Back From New Jersey

It’s been over a week since I returned from New Jersey, the so called Armpit of America. Before I had visited Jersey I’d heard several stories about the filth and the smell, and I’m not just talking about the freakshows. I flew into Newark International, and at first glance Jersey lived up to the stories I had heard. After a week in Jersey, my opinion of the state changed greatly.

I worked all week, but as soon as the weekend arrived, I woke up early and took a 45 minute drive down highway, exiting at a small town name Hope. Ironically I was hoping to catch some muskie. I met up with a fellow Muskies Inc member name Cal, and after a quick introduction we headed out to Mountain Lake. When we arrived at the lake I was amazed how small it was. A lake this size I would usually refer to as a pond, but regardless of its size, Cal assured me that there muskies here that exceeded 50 inches.

One look at his Jeep and boat and I knew we’d get along just fine.

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Conditions looked great. It was warm, sunny with a few clouds in the distance, much nicer weather then I am accustomed to at this time of year. We set out casting Phantom Glide baits toward weed beds in about 5 feet of water. It didn’t take long to hook the first fish, a healthy 38-40 inch muskie caught within the first hour.

A beautiful New Jersey Muskie, caught on a perch pattern Phantom glide bait.

Things slowed down after that as the wind picked up and pushed us around. We tried casting a few other lure and then started trolling Bulldogs. Only electric motors can be used on Mountain Lake, and the strong winds were working against us. Having to use the electric motor constantly to reposition ourselves, ate up the batteries fairly quickly. We called it a day with one muskie and one bass boated, and a couple more seen, but not hooked.

We had talked about fishing another nearby lake that had a healthy population of tiger muskie, but I was was hoping to stay on Mountain Lake the next day since there were a few spots I wanted to fish again. The next morning I climbed into the car and I took a look at my window. The condensation on the window formed an unmistakable pattern of a tiger muskie, so I when I met up with Cal I suggested that we chase some tigers!

We headed to Oxford Furnace Lake which was even smaller then Mountain Lake, and again we were limited to using an electric motor. We started using glide baits again, but the weeds here were much thicker. We changed tactics and used large soft plastics to avoid the weeds. I landed a solid bass after a couple of hours on the water but that was the only action we saw.

Furnace Lake largemouth bass

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We went in for lunch and got a quick charge on the battery before heading back to Mountain lake for one last attempt. Sadly strong winds again ended our day early. Despite some tough fishing I really enjoyed my time in New Jersey. All of the people I met were great, especially my fishing partner Cal who was an exceptional host on and off the water.