Started off the day fishing the Musconetcong River at Hampton Borough Park off of Route 31 with Chris Moran. We ended up leaving after only fishing for a little over an hour or so due to Chris having some problems with his reel. So after getting three Brook Trout, the biggest being 12.5-inches, we decided to head out and go over to try our luck at Spruce Run.
The Author, Zach Merchant with a 30 inch Northern Pike caught at Spruce Run Reservoir.
Seeing as I hadn’t fished Spruce Run since August 15 and this time of year last year was rather inconsistent for me while fishing at Spruce, I wasn’t entirely sure how we’d make out for the day. After stopping for some breakfast on the way, we got our lines into the water at about 9:30 A.M. at one of the spots off of Van Syckles Road. Water temperature was 48 degrees Fahrenheit, and the water level (Gage height) was 271 feet, which is two feet below the spillway crest (273 feet) or maximum capacity of the reservoir, for those of you who don’t know.
Chris Moran landed this 16-inch, 2-lb 12 oz. Largemouth Bass from Spruce Run.
Zach Merchant with a 5.5 pound Channel Catfish.
We decided to fish with large Shiners fished on the bottom since we weren’t sure what would be biting. After about 20 minutes or so, Chris got a hit on one of his rods. He ended up reeling in a nice 16-inch, 2-lb 12 oz. Largemouth Bass for his first Bass of the season, as well as his first fish from Spruce Run!
We fished for about another 30 minutes with no more action before deciding to move to another spot farther down the road where I had luck with Bass and Pike last year. Once we got situated at our new spot, we put our rods in the water and decided to try wading and throw some lures for Bass in the shallows. Not even 10 minutes after we started casting, one of our rods on shore doubles over and starts going crazy. We both run over to the rod and I set the hook and start reeling. After a good fight I finally get it close enough for us both to realize (to our surprise) it’s a nice big Channel Catfish, which weighed in at 5.5-lbs and 23-inches.
Catch of the day. Three Brook Trout, Four Channel Cats and Three White Cats. Good Eats!
From there on, the entire day was non-stop action for us. Between the both of us, we landed 5 Channel Catfish up to 5.5-lbs, 4 White Catfish up to 2.5-lbs, one small Yellow Perch, Chris’ 2-lb 12-oz Largemouth Bass, and a 30-inch, 6.5-lb Pike I was lucky enough to hook into. Definitely a great day out at Spruce Run, especially considering we were used to getting maybe one fish per trip (If we were lucky) all winter!
Stay tuned for future reports!
