few guys were down fishing Manasquan Reservoir doing great on largemouth bass 2 to 6 pounds. These guys did best with rattle traps, rubber skirted jigs, spinner baits and grass frogs. They also caught lots of pickerel mixed in. Stone Tavern has also been real good for bass and pickerel. These guys have been doing best with live minnows but have also caught fish with plastic worms and spinner baits. Well that is all I have time for this week. Looks like a great weekend on it way and I hope all the mother have a great Mother's Day