Category Archives: Ice Fishing

February 20th Round Valley Reservoir Fishing Report

Took a ride out to Round Valley to see how the ice was breaking up. I had heard people were ice fishing it up to a few days ago, but it has been rather warm lately. As you can see from the pictures below, a significant amount of ice has melted and the majority of the main lake is ice free.

RoundValleyFishing 2011 February 20 Melting Ice

I walked around the dirt ramp area and spoke to some shore fishermen who were trying their luck in the open water (you can just make out their silhouettes above), but no one had anything to report. If the temps stay above freezing, I can see ice-out happening in the next week or two.

Apparently the people below couldn’t wait. Don’t know how they got their boat into the water, but there was a parks department officer eagerly awaiting their return and I noticed some tickets on their vehicle’s windshield as I left (I assume it was their vehicle, it was the only one with an empty boat trailer attached to it).

Round Valley Reservoir - February 20th 2011

In the above photo, the dark horizontal line indicates the end of ice and beginning of open water. Also checking out the conditions near the boat launch were long-time Round Valley fishermen and Hunterdon Anglers president Ed Harabin and his friend Mike.

Ice Fishing Underwater!

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/humanplanet The people of Kangiqsujuaq in Canada go to great lengths to add variety to their diet of seal meat, venturing under the sea ice during the extreme low tides of the spring equinox to gather mussels.

It’s a race against time. They have less than half an hour to search these temporary caverns before the tide rushes back in. A look-out keeps watch for the returning tide, but warning shouts can’t be too loud in case the echoes bring down the ice.

I went under the ice at Round Valley once… though it was unintentional. A friend and I fell through when were only 16 years old. Luckily we were in about 3 feet of water and just found ourselves standing there up to our belt loops in ice-water. I’ll never forget how quickly it happened though AND how quickly our muscles locked up from the shock. Have you ever gone “under” the ice?

Football Sunday Ice Fishing Report

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Round Valley was swarming with ice fisherman this Sunday February 6th. Was there a football game being played later in the day? It took me by surprise to see so many people milling about and fishing through the ice, but the last storm that rolled through here deposited a nice layer of the thick stuff.

Round Valley Reservoir Super Bowl 45
Fishermen can be seen all the way towards the middle of the lake.

The ice was a solid 6 to 5 inches all the way to the North Tower and back to the fishing boat launches, though there were a few patches of open water as can be seen above to the left.

On the ice I ran into Round Valley Trout Association executive board member Mike Kalinchock and a friend of his who had two nice keeper Lake Trout in their sled.

Mike RVTA
The smaller fish was caught on a tip-up and the larger fish was jigged, both in about 70 feet of water.

A little further out Ed Pearce from Pattenburg, NJ was having success in about 80 feet of water. Ed had a nice little setup you can see in the background with his fishfinder zoomed in on the bottom. We actually saw a few signals come and investigate his jig.

Ed Pearce Jigged Laketrout
19.75″ Lake Trout Jigged by Ed Pearce from Pattenburg, NJ

On the way back in I stopped off the dirt boat launch area to chat some fellas up and ran into one of my most loyal readers – Nicholas! Round Valley fisherman are probably quite familiar with Nicholas who can often be found reeling in trout and bass from the shoreline.

Frank AND Nicholas
Frank and son Nicholas from Manville, NJ enjoying some ice fishing on Round Valley Reservoir.

With warmer weather approaching it is best to be on the safe side ice fishing Round Valley. Call ahead to Lebanon Bait and Sport (908) 236-9466 for ice conditions or call the ranger station (908) 236-6355 directly.