Fishing Bluegill Spawning Beds

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Robert Ivan

Bluegill, Bream, Brim whatever you call them are members of the Sunfish family. There are also among the most abundant fish in Round Valley Reservoir AND they are spawning right now. The two weeks before and after memorial day usually correspond with the height of Bluegill spawning which occurs at 75deg. water temp.

During the spawn, males are aggressively guarding their nests or beds while the females hang out close by. Something like 95% of Bluegills caught on spawning beds will be males, so don’t worry too much if you are keeping your catch.

Locating Bluegill Beds: Bluegill beds can be found by sight from shore and boat. Look for areas with a hard sandy or rocky bottom and of course the tell-tale spawning beds that look like closely packed craters on the moon. See below pic.

Bluegill tackle: The world record bluegill weighs 4 pounds 12 ounces and was caught in 1950. The big takeaway here is… use light tackle or ultralight tackle and have a blast catching 1 pounders all day. To say 6lb monofilament is overkill would be an understatement.

Bluegill Terminal Tackle: small, small, small. Small bobbers, small long shank hooks (size 8), small splitshot. I use long shank hooks because Bluegills have tiny mouths and are crazy aggressive so the long shank makes it easier to remove hooks and minimizes deep hook sets.

Bluegill Bait: small, small, small or nothing at all! Waxwoms, garden worms cut in half, small pieces of cheese or dough molded around a hook or heck even an empty hook!

Catching Bluegills: Cast your baited hook on top of a bed and wait… that’s it! Adjust the distance from your bobber to your hook. The closer you can get your bait to the bed, the better. you can also cast past the bed and real slowly to drag your bait (or bare hook) across a bed. The guarding male will attack it.

Bluegill Size and Creel Limit: in Round Valley Reservoir there is no size limit however you can only keep 25 combined sunfish (Rock Bass, White Bass, White Perch, Yellow Perch, Sunfish (except Banded Sunfish, Blackbanded Sunfish, Bluespotted Sunfish, and Mud Sunfish which are all protected), Bullheads, White Catfish, Suckers, Carp, Bowfin). Yep… only 25.

So get out there with your light gear and bring your kids, right now is a great time to catch lots of scrappy Bluegill.

Round Valley Reservoir Fishing Featured in Cabela’s Outfitter Journal Magazine

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Robert Ivan

Round Valley Reservoir in June 2011 Cabela's Outfitter Journal If you get a chance, pic up the June 2011 issue of Cabela’s Outfitter Journal Magazine. The regional roundup section features Round Valley Reservoir as a prime smallmouth bass fishing location. The article has quotes from NJ DEP biologist Shawn Crouse and he specifically mentions using deep diving crankbaits to target the deeper dwelling smallmouth and largemouth bass in Round Valley. Pic up a paper copy where you can, as of this writing, the website has not been updated with the June content (though i’m sure it will in the next few weeks).

Early Season Smallmouth Bass In Reservoirs

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Mike Mladenik

While pre-spawn may be an excellent period to catch a trophy, it can also be a tough bite. Locating big females is easy; catching them seldom is! Anglers need to take many variables into consideration, including water temperature, type of water they are fishing, and last, but not least, the weather. If you omit one of these key pieces of the puzzle, you’ll have limited success.

Where to fish? While it is important that the water has a quality smallmouth bass population present, it should not be the deciding factor. I know of many lakes where trophy smallmouth are present, but they are tough to put a handle on during the pre-spawn. Spawning areas may be limited and difficult to locate, especially on a large lake. On deep, clear water lakes, water will warm slowly and it may be weeks before you see active fish.

For the first few weeks of the season, it’s hard to beat shallow stained water reservoirs. A small reservoir with stained water will warm rapidly and the water temperature can be in the low to mid-sixties a few weeks after ice out. Once the water reaches 55 degrees, smallmouth begin staging in spawning areas. If the weather is stable, they move into the shallows. If hit with a cold front and a drop in water temperature, they move off to the first break. Any way you look at it, they’re easy to locate.

Author Mike Mladenik with Big Smallmouth Bass

One spring I got together with a friend to film a segment of my television show. I’ve been telling him about all the big smallmouth I catch during the early season. Finally, he was able to get away from his busy schedule and make it up to the river.

