Fishing Forum

I apologize in advance for the length of this post (and truthfully it could be many times longer if I posed every questions I have) but I wanted to give as much information as I could to aid any responses anyone might give. I appreciate and thank you in advance if you have any answers for any of my questions.

Hello everyone, I'm a fisherman with a boatload of questions. I have recently rediscovered how much I enjoy fishing after being on hiatus since my early teen years. When I was younger I never aquired much expertise, and now that I'm older I'm looking for ways to improve my fishing game.

When explaining things to me, keep in mind that I never progressed much past the nightcrawler on a bobber stage. Currently I go fishing with my family at Merril Creek reservoir in New Jersey, and we have some success trolling for suspended fish (mostly smallmouth) with live bait such as shiners. I've never learned much about successfully fishing any kind of lures or plastics and I'm looking to expand the number of options I have when I'm out on the lake.

First, time of day seems to make a huge difference in our success. Early morning to mid morning hours are usually active, but after about 11 pm things tail off considerably. Is it safe to assume that feeding time is over at that point? Is this the time to start looking for a new "pattern"? Should I try switching over from live baits to lures at this point?

Regarding "spooking" the fish, what kind of activity does it take to do that? Does the boat going over fish spook them? If you stand up in the boat can that spook the fish? Is conversation in a normal tone of voice loud enough to spook the fish? Does a running electric motor spook the fish if you get too close? How close is too close anyhow? I have read a bunch of things about stealth approaches to prime locations, but I could use some tips on how to accomplish that.

When we're trolling using minnows, is there an ideal speed for that? We currently hook the shiners near the dorsal fin being careful to avoid hitting the spine, and I feel like when we troll sometimes we move too quickly, and that could ruin the "natural" presentation of the bait (ie the minnow is being dragged, oftentimes it seems sideways, rather than having any kind of swimming movement). Should we try and keep our trolling speed to a point where the bait can still swim naturally?

Also I've read that hooking a minnow through the mouth is good for trolling, but will this reduce the number of successful hook sets I have? It seems like the bait would be struck from behind, and if the entire minnow isn't taken won't you miss the fishes mouth with the hook?

I currently use a round sinker (I'm not sure what weight) to get the minnow down to around 10-15 feet, which is where the fish seem to suspend (I suspect around 12-13 feet is where the thermalcline is at merril creek right now) however when trolling the boat speed varies and this I think can move the bait undesireably either shallower or deeper. Should I use a heavier sinker to try and keep the bait at the same depth?

I've read a few things about masking agents to put on your hands etc. to mask the "human scent" when handling bait and even a couple of home grown solutions such as a garlic power and water mixture rubbed on the hands to help mask any scent. Is it a standard practice for anglers to use something like that or is it helpful at all? I'd rather know if it helps or not before I run out and buy some product, and any product suggestions would be helpful.

Finally I've been trying to learn about lures reading up on the internet, but most websites seem to fall into 2 categories: extremely basic fishing tips like those that would be helpful for a child, and extremely advanced techniques for people who appearantly already know a lot. Its very overwhelming for me to read about all the different weather conditions, colors, types and retrieval methods for lures. I don't want to go out and load up on a whole tackle box of equipment that I don't even understand. I'd rather focus on learning to use a couple of things and then move on from there. Does anyone have any suggestions? I know you want to match your lure to the type of area you're fishing in and I currently fish at Merril Creek reservoir in New Jersey. I'll describe it a bit for you in case that helps. It's not a terribly large lake, and seems to feature a mostly silty bottom that is mostly gently sloping in most of the lake. The conditions we fish in are mostly on the clear side. The fish finder seems to indicate that most of the lake has fish suspended in the 13-15 foot range, and they can be plentiful waters around 25-40 feet deep. Its confusing because there seems to be a large amount of fish in these areas despite the lack of cover. This is where we usually troll and have a good deal of success catching smallmouth bass, mostly on the smaller side however, 8-10" though some larger ones do connect.

There are some more unique features of the lake that I personally feel would be better places to fish, however we have had virtually no success at all in these locations. There is a main dam on the reservoir that features an extremely steep drop off, and the fish finder starts to go berserk at about 60 feet until about 90 feet. Unlike most of the rest of the lake here fish seem to not only be suspended at the 13-15 foot range, but also are copious all the way down to around 50 or 60 feet. I'm not altogether certain whether the bottom is rocky here or not, but it is next to a rock dam, and lake maps indicate at the very base of this dropoff (around 200 feet) that it is a rocky bottom. Though it seems there are a ton of fish here, we haven't had any success using shiners at any depth in this location.

There are also some areas near the shoreline that feature stringy weeds that stop 1-5' feet below the surface, and are usually on and after a fairly sharp drop off. I feel like this is probably prime bass real estate, but again success has been slim.

