Crindle, nice pickerel! Around here, they love white spinner baits or white Zoom super fluke jerk bait
When I was a kid growing up in South Jersey, I used to fish the cedar lakes for Chain Pickerel a lot. One year I caught the same fish twice in three casts, recovered my lure from the first time I caught him (a yellow rooster tail), and won SECOND place that year... she was 34".
I was up visiting my grandparents in warren township about 5 years ago and decided to go fishing with my brother. Took a look at google maps and found the Raritan river was about 10 miles away so we figured we would give it a shot. Ended up catching nice schoolies on micro rods with trout magnets. Must have got lucky with the timing.
Lived in this house for over 20 years and just discovered last year there is an endless supply of fresh clams on a flat just a quick kayak paddle away. Throw them on the grill and bury them in butter and garlic. Yum!!!! Great way to spend a Saturday when there is no surf and its dead low tide.
I like braid when fishing saltwater. Power Pro is my brand of choice. It's expensive though. Like most things, you get what you pay for. You feel your lure or bait with way more sensitivity than mono or fluorocarbon line. There's also no "memory", and you can spool way more of it on your reel. Just be careful with that stuff tho...you can slice yo finga off brah. It's like razor wire. As for the clear stuff...I like fluorocarbon line, not mono. Fluorocarbon is really tough stuff, it's sensitive, and it has less memory than cheap mono. Plus, fluoro is practically invisible in da water. I use fluoro with all my freshwater gear, and I use a nice 36" piece of fluoro leader when plugging the surf. There's my 2c. Hope you get into the fish soon.
Same... and same. Except I keep my leader to about 18-20". I don't know how you can cast a plug with 3 feet of leader. Do you use a swivel, or just a uni-uni? Also... if you use backing you don't have to spool as much line onto your reel, and you can save a few bucks that way.
I tie the braid to fluoro. It casts smoothly with no hiccups. I forget the knot I use. Yes, I need to cheat and either look at an app for that knot or look at an old insert from the PowerPro I keep about 10 turns of cheap mono as backing just so the braid don't slide around on the reel...Muy importante. I like having a ton of line on my reels.
I ordered one of these and put 30lb KastKing braid on it. I like it so much, I just ordered a second. http://www.tackledirect.com/quantum-iron-ir40pts-inshore-spinning-reel.html
Sorry, LT.Wasn't trying to be facetious,just trying to understand if you were talking about trout, or schooling striped bass; because trout are not a schooling fish. However, after the stocking truck unload, they can be found in numbers. On the other hand striped bass can be found in the Raritan River as far up as Bound Brook near Rutgers. Anyway I'm glad you got into whatever,heavy.
Went kingfishing in my new World Cat yesterday. Caught this slob along with a few smaller ones, 2 keeper red grouper, keepr flounder and released numerous shorties. Snook season just ended but tarpon just arrived Lots of great fishing in the gulf right now.