We fished a 300-acre reservoir that historically has produced huge smallmouth. The water levels were normal on the river and the big smallmouth were holding off the edge of the main river channel, out of the current. Due to stable weather patterns and water temperatures of 60 degrees and rising, the smallmouth were only days away from actual spawning. I knew we would catch lots of smallmouth, but getting the big fish would necessitate finesse presentations and fishing right on top of the fish.

A rock and gravel shoreline on the edge of a slough was our first stop. The shoreline is steep, with few signs of a hard bottom and most anglers wouldn’t give the area a second glance. A few years back, during low water conditions, I noticed broken rock and isolated gravel. The next spring, I fished the area and caught a few big smallmouth and have been catching fish there each spring. It is these small isolated areas that hold the largest smallmouth. We managed to catch a few smallmouth around five pounds a piece.
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Catching The Next State Record Smallmouth Bass

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Robert Ivan

The NJ state record Smallmouth Bass was caught in Round Valley Reservoir in 1990 by Carol Marciniak. Below is a picture of Carol holding the 7lbs 2ozs. bass.

Carol Marciniak - NJ state record Smallmouth Bass

The image is a photo I took of the only photo I know in existence. That photo, and many other quality catches, is posted to the bulletin board at the top of the Round Valley Reservoir concrete boat launch. (Does anyone know Carol or her story about this catch? I’d love to publish it. Email me or post in the comments section.)

NJ DEP Biologists have netted and electroshocked Smallmouth during past surveys close to her record catch, so I have no doubt another state record is swimming around in the reservoir right now. The question many ask is… how do we catch the next Goliath?

We know Smallmouth are carnivores. They eat things like crayfish, insects and other fish. We know that Round Valley is a deep, clean, large body of water with acres of featureless bottom punctuated by the occasional stump, bump or rockpile. We know that the coves and rocks are heavily fished and I know that I’ve caught some decent sized Smallmouths everywhere in the reservoir.

In the Spring the bass are shallow (real shallow, I’ve seen them hanging out in a foot of water) trying to warm up. As summer approaches, the bass take up residence in weed beds and drop-offs. During the hottest months, the bass will cruising the entire reservoir following schools of baitfish down deep.

A look through the list of state record Smallmouth catches reveals that these fish can be caught on almost anything, live bait, jigs, crankbaits, swimbaits, plugs, etc… They key is presenting the bait at the right time and place to trigger the Smallmouth to attack it.

Good luck and if you do catch a possible NJ state record Smallmouth bass follow these rules:

1. Fish must be caught in New Jersey waters and conform to NJ State Law and the regulations pertaining to freshwater fishing.
2. Fish must have been caught on sporting tackle, hooked and landed by entrant.
3. New Jersey state records are determined by weight alone. There are no line classes.
4. Fish must be weighed on a certified scale as soon as possible. A copy of the current scale Registration Certificate and valid Inspection/Test Report issued by the County Office of Weights and Measures is required to achieve record fish status.
5. A clear, side-view color photograph of the fish must be submitted. All photo entries become property of the Division of Fish and Wildlife and will not be returned.
6. Entry MUST be inspected by a Division biologist for species identification and weight verification. Call the Division’s Lebanon Fisheries Office at 908-236-2118 (Hunterdon County), the Hackettstown Hatchery at 908-852-4950 (Warren County) or the Southern Region Office at 856-629-4950 (Camden County) to make arrangements. Hours are Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. These offices have a certified scale on their premises. Entry can be
both weighed and identified at one of these locations. Fish should be kept refrigerated prior to inspection.
7. Application MUST be submitted within one month of catch.

May 10 Fishing Report

Posted on May 11, 2011 by superadmin

Another Beautiful Day on the Valley

The fish are mostly shallow still so shore fisherman and boaters are seeing a lot of each other these early spring months. Below the sonar is showing fish from the top to 23 feet and water temperature of 56 degrees Fahrenheit. I saw lots of bass and rainbows cruising the sandy shorelines and some big bass along weedbeds in the coves. I picked up a few bass on rainbow trout color j7 Rapala, but honestly i threw everything in my tackle box.

Once i got deeper than 30 feet my sonar went blank.