There is also a good deal of flooded timber around the lake that stands in water as deep as 25 feet. I've tried lobbing a shiner on a bobber into pockets of this timber but again, no success (on a side note, is bobber fishing with minnows a good practice? If so what size and how deep should I set the bobber?)

If I was going to the bait shop and was picking out a couple of lures for this lake, what would you recommend, and how would you fish them? I'm not looking to buy 4 different colors of the type of lure or anything like that, I'm just looking for a couple of lures that could be successful in this lake to practice with.

If you've read this entire post you are a saint. This smiling bobber is for you .
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Hey SteveH,

welcome to the wonderful world of BFT and fishing...i'm somewhat new to fishing so i'll try and answer to the best of my ablities.

i do no know anything about boats because i don't have any, but i would guess that if u go over the fish it would spook them...

as for trolling the minnows..if ur trolling, i would suggest hooking through the lower/upper lip. of course if ur just letting them stay there, then u can hook through the lip, behind the dorsal fin. i've never trolled minnows, i've left them alone...but i'm guessing if ur trolling them, do it not too slow, but at a slower speed.

and no, u won't miss the fishes mouth if u hook the minnow through the mouth. no need to worry....well at least from my experience, and i usually always fish with live baitfish. if i'm not feeling like using lures that day, and just feel like relaxing more.

about putting something on ur hands. it would help because fish have a powerful sense of smell, i think. so if they smell the scent of you, then they will most likely not take the bait. what i do occasionally is (if u have the scent with u). first of all, wash ur hands before u go fishing. then i'll rub my hands with the scent so some of that scent will get rubbed off onto the bait, and won't have the human smell.

for ur lures. i started off with crankbaits, worms, and topwater lures (poppers). of course, u can always try other things like spinnerbaits and jigs...but these were a good start. when deciding on ur crankbait/topwater lure, find one the closest color to the baitfish in the water you are fishing. for worms, for murkier/darker waters, darker colors...for clearer waters, lighter colors. for crankbaits and topwater lures, no weight is necessary. just tie them on the line and cast. then when u retrieve it, i usually retrieve around 1-2 feet then do a light twitch with the rod and stop for a couple seconds..then do it over again. for worms, you can do many things, i normally use the texas rig or the dropshot. here is a link to the rigs:



...i read up till there on ur post, and then started to feel tired...so i'll finish up tomorrow. sorry, and hope i helped
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Welcome steveH, fish do move around with the bait so getting them then haveing the bite stop does happen. As the day goes they may suspend in deeper water and won't want to eat unless teased into it. Spooking fish in a boat is tough unless you jump up and down. Caught many fish within feet of the boat. Masking your smell is a good idea when handleing bait. Put gas in the boat the day before and wash hands well before you go out. A little megastrike on your baits doesn't hurt. For trolling cranks, the two I'd use would be the Luckycraft pointer in white and the rapala jointed in brown and black. The suggestion of other baits are good ones as well as throwing a weightless yamamoto worm in the water with weeds. Think Texas rig with out the weight. Watermelon color seems to work well for us here in the NE. Good luck
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I appreciate your responses so far, I'm glad people took the time to read the post. I'm definitely going to look into ways to mask my scent and I'm going to check out some of those lures.
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Also, with the luckycraft pointer, would you recommend the SP or the DD? I'm reading that the DD dives to 6-7 feet, but most of the fish in this lake suspend at 12-13 feet. Would that be an issue, or will they come after the lure?
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Depends on the water temps, air temps, etc..... In extreme heat and cold, particularly extreme cold, a fish's strike zone shrinks incredibly. In the right conditions, sure a fish will go after a lure from a considerable distance. In unfavorable conditions, you need to almost hit them in the head with the lure to temp a strike.

When you're fishing, regardless of what you're fishing for, where, saltwater or freshwater; your goal should be to get your lure and/or bait where the fish are. Get it in their strike zone, put it right in their face. Just getting the lure or bait there is all it takes a lot of times. To me, bait/ lure placement is one of the most important aspects of fishing. Color, smell, and all that other stuff matters, but come on. I don't know how many times i've fished various species, and just getting the lure where the fish are was the deciding factor. So you don't have the right color, you'll still get strikes. So it doesn't have scent attached, they'll still strike. But, you don't get the bait where the fish are, you'll get notta, nothing, ziltch.

So, when you mark fish, get your bait there, no excuses. All the other variables are a matter of opinion. (color etc..) There's no arguing bait placement, and any skilled angler will agree it's worth the extra dollars in equipment and know how in order to get your gear in the strike zone.

Write that down.
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So what you're saying is that I should find a deeper diving lure to get it in the 12-13 feet zone that the fish are suspending at?
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Bryans correct in saying you should always have some lures that go deep to the fish. Feeding bass will go up to grab your lure at less depth. Heres the lucky I use most often, in white.


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